naseem's blog

During Black History Month, take a look at two new books that explore facets of Black Canadian History. Karleen Bradford’s A Desperate Road to Freedom: The Underground Railroad Diary of Julia May Jackson is one of the latest titles in the Dear Canada series from Scholastic Canada. It’s the story of one girl’s journey from slavery in Virginia to a new life in Toronto, and then to Owen Sound, Ontario, where many escaped slaves settled.

Last December the CCBC made a donation of books to the Lu’ma Native Housing Society Children’s Christmas Party in Vancouver. The children who attended the event had a visit with Santa and received a “good for one book” coupon. After their visit with Santa, the children visited the book display table and redeemed their coupon by selecting the book of their choice.

Gillian O’Reilly, editor of Canadian Children’s Book News, attended the first TD National Reading Summit that was held on November 12 and 13 – the first step in developing a National Reading Strategy, similar to programs under way in many other countries. The program consisted of a wide variety of sessions – and some funny and excellent public service announcements for reading from Venezuela – followed by roundtable discussions of what our country’s reading strategy should look like. Here are her thoughts on the summit.

The winners of the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction, Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award were announced in Toronto on November 19, 2009 at The Carlu.

The winner of the Prix TD 2009 de littérature canadienne pour l’enfance et la jeunesse was announced in Montreal on November 3, 2009 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The recipient of the award was Anne Villeneuve for her book Chère Traudi. The remaining four finalists were La clé by Angèle Delaunois and Christine Delezenne, L'étoile de Sarajevo by Jacques Pasquet and Pierre Pratt, Le nouveau parapluie de Floup by Carole Tremblay and Steve Beshwaty, and La vraie histoire de Léo Pointu by Rogé.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre is proud to announce that the finalists for the 2009 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award will take part in this year’s International Festival of Authors (IFOA) at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto on Saturday, October 24. The winner of the Award will receive a cash prize of $25,000 on November 19 at a by-invitation-only celebration in Toronto.

The Word on the Street, Canada’s largest book and magazine festival took place on Sunday, September 27, 2009 in four Canadian cities – Toronto, Kitchener, Halifax and Vancouver. This year marked the 20th festival.

Thousands of visitors turned out for the Toronto event at Queen’s Park. A number of children’s authors and illustrators, including Helaine Becker, Aubrey Davis, Cary Fagan, Ruth Ohi and Robert Paul Weston, participated at the various kid events that took place at the Children’s Activity Tents and Children’s Reading Tent.

Friend of the CCBC, Roxana Henriquez also interviewed the lovely Kathy Stinson via email. Read on to learn more about Kathy! :)

1. My personal website address is: www.kathystinson.com

2. Place of birth: Toronto

3. Now I live in: Everton (near Guelph)

4. School attended: Douglas Park, Bloordale, Vincent Massey Collegiate, Lakeshore Teachers College, University of Toronto

5. In my career I have worked as: a mail sorter, a waitress, a teacher, a preschool program instructor, and a writer.

Friend of the CCBC, Roxana Henriquez, conducted some great interviews with some great Canadian children's authors and illustrators for us to share on our website!

I thought we'd start with Richard Scrimger!

This fall marks the 10th anniversary of Marie-Louise Gay's Stella!

Stella is one of my favourite characters in children's literature and I can't wait to read the new book that Groundwood is releasing--When Stella was Very, Very Small.

Remember to keep your eyes peeled for its release in August because this book is sure to have all the same charm and whimsy as the rest of Marie-Louise Gay's books.