|
|
|
______________________________________________________________
|
|
NEW RELEASES
Stunning new picture books, a hilarious middle reader, an exploration of gangs and Marie-Louise Gay in paperback
 MIGRANT Written by Maxine Trottier
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Each spring Anna leaves her home in Mexico and travels north with her family where they will work on farms harvesting fruits and vegetables. Sometimes she feels like a bird, flying north in the spring and south in the fall. Sometimes she feels like a jack rabbit living in an abandoned burrow, as her family moves into an empty house near the fields. But most of all she wonders what it would be like to stay in one place.
The Low German-speaking Mennonites from Mexico are a unique group of migrants who moved from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s and became an important part of the farming community there. But it has become increasingly difficult for them to earn a livelihood, and so they come back to Canada each year as migrant workers in order to survive. And while they currently have the right to work in Canada, that right may be challenged.
Working conditions are difficult for all migrant workers, most of whom have to leave families far behind and work without the rights accorded to citizens. And yet countries like Canada and the United States greatly benefit from their labor.
Beautifully written by Maxine Trottier and imaginatively illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault, this book describes what it is like to be a child in a migrant family.
>> Enter to win a copy of Migrant in our March contest!
Reviews of Migrant:
 "The words and images could stand alone as feats of artistic excellence. Together, they form a package that should become a staple for kids learning about Canada's diverse population." -- Quill & Quire
". . . moving, inventive and thoughtful. . ." -- Kirkus Reviews
 BENEDICT Written by Teresa Duran
Illustrated by Elena Val
Benedict, also known as Benny, is tired of living in such a hot place. And so he cleverly springs on his coiled tail from one habitat to another. He visits the North Pole, the desert, the jungle and finally the ocean in search of perfection.
With wonderfully funny illustrations that portray Benny's predicament in each new environment, this is a witty, very droll book about trying to find that elusive place where everything is just right. But is anywhere ever really perfect?
This book is being published in a co-edition with the highly regarded Venezuelan children's publisher Ediciones Ekare.
 BANJO OF DESTINY By Cary Fagan
Jeremiah Birnbaum is stinking rich. He lives in a house with nine bathrooms, a games room, an exercise room, an indoor pool, a hot tub, a movie theater, a bowling alley and a tennis court. His parents, a former hotdog vendor and window cleaner who made it big in dental floss, make sure Jeremiah goes to the very best private school, and that he takes lessons in all the things he will need to know how to do as an accomplished and impressive young man. Etiquette lessons, ballroom dancing, watercolor painting. And, of course, classical piano.
Jeremiah complies, because he wants to please his parents. But one day, by chance, he hears the captivating strains of a different kind of music -- the strums, plucks and rhythms of a banjo. It's music that stirs something in Jeremiah's dutiful little soul, and he is suddenly obsessed. And when his parents forbid him to play one, he decides to learn anyway -- even if he has to make the instrument himself.
Reviews of Banjo of Destiny:
". . . a low-key charmer." -- Kirkus Reviews
"This bittersweet novel has just the right touch of wit and creativity to catch and keep the attention of young discerning readers." -- Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children
 GANGS A GROUNDWORK GUIDE By Richard Swift
Street gangs have exploded worldwide. Tattoos, baggy pants, tagging, gangsta style, the unspoken threat -- it's all just around the corner in most of the world's major cities. Whether it's on native reserves south of Edmonton or in the massive Cape Flats shantytown that surrounds South Africa's tourist mecca of Cape Town, hundreds of thousands of "at risk" youth are deciding if they should join their local gang.
Violence, guns, the drug trade, racism, poverty, families under pressure and ever-widening slums all provide a witch's brew in which the youth gang tempts young males and females with a sense of identity and belonging that their world has denied them. Gangs exposes the roots of the problem as it moves from the bidonvilles of France to the favelas of Brazil. It offers a startling analysis of the complicity of the official adult world and some controversial ideas for reforms that might just undermine the appeal of gang life.
For many of the world's young -- especially those who are poor as well as young -- gangs are a real career choice. It is a choice that can be as deadly for young gangsters as for their victims. Swift shows that we fail to understand gangs at our peril.
Reviews of Gangs:
". . . informative and fast-paced . . ." -- Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children
>> Download our free Teachers' Guides based on the Groundwork Guides series!
NEW IN PAPERBACK:
 
|
|
______________________________________________________________
|
|
AUTHOR EVENTS
Join Laurel Croza and Matt James at the Art Gallery of Ontario
 
I Know Here book signing
Tuesday, March 15
1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
shopAGO
317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON
* * * * *
*
Join Maxine Trottier in Newfoundland to launch Migrant
 Reading and presentation by author Maxine Trottier
Tuesday, March 23, 7:30 p.m.
Five Coves Fire Department
Newman's Cove, NFLD
Entertainment by Schooner's Crew
Snacks to follow
Books will be available for sale
Admission $2 (all proceeds go to the Five Coves Fire Dept.)
* * * * * Celebrate International Women's Day with a guest lecture by Jody Nyasha Warner (author of Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged)
Before Rosa, Ca me Viola: One Woman's Stand Against Racism in Canada
Monday, March 7, 12:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Togo Salmon Hall Room 719
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON
Light refreshments will be served
Questions: contact Vilma Rossi
|
|
______________________________________________________________
|
|
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
A Q&A with Cary Fagan, author of Banjo of Destiny
 You made your first banjo from a broken Ikea chair. What is it about the instrument that you love so much?
About ten years ago I started playing the mandolin and going to bluegrass jams. But at concerts I'd sometimes heard a much older sound, the way the banjo used to be played. I found it beautiful, lively, sometimes haunting. A sound like no other instrument.
>> Read more . . .
|
|
______________________________________________________________
|
|
BOOKSTORE OF THE MONTH
A Q&A with Judy Halpern, owner of The Magic Suitcase
The Magic Suitcase
Kitchener, ON
519.578.8849
How long has the bookstore been in business?
I started The Magic Suitcase as a literature-based outreach science program in 1996. By 1998 I was carrying a small inventory of picture books to complement what I was doing in my outreach programs. The stories were so well received, I found myself taking orders for picture books for the schools that hosted our programs.
>> Read more . . . (scroll down to bottom of Anansi homepage)
|
|
______________________________________________________________
|
|
WRAPPING UP BLACK HISTORY MONTH
A photo of Jody Nyasha Warner reading from Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged at the Toronto Public Library:
|
|
______________________________________________________________
|
Thanks for reading! Talk to you soon.
|
|
|
|
|
______________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
|
