Library

Featured Author of the Month is Deborah Ellis, a Canadian award winning author. A peace activist and humanitarian field worker, Deborah has traveled the world to meet with and hear the stories of children marginalized by poverty, war, and illness.  In 1997, Deborah went to Pakistanto help at an Afghan refugee camp. From this experience, she wrote the Breadwinner Trilogy, set in Afghanistanand Pakistan— a series that has been published in seventeen countries.  In The Breadwinner (2001), Parvana, an eleven-year-old girl, disguises herself as a boy to earn money to feed her family after her father is arrested. Two connected novels, Parvana’s Journey (2002) and Mud City (2003), follow the plight of Parvana and her friend Shauzia as refugees in their war torn country.  She also wrote Bifocal (2008), with Eric Walters, a book about a high school student arrested as a suspected terrorist that examines racism and the need for tolerance. Deborah Ellis has donated most of her royalties to organizations such as Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, UNICEF, and Street Kids Internation.  Her many books will be on display in the Library during the month of May.

April is poetry month and our featured author of the month is poet Jack Prelutsky.  After working as a truck driver, photographer, carpenter, and folksinger, Jack moved on to drawing sketches that might interest children.  While he was at it, he created some poetry to go along with his drawings.  A publisher said his work showed real talent.  No, not the drawings, which were terrible, but his poems were fantastic and children enjoyed reading them.  He has since devoted many years to writing original, humorous poetry for children.  He is now the author of more than fifty collections of original verse and anthologies, including several that we have on display in the Library.

To learn more about Jack Prelutsky, click here.

Click To Enlarge The Images Above!

Featured Author of the Month is Patricia Polacco, an American author and illustrator. She is of Russian, Ukranian, and Irish descent and grew up in a family of storytellers. Patricia Polacco struggled with several learning disabilities and did not learn to read well until she was 14 years old. Her struggles to learn at school were told in an autobiographical book, Thank You, Mr. Falker. She went on to overcome her disabilities and earned Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in art history. Patricia Polacco has written and illustrated over fifty books since publishing her first book at 41 years of age.  Her books draw on her real-life experiences and family history and explore the relationship between friends, children and grandparents, and characters of different ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds. Her books will be on display in the Library during the month of March.

To learn more about Patricia Polacco Click Here!

Featured Author of the Month is Valerie Sherrard, a Canadian award winning author who makes her home in Miramichi, New Brunswick. Over the years she has fostered approximately 70 adolescents for various lengths of time and also worked as the Executive Director of a group home for teens for eleven years. It was these experiences that prompted her to write for children and teens. We have many ofher books in the Library, including books such as There’s a Cow Under My Bed, Jr. novels such as Glory Wind (a Silver Birch 2012 selection), and teen novels such as Speechless. Her bookswill be on display in the Library during the month of February. If you would like to learn more about her, you can go to her blog by Clicking Here.

Kenneth Oppel is also a Canadian author who has written books for both younger and older children. His first book, Colin’s Fantastic Video Adventure, was written when he was only fourteen years old.  Since then, he has gone on to write a total of twenty-seven books.  His books include the Silverwing trilogy, which has sold over a million copies, and Airborn, winner of the Governor General’s Award for children’s literature.  Half Brother is one of the novel selections for Red Maple this year and it has won both the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award, as well as their Young Adult Book Award.

To find out more about Kenneth Oppel, check out his website:
www.kennethoppel.ca  and come into the Library to check out his books!

Featured Author of the Month for December is Barbara Reid, a Canadian award winning author and illustrator who lives in Toronto.  The medium of choice for her illustrations is plastcine.  Her book “The Perfect Snow” was a Blue Spruce nominated title last year and it was a favourite book of our primary readers.  It combined her amazing plastcine figures with her watercolour images.  We have many of her books in our Library, from old favourites such as “Read Me A Book” or “The Subway Mouse” to her brand new book “Picture a Tree”.  Check out her books on display in the Library.

Here is Barbara Reid Working With Plasticine.

Also check out her website here!!

Our Book Fair was a great success!  Thank you to all parents, students, and staff who visited our Book Fair and purchased books and gifts.  As a result of such wonderful support, the Book Fair raised over $1200.00.   This money will be used to purchase new books for our Library.  Thank you to the students who assisted in the set up and helped to sell the books and promote the fair!  Also, thank you to those staff members who assisted in packing everything back up.  All help was greatly appreciated!

Our annual Scholastic Book Fair will be held in the library from November 15th to the 18th.   We have an outer space theme for this year’s Book Fair – “To the Book Fair and Beyond”.  The dates correspond with the dates of our Student-Led Conferences.  The Book Fair will be open during  the following hours:

Tuesday Nov. 15th – 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday Nov. 16th -9:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Thursday Nov. 17th - 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  

Friday November 18th (P.A . Day) - 9:00 a.m. until noon.

All classes will have an opportunity to visit the Book Fair on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Thank you once again for your support of this fundraiser which allows us to purchase new books for the Library!

Come Check-Out Some Books Today!!

Gordon Korman was born October 23, 1963 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He wrote his first book, This Can’t be Happening at Macdonald Hall when he was 12 years old for a coach who suddenly found himself teaching 7th grade English. He later took that episode and created a book out of it, as well, in the Sixth Grade Nickname Game, where Mr. Huge was based on that 7th grade teacher.

Gordon eventually made one of his homes in New York City, where he studied film and film writing. While in New York, he also met his future wife, and they eventually married. They now have three children. He  lives on Long Island, outside of New York City, and has approximately 60 books to his credit. He has written the six volume On the Run adventure series, as well as the Island, Titanic, and Dive series.

Come To The Library To Check-Out His Books!!