Celebrating Canadian Children's Authors

In the spirit of our imminent Canada Day celebrations, I'd like to mention the blog of Lindsey Carmichael who is featuring interviews with Canadian children's authors for the entire month of July.

Lindsey is a bookseller and writer who lives in Nova Scotia, and her blog is Ten Stories Up. You can find the schedule of interviews by going here. She'll spend a week with writers of each of the following genres: picture books, middle grade nonfiction, middle grade fiction and teen books. And, a bonus: At the end of each week is a book draw or other giveaway for readers who comment on a post.

Sounds fabulous! I can hardly wait to begin reading. What better way to celebrate Canada Day than by learning about our country's talented authors.

Cheers!

Sci/Why Blog

Have you heard about the new blog written by a group of Canadian children's writers? It features discussions on "science, words and the eternal question — why?"

I posted my first entry today. I wasn't sure I qualified to be part of this group, and if you click here, you can see why.

Shortly after posting, I realized we are marking the summer solstice tomorrow. Maybe I should have written about that instead. The funny thing is, it doesn't feel like summer in Vancouver. Fingers crossed for sunshine soon!

Happy summer wherever you are. :-)

Beautiful Chesterman Beach

My friend and colleague, Adrienne Mason, has the great fortune to live and work in Tofino, BC, on the wild west coast of Vancouver Island. As well as writing children’s books and being the editor of Know Magazine, she is co-owner of a small, independent publishing company, Postelsia Press. They have just released their newest work, 18 Meditations on Chesterman Beach, — a beach near Tofino, which may be one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I can hardly wait to get my hands on the book. I know it will be fabulous (almost as good as being at Chesterman beach myself).

To order your own copy, or find out more about the book, go here.

Cheers!

Farewell to Ardea Books

I was in need of some weekend reading material, so I popped over to W. 4th to pick up some books from Vancouver's newest (only 9 months old) bookstore, Ardea Books. Imagine my shock and surprise to find that a clothing store now occupied Ardea's space. Gone were the shelves of books and serene browsing ambience. Replacing them were racks of clothing and music thumping at high volume.

Another independent bookstore gone. How sad!

I was there a month ago buying books and I congratulated the owner on her wonderful store. We chatted and I asked her how it felt to be the proprietor of such a fine store. She said, "It's a scary time to be a business owner." On hearing that, I felt a twinge of worry — but never suspected that she was days away from closing the doors.

Here's a Georgia Straight article about the store.

Goodbye, Ardea Books. We will miss you!

School Visits in June

It's June and school will be out in a few weeks. Surprisingly, some of my writer colleagues and I are still doing school visits. I was on beautiful Saltspring Island (see above) last week visiting Fernwood Elementary. Tomorrow I will be meeting the students at Renfrew Elementary in Vancouver. And that will wrap up my school visits until next fall.

I was lucky to visit many schools this year and meet lots of wonderful students and teachers. Thanks to all of you for your warm welcome. Have a great summer vacation and see you next year.

Cheers!