NOVA SCOTIA

The breezy approach of this title in the Hello Canada series as well as its autograph-album size makes getting acquainted with the neighbors to the north painless. ""Hi! My name is Barkley. . . . I will be helping you make sense of. . . maps and charts,"" says a cartoon-style Scotsman on the first page. Thompson writes in a solidly factual manner--so solidly factual, in fact, that without Barkley, some inventive graphics, and a large number of historical reproductions and full-color photographs, readers might find themselves on information-overload. This is an inviting, broad introduction to the land of the Bluenosers (so-called for the Bay of Fundy fishermen's wintertime noses), Evangeline, and Glooscap, who according to Micmac legend created this region.