An ideal gift for any Newfoundlander, tourist, or exile, this cheerfully illustrated book celebrates the land, seascapes, people, and traditions of Canada’s easternmost province. Its primary text, displayed in a banner held by two puffins on the left pages, is the “Ode to Newfoundland,” written by Sir Cavendish Boyle, governor of Newfoundland from 1901 to 1904, and adopted as the province’s anthem. Music for the song is included on the last page (where the composer, Sir C. Hubert H. Parry, should be acknowledged, as he is in Butler’s introduction). Although the lyrics have an Edwardian formality, Butler appreciatively notes that they don’t “refer to victories or exploding bombs to arouse patriotic feelings,” but instead praise the rugged, wind-swept beauty of “the Rock” in various seasons.

Butler’s lively, informal illustrations set the text in a wash of brilliantly coloured scenes of daily life. Having grown up on Fogo Island – designated by the Flat Earth Society as one of the four corners of the earth – Butler here vividly recreates his childhood memories of Newfoundland and its traditions. Generous endnotes explain some of these, such as the eerie mummers, the fun of the “time” or community party, the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, and the dramatic landscapes of Brimstone Head and Gros Morne National Park. In these notes, as in the pictures themselves, Butler’s dry sense of humour is evident. A moose sits in the back of a dory crowded with Newfoundlanders lustily singing their anthem, and reappears in the centre of the group singing on the dock, along with the ubiquitous shaggy black Newfoundland dog, and a beaver for good measure.

A winner of the Ruth Schwartz Award and a Governor General’s finalist for an earlier Newfoundland picture book, The Killick, Butler makes the reader want to sing and dance along with the whales and sturdy outporters in this engaging book.