Alice Munro has won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature! The Nobel committee called her “a master of the contemporary short story.” And so she is.
Congratulations to her! And to us! It is a memorable day for Canada.
Read more about Alice Munro’s accomplishments here.
Look what came in the mail! A brand new copy of Polar Animals translated into Norwegian.
I also received a Swedish and Finnish edition. (I had to employ Google translate to figure out which book was which.) 🙂
It is thrilling to see these translations and to know that children in Scandinavia will be turning the pages and reading all about the animals that live in the far north (and a few in Antarctica).
A big thank you to Sandviks, in Norway, for publishing these lovely books.
I have never been the kind of person who believes we should tell kids what to read. In my mind, we should give kids opportunities to read all kinds of books and surround them with many chances to do so: at bedtime or school story time, by taking trips to the library, giving gifts of books on topics that a child is interested in and showing our own interest by having a house filled with books and providing daily examples of us reading.
Nor have I been the kind of person who thought kids shouldn’t read [fill in the blanks here: comic books, scary books, books with fantasy elements etc.]. I think kids should be able to read widely and in any way that suits them.
So you can imagine my distress the other day, when I was in a local bookstore and I saw an adult stop a child from buying a book that she really wanted to read. The adult had decided that the book was too difficult for the girl and made her return it to the shelf. It is true that the girl couldn’t fluently read every word on the page (the adult made her read aloud in the store), but the child definitely had the gist of the story and was very keen to tackle it. It was all I could do to stop myself from buying the book for the girl and smuggling it into her backpack.
I thought to myself that if there is ever a way to discourage a child from reading, this was the way to do it. Not every child reads fluently, not every child picks the most age-appropriate book, but if we want kids to develop a love of reading, we want to encourage them — not set up roadblocks to their enthusiasm and eventual success.
On that note, a big thank you to my parents who let me read anything and everything, and I did so voraciously, including the volumes of Sigmund Freud when I was still a kid. I don’t think I understood anything about the theories or even the language, but I was grateful to be allowed to wander over to the adult section of the library and pick out any book I wished to read. It made me feel like a reader and gave me a sense that the world of knowledge was wide open to me. It was liberating!
Sincere thanks to all those adults out there who are working hard to put great books into the hands of kids, and to help them become avid and enthusiastic readers. It is a most worthy endeavour.
I’ve had a bit of good news in the book department recently and I hope you don’t mind if I share it here.
I’m delighted to announce that Polar Animals has made the leap across the ocean and will be released by the publisher Sandviks (based in Norway), in three Scandinavian languages: Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish. I just love the thought of children in those countries turning the pages of my book. I hope they like it! 🙂
In Canada, it’s awards season and I am happy to report that Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport has been named as a finalist for several awards. They include: the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Nonfiction, the Information Book Award (Children’s Literature Roundtable of Canada), the Hackmatack Award (Atlantic provinces children’s choice award), and the Red Cedar Award (BC children’s choice award). I’m blushing now…
An enormous thank you to the hard-working juries who read and select the books on these lists. And congratulations to all the other nominees. It’s good to be in your company!
Today, I’m thinking about the students and teachers who are headed back to school after their summer break. Best of luck to all of you!
Special good wishes to those going to school for the first time, including the wonderful twins in my family. 🙂
May your school year be full of friends, fun, and lots of great books to read!
I stopped by the post office to mail a package this week and was excited to see brand new stamps featuring the art of my colleague, Marie-Louise Gay. What an honour for her! Imagine having your work on a Canadian stamp!
The illustration is from Marie-Louise’s award-winning children’s book series that feature charming stories of a sister and brother, named Stella and Sam.
If you’d like to read more about Marie-Louise and her work, check this article from the National Post or her website.
Congratulations, Marie-Louise!
I’m pleased to announce that three books in my Who Lives Here? series were released as e-books today. It’s great to see them get a second life! If you are interested in the e-book version, they are available at iBookstore, Kobo, B&N Nook and Amazon. And if you’d like to read more about the series, please go here.
I packed away my presentation materials a few days ago, after finishing my last talk of the school year.
My final audience may have been the most challenging to date — 3 and 4 year olds at a preschool that the young children in my family attend. But it might have also been the most fun! 🙂
And with presentations over until September, I will turn my mind to various book projects: the revision of one manuscript and the beginning of another. Summer is a good time for writing.
As the year winds down, I’m remembering all the wonderful students, teachers and librarians I met this year. Thank you to everyone who invited me to visit their school.
Have a safe and happy summer!
I’ve just returned from the Badlands of Alberta — a fascinating place where the dinosaurs roamed!
The geography is so interesting, with sedimentary layers of the past millions of years exposed on the hillsides. You could almost feel the dinosaurs lurking there.
We visited the Royal Tyrell Museum to see the huge dinosaur skeletons and models on display. It was amazing!
I feel a book brewing…
Look what came in the mail!
It’s my new book from China, called Who Lives Here? (in English) and is a compilation of the six little books from the earlier series of the same name.
I wish I could read Chinese, but in spite of my shortcomings, I can tell that the publisher, Shanghai Xiron Media Company, has done a lovely job. I’m thrilled that kids in China will be reading my book!
To see the original books in the Who Lives Here? series, please go here.