Promoting literacy and a love of books, Canada Book Day is a celebration designed to turn the nation's eye to literature of all kinds. The seventh annual Canada Book Day takes place tomorrow Tuesday, April 23 and is being marked by celebrations across the country. Over the past seven years Canada Book Day has grown from a grassroots celebration into a major national event that is tied into International Book Day -- also held on April 23 -- which has been proclaimed by UNESCO.

The original inspiration for Canada Book Day came from author and journalist Lawrence Martin who I am sure is gratified to see readers from across the country embrace his idea so enthusiastically. Martin has said, "Books are the fuel for the mind" ; "They provide an essential inspiration for our creative and emotional lives. By giving the gift of a book on Canada Book Day, Canadians can participate in an important intellectual exchange, one that acknowledges the value of Canadian authors while expanding the horizons of our own expertise."

Canada Book Day is organized through the combined efforts of publishers, authors, booksellers as well as government and corporate sponsors under the leadership of The Writer's Development Trust. The trust is a national charitable organization dedicated to the advancement and nurturing of Canadian writers and writing. It administers more that $200,000 worth of grants and awards, including a special fund for writers in need.

On Book Day, people are taking part in national and local events in almost every city and town across the country. Canadians will be making gifts of books to friends, families and charitable institutions. They will also be participating in numerous national and local events that include readings, signings, parties, and contests, book give-aways, media challenges and special discounts on book sales.

This is a perfect occasion to celebrate some of the wonderful authors who are accomplished storytellers.

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Orphaned young, Kate Morrison is her older brother Matt’s protégée, her fascination for pond life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world. Years later, working as an invertebrate biologist, she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life. And she thinks she has outgrown her siblings – Luke, Matt and Bo – who were once her entire world.

Saints of Big Harbour by Lynn Coady

1982 starts well for Guy Boucher. But before long he feels the need to move to the town of Big Harbour to get away from his school, family life, and most of all ‘the supreme and utter retardation of my existence which mostly takes the form of Isadore’. Saints of Big Harbour handles the bleak subjects of violence, addiction, small-town mentalities and destructive families with insight, irony and humour, in a compellingly accessible style reminiscent of Roddy Doyle.

Downhill Chance by Donna Morrissey

The world of Downhill Chance, familiar yet exotic, is a pair of utterly remote outport communities in pre-Confederation Newfoundland. Set in the bleak years during and after the Second World War, the narrative revolves around two families, the Osmonds and Gales, both burdened by scars and sorrows and secrets -- terrible, unspeakable secrets.

Unless by Carol Shields

Shields explores the mother and daughter relationship in this piercing and sad story. For Reta Winters life is good until her eldest daughter runs from the family and ends up mute and begging on a Toronto street corner. Reta then begins her battle to bring her daughter home.

Sounding the Blood by Amanda Hale

Ms. Hale's achingly poetic first novel, set in a 1915 whaling station on the southern tip of the Queen Charlotte Islands, invokes the spirits of five dreamers held hostage to time, place, and memory. Sounding the Blood is a concoction of secrets and longing - a mesmerizing story that rises three generations out of the sea. The characters' clear voices resurrect the beauty and hope of Rose Harbour whaling station when Moresby island was a New World to everyone but the Haida.