A bit about our music director:
Jennifer Britton is a Halifax-based published children's author, competitive show choir director, teacher, vocal music coach, and music director of the St. Margaret's Bay Glee program. Jen has directed choirs of up to 250 teenagers, and several of her high school competitive groups have competed at the regional and national level, including at Show Choir Canada.
If you could be anything, what would you be?
I'd be a tall ship, racing fast on the sea
I'd fill up my sails with the salty cool breeze
If I could be anything. If it were up to me.
This lyrical lullaby from educator and musician Jen Britton, with illustrations by celebrated artist Briana Corr Scott (Mermaid Lullaby, Wildflower) asks young readers, If you could be anything, what would you be? Responses run the gamut from lupins to sea glass to a lighthouse shining bright to the pull of the tides, celebrating the abundant natural and cultural landscapes of the East Coast.
With gentle, rhyming text and dreamy oil illustrations, If You Could Be Anything is the perfect story to send little ones off to dreamland, and older ones off on new adventures.
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited. 2022
Juvenile Fiction / Imagination & Play / Bedtime & Dreams
There's a song hidden deep in the forest
If you listen, and quiet your mind…
A gentle verse story from author and music educator Jennifer Britton (If You Could Be Anything) paired with bold, colourful, and textured mixed-media illustrations from artist Jillian Thalman, There's a Song in the Forest takes young readers on an adventure to experience the soundscape of the natural world. Along the way, readers will be introduced to a range of notes, sounds, and melodies, from "the swishing and rustle of footsteps / through the leaves" to the "snapping of twigs like a metronome" to "the boom, crash, and thrum of the waves as they drum / upon rocky sea caves out of reach."
A lively read-aloud, a celebration of the wild world, and a mindful meditation on the art of active listening, There's a Song in the Forest celebrates the music that can be found all around us.
Informative, illustrated backmatter also introduces young readers to musical terms featured in the text, like "orchestra," "metronome," and "symphony."
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited, 2025
Juvenile Fiction / Stories in Verse (see also Poetry) / Performing Arts - Music / Health & Daily Living - Mindfulness & Meditation
