News

Happy New Year!

Here on the west coast, we are leaping into the New Year with snow and ice. It is unusual for us to have such a cold winter (we are accustomed to balmier temperatures) and we are muddling our way through it.

The big old trees in my neighbourhood are beautiful in their coats of white, but some have come tumbling down with a bang under the weight of the heavy snow. Watch out!

The side streets have not been cleared of ice and snow in a month, nor salted or sanded, and so driving (and walking!) remain somewhat treacherous — like navigating an ice rink in ballet slippers.

But we brave west-coasters carry on, and look forward to the beginning of a fresh and shiny New Year. We have high hopes that there will be many bright spots in the days ahead.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and productive 2017 — with many good books to read!

Warm Winter Greetings

On this snowy Vancouver day, it seems fitting to check in with Bear and his friends. What are they doing? Having a wonderful winter party in Bear’s den!

Bear is serving his homemade honey-ginger cookies and huckleberry tarts. Chickadee is leading the singing and Fox is playing his harmonica. Soon all the happy forest animals are dancing round and round the den. What a fun way to welcome winter!

Bear and his friends hope you are having a lovely start to winter. Stay warm and dry! And enjoy your celebrations with family and friends.

To learn more about Bear’s Winter Party, please go here.

Bear's Winter Party

 

Amazing Eden Mills

Thank you to the wonderful town of Eden Mills, Ontario, for a marvellous weekend!

I’m just back from the Writer’s Festival hosted in that glorious spot and it couldn’t have been a better time. The setting is idyllic, under the sweeping trees and alongside the Eramosa River, with dozens of authors and poets reading their works to a most gracious and receptive crowd.

A few times over the weekend, I had to pinch myself to believe it was real.

The community (of about 350 people) pitch in to provide warm hospitality to the festival visitors and authors. A team of volunteers cooks and serves dinner to a great crowd of people on each of two nights, and serves up homemade pies for dessert. Not only that, but homemade champagne is poured!

 

What were the highlights? There are almost too many to count:

– delicious food
– friendly volunteers
– a gorgeous natural setting
– sitting in the sunshine, listening to the authors and poets read their works
– the making of new friends in the Canadian literary scene
– catching up with old friends living across our vast country
– the amazing young student, Samantha, who introduced me at my reading — the best introduction I’ve ever had! Thank you so much, Samantha!
– the careful and competent organization of travel details, hotels and flights
– the kindness and generosity of everyone I met

I could go on… but suffice it to say, it was a weekend I will always remember.

My sincere thanks to everyone involved in putting on the festival. I feel enormously privileged to have been invited! One day, I hope to return.

Eden Mills Writers Festival

Tomorrow, I am on my way to a wonderful writer’s festival held in the scenic hamlet of Eden Mills, Ontario. What a privilege to be invited!

If you’d like to find out who’s speaking over the weekend, you can check this festival link.

And here’s a lovely piece of art showing the town and environs (borrowed from the Eden Mills website). I’m looking forward to spending the day on the banks of the Eramosa River.

I hear it’s going to rain (but I don’t mind — my umbrella is packed).

Back soon!

School Days

In my part of the world, it is back-to-school day. I am thinking about all the children and teachers who are bravely returning to the classroom as the new school year unfolds.

I wish you all a successful and happy year, with much learning and many good books to read!

And if you are interested in finding out more about children and school, you might enjoy my friend Margriet Ruur’s book, School Days Around the World.

Have a fun first day! I’ll be thinking about you.

 

Summer’s Here

West Coast WildWe made it! Summer is here and the schools are on hiatus until the fall. Children and teachers everywhere have earned a well-deserved holiday. As for me, now that school visits have wound down for the year, I hope to find a little quiet writing time and finish a manuscript that’s been patiently waiting.

Also in the plans, is a short family holiday by the ocean. I hope to see a lovely flock of sandpipers like these as I walk along the beach.

Thank you to Karen Reczuch for this wonderful illustration from our book, West Coast Wild: A Nature Alphabet.

Have a safe and happy summer! See you in September.

Celebrating Literacy with Vancouver Schools

It was a wonderful event yesterday at Shaughnessy Elementary, celebrating books with a big group of enthusiastic students from Vancouver schools.

The Vancouver Elementary Principals and Vice Principals Assocation (VEPVPA) chooses a book by a local author each year to donate to all Vancouver Schools. What an amazing show of support for literacy! And then students from every school, along with their teacher-librarians and school administrators, are invited to a celebration afternoon where they receive their book and get a chance to meet the author.

Karen Reczuch and I were fortunate to have our book, West Coast Wild, chosen this year. It is a such an honour and we are thrilled.

In addition to receiving a book, the children each get a chocolate gift and this year, it was in the shape of an orca whale (to match the ocean theme of our book). What fun!

Thank you so much to the VEPVPA for an amazing day and for their support of books for children in the schools!

Here are the student greeters handing out books as each child entered the library.

 

After the presentation, almost every student had a photograph taken with me. I loved meeting them all!

 

Here’s me holding my chocolate orca.

 

And here’s the book that the VEPVPA kindly selected this year as their choice for all the Vancouver schools. Thank you so much to everyone involved!

Book Week

It’s a big week here in Canada for booklovers. It’s Canadian Children’s Book Week!

Authors will tour every province and territory and share their new books with children in libraries and schools across the nation. It is a grand celebration of the amazing books that are created in our country.

From BC, my friend, Sarah Ellis, is touring southern Saskatchewan (including Moose Jaw, place of my birth!) and another friend, Margriet Ruurs, is visiting children in Ontario. A third colleague, Maureen Fergus, from Manitoba, has gone all the way to Newfoundland! (Lucky her! I’ve always wanted to go there.) Each of these authors will delight kids with their inspiring and entertaining books.

And me? I’m happily staying home and looking forward to speaking to students and their teachers at Shaughnessy Elementary School tomorrow. I am thrilled that my book West Coast Wild has been chosen by the Vancouver Elementary Principals and Vice Principals Association as the book they will donate to all Vancouver schools this year. It is a wonderful honour and I am very grateful! You can read the announcement here.

I hope you get a chance to read a Canadian children’s book this week. They are some of the best in the world. Hooray for Book Week! (If you follow the link to Book Week, you can scroll down the page to read interviews from some of the touring authors.)

A big thank you to TD Canada and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre for hosting this marvellous celebration of books and their creators. If you’d like to see the full list of authors and where they are touring, please go here.

And another big thank you to the Vancouver Elementary Principals and Vice Principals Association for their marvellous support of literacy in the schools.

Happy Reading!

Questions!

I have been busy visiting schools over the last couple of months and have greatly enjoyed speaking to the students I’ve met.

Even though the schools varied from one another in size, tone, composition, and geographical location, there has been a striking similarity in their enthusiasm for books and stories. The students were keen readers and writers, and eager creators of their own work. And there were many amazing librarians who had done a sensational job of directing students to excellent reading material.

It has been heartening to see the high-spirited literacy in action.

I love question time with the children because I never know what they will ask.

At a recent school, one young student asked me how old I was when I started writing books. I told him. Then a second student asked how many years I had been a writer. I gave that answer too. Then someone burst out: “I know how old you are!” and announced my age.

“You don’t look that old,” another student said. I smiled and said thank you. And we quickly moved on to the next question. 🙂

A virtual bouquet of flowers, and warm and sincere thanks to all the wonderful schools and teacher-librarians who invited me to visit this spring.

It’s been a privilege to meet you all!

Congratulations to Groundwood Books!

The children’s book publishing world is a wonderful place, filled with warm, supportive people who are mutually appreciative of one another’s work.

One of the best groups of such people is found with my publisher, Groundwood Books. And, today, they were recognized as the “Best Children’s Publisher in North America” at the Bologna Book Fair.

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair (held each year in Italy) is regarded as the world’s biggest and most important children’s book fair in the world. Receiving an honour here is highly prestigious!

Congratulations to Groundwood, and to publisher, Sheila Barry, and to all the talented, hard-working people in this organization who collaborate to create such beautiful books for children!

What a marvellous honour!