I only recently became aware of a wonderful not-for-profit organization, Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) that supports & promotes reading, writing, illustrating and publishing of Canadian children's books. If you are a teacher, librarian, bookseller or even a parent, I urge you visit www.bookcentre.ca where you can find a plethora of information including books by theme, suggested titles by age groups, award winners and what to look for when choosing books for kids. It's like an untapped goldmine focusing on Canadian literature!Are you interested in learning more about the Canadian book scene? Canadian Children’s Book News is a quarterly magazine that gives you that and more. Inside you will find reviews for recommended books, author and illustrator interviews, award winners plus profiles of publishers and bookstores. The quarterly magazines as well as an annual Best Books for Kids and Teens are available to members. With your support, CCBC can put books into the hands of over 500,000 kids and bring authors, storytellers and illustrators into over 400 schools and libraries each year! Individual membership price is only $60 or $30 for students/seniors in which you will also receive an invitation to the Annual General Meeting each June and invitations to special events hosted by the CCBC throughout the year. Very cool!
My love for literature keeps growing every day, especially now that I have two kids to share my passion with. Having a dedicated organization like CCBC is so heartwarming. Only last year in a conversation with my son's teacher did I know that some kids don't have any books at home! I was flabbergasted to say the least. TD Grade One Book Giveaway Program, organized by CCBC, provides every Grade One student across Canada with the gift of a free book, in either English or French. Over 500,000 free books have been distributed annually since 2000:)
I am very fortunate to have an opportunity to spread the love of CCBC. One lucky winner will receive an one-year membership! **throws confetti** Contest is open to Canadian mailing addresses and winner will be randomly selected on Friday April 29th at 9 AM EST. Entry is simple, leave a comment below with your email address and tell me who/what you love about Canadian literature. (My answer: memories of reading Dennis Lee's Jelly Belly over & over, laughing time and time again. I now share this book with my kids who love it as much as I do!)
About Author Mel Boulrice
Wow! I'm the first to leave a comment...I love Barbara Reid's Read me a Book. My daughter and I started reading the board book version of this together when she was only a year old. Now she can read it on her own and we talk about the pictures in the story, picking out items in the border. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteSorry, email address is clderwee at gmail dot com.
ReplyDeleteWe have so many talented authors and illustrators in general. I remember picking up Robert Munsch's Angela's Airplane for my son when he was 2 (he is now 12) and every day 5-10 times a day he would ask me to read to him that book over and over again. He still has it on his bookshelf, and actually looks at it from time to time re-living the memories we had when we read it together all those years ago.
ReplyDeleteChristinabean ~ I loved PERFECT SNOW also by her, will have to check out READ ME A BOOK too!
ReplyDeleteTravelsofabookworm ~ Yes, I am a HUGE Munsch fan (he was born in US but I still consider him Cdn!) I carted my two boys to a reading last year, waited in line for over an hour for the signing but oh so worth it! LOVE YOU FOREVER, THE PAPERBAG PRINCESS, MORTIMER..I could go on & on :)
aileen_peterson@yahoo.ca
ReplyDeleteI love Canadian literature, for children and for adults. From the time I can remember being old enough to read little books like Munsch to when I graduated to "Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery I have loved to read. The first book that made me laugh out loud was Gordan Korman's "I Want to Go Home" (followed by a mad rush to read everything he had available). As an educator I love to share books with kids that speak to where they are from and their experiences and I love the way their eyes light up. Whether it's "The Hockey Sweater", "Hatchet", "Cowboys don't Cry" or "The Prairie Alphabet" there is something wonderful to discover in Canadian children's literature.
Aileen Peterson
My favourite canadian children's book is/was The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton. It is the one book that takes me perfectly back to a place and time, finding a quiet corner during 4th grade recess to read and reread this fabulous book.
ReplyDeletelizanneeastwood@gmail.com
Aileen ~ I was swept away by Anne of Green Gables too, my brother was the big Gordon Korman fan. I happened to meet Gordon last year as my son introduced him for a signing when he was promoting his 39 CLUES books, very fun times.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the eyes light up is priceless!
Lizanne ~ I'm not familiar with Pierre Berton, must change that! Thanks for sharing :)
Canadian literature is a staple in our house. My daughter loves Robert Munsch (A Promise is a Promise), Paulette Bourgeois (Franklin), Susan Ross (Violet the Sheep) and Phoebe Gilman (The Gypsy Princess). Hubby on the other hand loves Vinyl Cafe books and I'm just about to get started on Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the giveaway! Gordon Korman and Robert Munsch are just a few of my favs.
ReplyDeleteI never tire of Anne of Green Gables and use it as reading material for my ESL classes so I get to read it over and over again.
ReplyDeleteI am a huge fan of William Bell, Kathy Stinson, Richard Scrimger...we're lucky to have so many authors that totally rock! My recent fav is Erin Bow -author of Plain Kate.
ReplyDeletelibrarygal (at) hotmail (dot) com
What I love is the wealth of great talents - Barbara Reid, Phoebe Gilman, Dennis Lee - these are national treasures, and I love letting children know that we have such great homegrown stuff to be proud of and enjoy. It's inspiring, I think.
ReplyDeleteMy children grew up on Canadian children's literature, from Robert Munsch to Phoebe Gilman, from Paulette Bourgeois to Barbara Reid. As they grew, they picked up Eric Walters and Kenneth Oppel, OR Melling and good old Lucy Maud. Canadian literature created good readers, good students, and even two writers. My daughter, now 24, has decided to join her mother on the writers' road. And to no one's surprise, we're both writing for children.
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