• Age: 6 to 8
• Grade: 1 to 3
• Reading age: 6 to 8

In the 1970s, artist Gerald Squires moved, with his wife and two young daughters, into the abandoned lighthouse-keeper's house in Ferryland, Newfoundland. Shortly after their arrival, they had a visitor — one who claimed to be the former constable of the area and regaled them with stories of the place and its previous occupants. A visitor, they soon learned, who was more than he appeared to be.

Acclaimed children's writer Charis Cotter tells the tale of this mysterious visitor from the perspective of Esther, the youngest daughter. In beautifully crafted language, Cotter captures the delight of a curious young girl discovering her new landscape, the excitement of living in a lighthouse at the edge of the ocean, and the haunting mystery of the visitor himself.

Renowned artist Gerald Squires contributed paintings and drawings of the lighthouse and its surrounding landscape, as well as family photographs taken during the lighthouse years. The result is a book of striking beauty– part family album, part art book, all mystery.

A writer and storyteller, Charis Cotter has published several critically acclaimed children's books, including a series of biographies about extraordinary children and a book about international ghosts. Toronto Between the Wars: Life in the City 1919-1939 received the 2005 Heritage Toronto Award of Excellence. Most recently, The Swallow: A Ghost Story won the 2015 IODE Violet Downey Book Award, was named an Honour Book by the Canadian Library Association for 2015, and has been nominated for four 2016 children's choice awards across Canada. She lives in Western Bay, NL.

Charis Cotter's profile page

Gerald Squires was born in Change Islands, Newfoundland, in 1937. He obtained much of his early training in art in Toronto, where his mother, a Salvation Army officer, was stationed when Squires was twelve. In 1969 he returned to live in Newfoundland with his wife Gail and daughters Meranda and Esther, settling in 1971 at the Ferryland lighthouse residence and then moving to Holyrood in 1983. Squires received the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Ted Drover Award for Achievement in the Visual Arts in 1984 and an Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University in 1992. In 1999 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art and was also appointed Member of the Order of Canada. He received the Golden Jubilee Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2003, and in 2008 he was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Arts Hall of Honour. Major exhibitions have traveled across Canada, and his works have been included in more than 300 group exhibitions in Newfoundland, Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France and India.Squires received the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Ted Drover Award for Achievement in the Visual Arts in 1984 and an Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University in 1992. In 1999 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art and was also appointed Member of the Order of Canada. He received the Golden Jubilee Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2003, and in 2008 he was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Arts Hall of Honour. Major exhibitions have traveled across Canada, and his works have been included in more than 300 group exhibitions in Newfoundland, Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France and India.

Gerald Squires' profile page

• Short-listed, Rocky Mountain Award