Canada Reads

There is a new Canada Reads contest on CBC Radio One that features past champions - not the champion books but the champion book defenders. This year's list of panelists and the books that they are defending are as follows:

Steven Page - Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis

Donna Morrissey - The Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani

John K. Sampson - Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill

Denise Bombardier - Children of my Heart by Gabrielle Roy

Jim Cuddy (Blue Rodeo, whoo!) - Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor


All the books being debated are available from the Cumberland Regional Library.

The debate started this past Monday and will continue in the weeks ahead. If you miss it on the radio, you should be able to listen to it online. Supposedly (the link on the main Canada Reads page doesn't appear to be working yet).

New books!

The African Canadian Services Division of the Nova Scotia Department of Education has generously donated a number of books to the school library in honour of African Heritage Month. Fabulous!


Nonfiction

Historic Black Nova Scotia by Bridglal Pachai & Henry Bishop

John Ware by Ian Hundey

Never Die Easy: the autobiography of Walter Payton by Walter Payton with Don Yaeger

North Star to Freedom: the story of the Underground Railroad by Gena K. Gorrell

Who's Who in Black Canada by Dawn P. Williams


Fiction

The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis

If I Just Had Two Wings by Virginia Frances Schwartz

Lost Goat Lane by Rosa Jordan

Send One Angel Down by Virginia Frances Schwartz

Freedom to Read Week

Click on the poster above to go to the Freedom to Read website.

Freedom to Read Week is this week, February 25th to March 3rd, 2007, and this year's slogan is "Celebrate your choices, contemplate your challenges." This is the 23rd year that Freedom to Read Week has been celebrated.

What Freedom to Read Week aims to do is increase awareness of censorship of books, magazines, and other reading materials in Canada. Censorship occurs when anyone but the justice system attempts to enforce limits on what a person can or cannot read. Furthermore, included in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is this statement: “Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms . . . thought, belief, opinion and expression.”

For more information, check out the Freedom to Read website and any of the following sites:

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) Statement on Intellectual Freedom.

The 100 Most Challenged Books of 1990-2000 (American Library Association).
Book Bannings and Burnings timeline.

Review: Testaments of Honour

Testaments of Honour: personal histories of Canada's war veterans by Blake Heathcote

This is only the second non-fiction book I've reviewed on the blog (the first was Night by Elie Wiesel) and, like Night, it is comprised of first-person accounts of the Second World War.

Testaments of Honour is a book entirely made up of 24 Canadian veterans' stories and experiences from many different perspectives. For example, Joe Gelleny was a Special Operations officer and performed intelligence missions in Hungary and other countries behind Nazi lines. Famous local artist Alex Colville served as a war artist in Europe, John Stroud was a prisoner of war in Japan, Nora Cook was a nurse on the battlefields of Europe, and John Weir worked on the tunnels in a Nazi prison camp that became famous in the movie The Great Escape.

My background is in history (I got my Bachelor of Arts with a major in history) and I have always been a big fan of both military history and eyewitness accounts. Sure, strategic summaries about what battalion went where in specific battles are useful and relevant, but if you ask me nothing is more interesting than hearing about a person's first-hand experience. Not only that, but books like this are becoming far more important now that the war ended almost 62 years ago, and soon there won't be any more veterans alive to tell us their stories.

Far different than your usual history of war, Testaments of Honour gives you the perspective that Canadian veterans had - a perspective that isn't usually in history books, and a perspective that may soon be lost forever.

5 stars out of 5 for Testaments of Honour.

Testaments of Honour website (includes photo gallery and interview clips).

CBC Archives: Conflict and War (collections of audio and video clips on war-related topics).

More new Orca Soundings books!

Thanks to the generosity of the PRHS Student Council, the following Orca Soundings books have been purchased for the library:

Breathless by Pam Withers

Crush by Carrie Mac

Exit point by Laura Langston

My time as Caz Hazard by Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Sticks and Stones by Beth Goobie

Yellow Line by Sylvia Olsen

There are now more than 30 Orca Soundings titles available at the library (and only 4 or 5 ever actually in the library at any given time due to their popularity)!

Library Corner - February Column

**I have started a column in the Parrsboro School Newsletter called (oh-so-originally) Library Corner. My aim is to provide parents with information and tools to support their child's literacy development. The first column is replicated below, along with resources and links that may not have been found in the Newsletter.


Library Corner

Did you know that many children experience a decline in reading habits in approximately grade 4 and/or grade 9? These are two major transition periods in literacy development: around grade 4 children progress from picture books and easy readers to novels, and around grade 9 they move from juvenile fiction into more substantial teen or adult fare.

During both transitions it is normal for children to fall back on reading material that is comfortable to them and easy for them to read, perhaps favourite picture books from their young childhood. This need not (and should not) be discouraged as it boosts their confidence to tackle newer, tougher books and materials.

You can help your child progress through these transitions by modeling and encouraging positive reading behaviours that include:

• Letting them see you read anything from magazines to novels, from the newspaper to cereal boxes.


• Reading aloud to your child should, in fact, continue until they are into their teens as it enforces the value of reading. You may want to consider borrowing audio books from the public library and listening to them with your child in the car or during the evening.


• Limiting computer and television use and designating time for reading also contributes to positive reading habits.


• Finally, ask your child questions about what he or she is reading and discuss what you are reading as well.
  

If you have any further questions, concerns, or want to know what kind of books your child might enjoy, please feel free to email me.


Suggested resources

An excellent resource is Paul Kropp’s book How to make your child a reader for life (2000) which is full of tips and suggestions for you and your child.
*Available for purchase from Chapters.
*Also available to borrow from the Cumberland Regional Library.

Another fantastic book is Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook (2006) which has lists of books for every age as well as many tips and advice about reading aloud to your child.
*Available for purchase from Chapters.
*I have requested that the Cumberland Regional Library purchase this book for their collection, so keep an eye out!


Further information

Publisher's Weekly has an excellent article about reading declines in older children.

A Statistics Canada study found links between a child's early reading skills and later literacy success.

Since teen boys' reading in particular tends to decline, this article seeks out why and what can be done to help. Although it is aimed at school librarians, it contains information (and a book list) that is helpful for parents as well.

Review: Coraline

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline and her parents have just moved into an old house that was converted into apartments - all seemingly occupied by strange tennants. When Coraline finds a locked door in the parlour and opens it with a stolen key, what she finds will put her and her parents in imminent danger and she will need to figure out how to escape the spindly-fingered clutches of her Other Mother.

Coraline is a pretty creepy book, or maybe I just find things that are not-quite-normal to be about the creepiest stuff around. For example, Coraline's Other Mother is identical to her real mother except for the fact that the Other Mother has button eyes and very spindly fingers. Sure, maybe it doesn't sound really creepy, but in Neil Gaiman's hands it definitely is!

And the cat is hilarious.

4 stars out of 5 for Coraline.

Visit the Coraline website.

Read a review.

In other Valentine's Day news...

...a prehistoric couple has been found locked in a tender eternal embrace. Read the brief Globe & Mail story.

Aww.

Valentine's Day links

Ah, tis the season of love!


You may also view this list at http://del.icio.us/prhslib/ValentinesDay.

Car and Driver now available at the library

The long-awaited (I sent in my subscription in October) first issue of the library's new subscription to Car and Driver just arrived. Hooray!

Issues will be available for short-term loan.

Review: Tithe: a modern faerie tale

Tithe: a modern faerie tale by Holly Black

When 16-year-old Kaye and her would-be rockstar mother move back to where Kaye grew up, her grandmother's house in New Jersey, Kaye misses some of her old friends that don't seem to be around anymore. Just when she starts to reconnect with a grade-school pal and her friends, things start to spiral out of control when she has a late-night encounter with a wounded knight and finds out dark secrets about herself - not the least of which is that she is to be used as a human sacrifice. Sucked into the world of Faerie, Kaye must make decisions that will determine her own survival and that of her friends.

Holly Black, who also cowrote The Spiderwick Chronicles, writes in a way that makes the Faerie world as real and solid as modern-day New Jersey. Kaye is struggling to come to terms with her new identity at the same time as she has to deal with her mother and grandmother fighting over her wellbeing. Although the Faerie world isn't exactly an escape, it is most definitely a distraction as Kaye must fight for her life against forces that want to destroy her.

4 stars out of 5 for Tithe.

Read about Holly Black.

Read an excerpt from Tithe.

African Heritage Month

February is African Heritage Month, and I have put together a list of sites that may be of interest.


You may also view this list at http://del.icio.us/prhslib/AfricanHeritageMonth.