Both Gumboot Books and Once Upon a Huckleberry Bush are unique in the children’s and young adult literature world. Gumboot Books is an eco-friendly publishing house that specializes in “Books with a Conscience”. Besides encouraging people of all ages to read and write, they aim to foster a sense of social responsibility and respect for our planet; and guarantee that all the books they publish are responsibly produced. They are printed in North America, inks are child-safe, and the paper is old-growth-fibre free.

Once Upon a Huckleberry Bush is a special, independent book store, which aims to:

nurture the world through storytelling, reintroducing myths that will promote a strong sense of local community and global involvement. This company endeavors to promote tolerance, love and compassion. Dedicated to young readers in the hopes of cultivating a lifelong love for books, Once Upon a Huckleberry Bush [...] offers many special events and activities, including regular story time, organized book clubs to help develop reading skills and interests, and contests to cultivate kids’ imaginations and storytelling abilities.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this Fall Book Launch as I will be out of town. But for those of you in Vancouver, drop on by the book store! Book readings will be held throughout the day and the line-up includes:

Fly Catcher Boy by Rebecca Kool, illustrated by David Namisato;

When Chickens Fly by Kari-Lynn Winters and Izabela Bzymek;

aRYTHMetique by Tiffany Stone, Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming, illustrated by Scot Ritchie – this book has two versions: English and French; the launch will be conducted in French.

Ready for R by Marian MacDougall and Silvana Bevilacqua – a special book written by experienced speech language pathologists and designed to spark speech, language and literacy development; inspire story-telling; and encourage ESL students.

It’s All Greek to Me, Jack by Dan Bar-el;

The Midnight Blue Marble by Melanie Jackson.