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July 12, 2010Interview: Alana Wilcox, Senior Editor, Coach House Books
When Alana Wilcox fished me out of the slush pile, she walked into my life with ease, ferocity and intelligence. Working with an editor is an experience of intimacy. But, like working with a director, ...
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June 09, 2020
What Makes a Good Children’s Book?
You’re buying a book for a new baby, or for your own restless 12-year-old. You know what books delighted you when you were a kid. But are those books actually good? And are they likely to please and ...
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June 16, 2020
The School Library - Why It Matters More Than Ever
School libraries, now sometimes called Information Centres, have been getting short shrift in the last decade or so. Budgets have been slashed, staff hours cut and distributed among multiple locations, ...
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June 25, 2023The Rule of Three
I read somewhere once that a writer will always write three versions of their book: one for themselves, one for the professional reader, and one for the public reader. Knowing this has changed my life ...
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June 19, 2020
To Pre-read, or Not to Pre-read?
Should you be vetting your kids’ reading material? For many, the answer seems so obvious, you don’t even need to ask the question. To make sure kids are choosing books that meet their approval, ...
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March 08, 2018Getting to know Daniel Heath Justice: Tolkien, D&D, and The Golden Girls
Acclaimed scholar and author Daniel Heath Justice's Why Indigenous Literatures Matter (Wilfrid Laurier University Press) is a tour de force, combining cultural history, literary analysis, and artistic ...
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May 05, 2022"Our World is an Amazing Place" Laura Alary on Her New Kids' Book Exploring Photosynthesis, Food, & Connection
It's easy to forget how fascinating the idea that plants can "eat" sunlight and use it to grow and thrive actually is, but in Laura Alary's Sun in My Tummy (Pajama Press, with artwork by Andrea Blinick) ...
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March 02, 2017
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Being a Writer #1 - Q& A With Andrew Sullivan
For the last two months I've been writer-in-residence at U of T in Scarborough. This means I get an office to write in, I run a writing group with creative writing students once a week, and give editorial ...
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September 22, 2022"Not Only Landmarks, But Vibration" Tanya Turton on Her Love Letter to Her Toronto Neighbourhood and Black Queer Womanhood
To lose a sibling as a young adult is a brutal experience. For Jade Brown, the protagonist of debut novelist Tanya Turton's Jade is a Twisted Green (Rare Machines/Dundurn Press), the tragedy is made ...
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February 16, 2023Mudlarking, Unexpected TV Appearances, & More: Getting to Know Children's Writer Nancy Cooper
Meeting new people isn't easy. For Amik the beaver, the character at the heart of Nancy Cooper's picture book Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome (Owlkids Books, illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley) ...
