Halifax author self-publishes children’s book highlighting city landmarks

Joanne Abrahams has spent years crafting a children’s book highlighting local landmarks around the Halifax Regional Municipality, taking readers on a poetic journey. Now the book is on shelves at locally owned stores around the Halifax-area.

“I walked the streets and I’ve just fallen in love with the city,” said Abrahams. “I’ve been here for 40 years. My husband and I moved here in the late 70s and I wanted the world to know about our municipality.”

The book features a two-in-one format that invites readers to flip it midway through and read a story on the other side.

“They’re bound together as one. The first side is poems called ‘Round and Round the Roundabout’ and the other is called ‘Don’t Roll Down Citadel Hill’ and the story is of me telling my granddaughters not to roll down Citadel and I say to them if you ever [and] want to stop, you never ever will,” said Abrahams.

The pages of the book are full of vibrant colours, all drawn by local artist Jillian Jackson.

“I wanted them to be a lot of fun. I wanted them to show what our community looks like, the face of our community and the face of the children that live here and Jill did what I asked for her in those terms, and then went off on her own with her quirky, whimsical personality, it all came out in the pictures,” said Abrahams.

Local author Joanne Abrahams has self-published a children's book. (Source: CTV News Atlantic)

Abraham’s book also includes a map of the city-area with iconic landmarks.

“I was studying about HRM and looking at the map the municipality is shaped like a whale. So one of our maps shows HRM in its whale-like shape,” Abrahams said.

When Abrahams first began writing the children’s book, she spoke with different publishers around the city, who would tell her poems are not as popular as other formats of children’s book. This didn’t stop her determination to complete the book, investing thousands in publishing the book herself and then going to local bookstores around the municipality to sell copies.

“The book is for children and the young at heart. I wanted to write fact-based poems that would draw children in that would make them smile, laugh and have fun. I used to be a teacher so I love kids and working with them,” Abrahams said.

Readers can find the book at various locally owned shops in Halifax.

On July 17, Abrahams will be doing her first reading of the book at Agricola Street Bookstore.

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