Out in Conception Bay, on the northern Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador, sits tiny Bell Island, a tight-knit community where iron ore has been mined for centuries. Slowpoke The Bell Island Mine Horse tells the story of eleven-year-old Jimmy, who enters the mine in place of his father, who died in a tragic accident years earlier.

To help support his family, Jimmy must overcome his fear of the underground space, the unrelenting darkness, the rumble of tramcars, and the clang-clang-clang of pickaxes.

He's not sure he's cut out for a miner's life until one day, his lamplight illuminates a beautiful horse named Slowpoke, with ears soft as velvet. The two soon find they have more in common than they could have dreamed, and when tragedy rears its head again, it's up to Slowpoke and Jimmy to save the day. (From Nimbus)

Heather T. Smith is Waterloo, Ont.-based author. Her novel-in-verse Ebb & Flow was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for children's literature — text and won the 2019 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, a $50,000 prize that recognizes the best Canadian children's book of the year.

Genevieve Simms is an illustrator from Toronto. Her work has appeared in Quill & Quire, the Walrus, Readers' Digest Canada, the Globe and Mail and McSweeney's.