Canadian Children's Book Centre List of Books for Family Literacy Day (and ILLEGALLY BLONDE is on it!)

We have a fantastic resource in the Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) that promotes reading and books by our authors and helps teachers, librarians, and the general public in their book buying and reading decisions. Canada has a strong, supportive culture that encourages reading (the recent budget threats to our Toronto Public Library system notwithstanding) and as part of that, we celebrate Family Literacy Day on January 27th. As the CCBC states in its promotion of this day:

"Family Literacy Day is a national awareness initiative created by ABC Life Literacy Canada in 1999 and held annually on January 27 to raise awareness of the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family. More than 1.5 million Canadians have already participated in the initiative since its debut. Taking time every day to read or do a learning activity with children is crucial to a child’s development. Even just 15 minutes a day can improve a child’s literacy skills dramatically, and can help a parent improve their skills as well. For more information, please email info@abclifeliteracy.ca."

In celebration of Family Literacy Day, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre compiled a list of 50 Canadian books (25 picture books and 25 works of fiction) that share in the joys (and struggles) of families of all sizes and combinations. And guess what? They included ILLEGALLY BLONDE on it! Here's the link

I'm so very, very pleased IB is on this list since, at it's heart, the story is about the strength and strains of family and what we do and what we have to sacrifice for the ones we love. I'm also awed and honoured by the fantastic company of books ILLEGALLY BLONDE sits with.

So Yay for the CCBC! and YAY! For Family Literacy Day (January 27th). Here's hoping that the joy of reading spreads to those that need to hear it the most.

Things That Make the Crankies Go Away

I should have posted this blog post yesterday but I was in an epically cranky mood. No particular reason - a combination of delays and frustrations on the reno, The Boy not being ready when I got home to take him to Tae Kwon Do when I'd asked him to (this is a recurring theme with him), my hair needing a major re-do and a few other things that, by themselves aren't anything epic but accumulate them over a day or a week and suddenly I find myself in a major Blue Funk or becoming "The World's Crankiest Mom and Wife".

Besides having a glass of wine to deal with these episodes (and that wasn't possible in yesterday's busyness) there is one other thing that never fails to help me to feel better when I've got a case of crankies: I search where my book is in various public libraries across the country and see if it's been checked out. I know, I know. A bit self-obsessive, isn't it? But the idea that someone is reading Illegally Blonde always cheers me up. And the other day I checked the Toronto Public Library and found they'd ordered 14 copies of it! This was a major pick me up because Toronto's my home library and the city with the biggest Portuguese-Canadian population in Canada. Since IB features a Portuguese-Canadian teen I was a little bummed the TPL hadn't stocked it yet. Well, as always, librarians come through and make somebody's day (mine this time) a little sunshinier. Thank you, TPL!

How about you guys? What cheers you up when you've got the crankies?