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Do You Love Giraffes?
The subject of my latest book, The Girl Who Loved Giraffes — Anne Innis Dagg — wants to share her life-long love of giraffes. If you’re 7-17 years old, you can meet with her and other young giraffe lovers from around the world online every month by joining the Junior Giraffe Club, set up by…
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Summer Reading
Whether you’re spending your summer close to home or venturing farther afield, I hope you’re enjoying the luxury of some summer reading time. Whether on a beach or an apartment balcony, in a hammock or a tent, there’s something special about the longer, warmer days that says “Relax. Let yourself sink into one of those…
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Today is World Giraffe Day!
June 21 is World Giraffe Day — a celebration of the animal with the longest neck on the longest day of the year. (Or the longest night, depending on where on the planet you live.) Did you know that a giraffe’s hooves are as large as dinner plates? Or that a giraffe gives birth standing…
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Bringing Robert Frost Home From Newfoundland
A man carried stacks of National Geographic magazines from his truck to a table in the Deer Lake Library. They dated back to the 1950s. One issue caught my eye. The face on the cover was not one I expected to see on a NG cover. It was the April 1976 issue. Inside, unrelated to…
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First the Movie, Then the Book
It’s not every time you see a documentary that you get to meet its subject right after. Or that you know — before the film is over and even more once you’ve heard the subject address the audience — that you want to write a book about her for kids. Or that the subject agrees to let…
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What You Focus On
There is much to love about spring in Canada: longer days, warmer temperatures, trees budding, flowers blooming. This year it may be harder for many to find or hold onto hope in the season than other years, with all that has been lost by so many since last spring, and with so much uncertainty about what the…
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Stepping Away, Letting Go
Sometimes the best way to renew waning enthusiasm for a project is to step away from it for a while. But what if you step away for a short time, then a longer time, and your enthusiasm simply doesn’t come back? Should you just let it go? Chalk that one up to ‘good practice’ despite…
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The First International IBBY Canada Meeting
Last weekend, over a hundred people gathered from around the world to attend an IBBY Canada meeting. As a program presenter I logged in early and to see faces rapidly filling the screen as others joined the meeting was truly exciting. There were the faces of friends and colleagues from across the country, many whom…
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I Read Canadian
I Read Canadian Day is a national celebration of the breadth and diversity of Canadian books for young people. Join the party on February 17 by encouraging any kids or teens in your life to read a Canadian book for 15 minutes or by reading one to them. You’ll be helping foster a love of…
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A “Bare Naked” Reveal
The original publication of The Bare Naked Book in 1986 caused quite a stir. It was considered pretty daring at the time to show naked bodies and talk about them frankly in a children’s book! But we knew it was important for children to see different bodies being celebrated and to learn about their own. The book was…
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