New Kids’ Books Help Define Toronto

Seeing Canadians portrayed in books and art helps us understand who they are and why their homeland is important. where and how they live and why these places matter.

Two fresh books, In Lucia’s Neighbourhood and ABC of Toronto, are to be released soon.

The former, written by Pat Shewchuk and Marek Colek, and based on their animated film Montrose Avenue, is being launched Friday May 10 at Type Books on Queen St. W.

 It is about a 7-year-old girl, Lucia, who shows readers through her neighborhood in West-end Toronto. The story begins with a quote from urban thinker Jane Jacobs and features scenes that symbolize life in the old city of Toronto, where leafy residential streets lead to main avenues with streetcars rolling along them. It’s very much the Toronto version of Sesame Street.

The second book, ABC of Toronto is also from Kids Can Press, which will mark 40 years of publishing with a party at Harbourfront Centre May 16.  ABC of Toronto is an A to Z exploration of the city by Kingston author Per-Henrik Gürth, with a cast of anthropomorphized woodland creatures hanging out at various Toronto destinations.

Through the alphabetized pages the reader will discover a moose and calf walking the “B-for-Beach(es)” boardwalk as a beaver jogs by (the author is unwilling to take sides in the great Beach vs. Beaches naming controversy). There are a moose and fox dressed as British Redcoat soldiers firing the cannon at F is for Fort York. There’s an M for Maple Leafs; S is for Streetcar; Y is for Yonge St. lit up at night; and so on.

These books sound charming and will, I hope, do well in the Canadian market as well as abroad!

Bilingual Children's Book Nominated for Prestigious Canadian Silver Birch Award

An Inuktitut and English children’s book, Uumajut, which received support from the Qikiqani Inuit Association’s community initiatives program, has won a nomination for a Silver Birch Express Award, the QIA announced Oct. 19.

The award is part of the “Forest of Reading Program,” an awards program in Ontario.  A committee of educators and librarians from across that province nominate titles.

Its members assess all the nominated works based on their literary merit and their contribution to the enrichment of Ontario students.  Nominated books are then distributed to every participating classroom in Ontario. 

“We are proud to have partnered with the Nunavut Bilingual Education Society by funding Uumajut in our effort to promote and advance Inuktitut literature. Our Community Initiatives Program is making a positive difference for our region and the territory,” said QIA president Okalik Eegeesiak in a news release.

The Silver Birch nomination means that Uumajut will be read by more than 2,000 Grade Three students across Ontario and introduce these southern students to Inuit conservation values, traditional practices, and language.

“Without the combined efforts of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the Nunavut Bilingual Education Society, Inhabit Media Inc., and the GN Department of the Environment, this book could not have been such as success. This project involved working together with Inuit and non‐Inuit to ensure that northern perspectives are represented in Canadian literature,” said Louise Flaherty, who is vice-president of the Nunavut Bilingual Education Society, and a co-founder of Inhabit Media.

Uumajut, published by Inhabit Media Inc., has already been distributed free of charge to Nunavut schools.  Inhabit Media is also sending dozens of “cold, creepy Canadian monsters” down south in time for Halloween, the publisher said in a recent news release.

Included in the 2011 “Canadian Monsters” promotion are three brand-new Inhabit titles: The Shadows the Rush Past: A Collection of Frightening Inuit Folktales, Ajiit: Dark Dreams of the Ancient Arctic, and The Legend of the Fog.