Canada Book Week – April 21 – 25

In 1995, World Book Day was declared by UNESCO and since then has been celebrated all over the world. That same year a group of book enthusiasts, inspired by Ottawa author Lawrence Martin, gathered at The Writers' Trust of Canada and decided to dedicate the day to the promotion of the nation's writers. They proclaimed Canada Book Day. This year the celebrations have expanded to an entire week! Canada Book Week will run from April 21 to 27, 2003, with national and local events already developing across the country.
The Writers' Trust of Canada is a national charitable organization dedicated to the advancement and nurturing of Canadian writers and writing. Full details about this celebration are available in the library or on the Canada Book Week website www.canadabookday.com. Details on the events being held at KPL can be found on our Programs and Events page.

One of the most publicized associated events is the Canada Reads program on CBC Radio. Last year, through a series of radio discussions, readers across the country were encouraged to read Michael Ondaatje’s In The Skin Of A Lion . Once again the CBC will challenge its listeners to participate in this Canada-wide book club.

In contention this year:
Next Episode by Hubert Aquine
Sarah Binks by Paul Hiebert
The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Complete details and the schedule are available on the Canada Reads website.

How Can You Celebrate? – Discover a new Canadian author.

The Skating Pond by Deborah Joy Cory

Set in Maine, The Skating Pond is the story of Elizabeth, who is orphaned at 15, and how she responds to this life crisis, the choices she makes as she copes with raising herself and then her relationship with a much older, cruel man.

Stay by Aislinn Hunter

Abbey, a transplanted Canadian living in a small Irish village, finds herself involved with an older man in what will be a doomed relationship. While focusing on the story of Abbey and Dermot, Stay has a number of other well- drawn characters and a very strong sense of place. Readers will be drawn into the lives of the characters and gain an understanding of life in rural Ireland.

Cumberland by Michael V. Smith

The lives of Ernest, Bea, Amanda, Nick, and his son Aaron come together, fall apart, and come together again in this story of how residents of a small Ontario town deal with the closing of their factories and mills in the wake of the NAFTA agreements.

Mme. Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor

This first novel tells the entwined stories of Jeanne, the mother of Marcel Proust, Marie the translator of Jeanne’s diaries and Sarah who as a child was sent to Canada by her parents to escape the Nazis.