This is the story of how an innovative postwar publishing venture started by Fredericton’s Brunswick Press pioneered Canada’s now vibrant tradition of children’s book publishing. Under the leadership of Michael Wardell, and with the backing of Lord Beaverbrook, Brunswick Press became an early adopter of process-colour offset printing, giving it the production capacity to launch Canada’s first modern children’s picture book series in 1952. The venture was aided by the wave of cultural nationalism that followed the release of the influential Massey Report in 1951, prompting a significant expansion in the cultural and educational infrastructure both in New Brunswick and in the rest of Canada and establishing a market for Canadian-published books.

In Beaver Books for a Dime, Susan R. Fisher and Margot Stafford offer a detailed history of the juvenile publishing program carried out by Brunswick Press between 1952 and 1984, compiling a comprehensive review of all the press’s children’s titles, including editions and variants. As well as highlighting this largely unexplored catalogue, this study challenges the established narrative about children’s publishing in Canada, broadening the conversation on the history and contribution of cultural production in New Brunswick.

Susan R. Fisher has been the curator of the Eileen Wallace Children’s Literature Collection at the University of New Brunswick since 2002. She created and maintains Portolan, the online bibliography of Atlantic Canadian children’s books, and served as co-investigator on Sea Stacks: Atlantic Canadian Books for Children and Young Adults: 1978–2011. Sue is an active participant in the New Brunswick Born to Read program and regularly presents to students and educators alike on the importance of visual literacy and the picture book. Sue lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with her family.

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Margot Stafford has a PhD in Cultural and Critical Studies, focusing on children’s literature, from the University of Pittsburgh. She taught literature and composition for several years in Kansas City, Missouri, before earning a masters degree in Counseling from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. She recently moved back to New Brunswick with her family and works in Saint John as a mental health counsellor.

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