Reading Spaces

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel wins CLA Children's and YA Book Awards

The author reports on his double award on his blog. Half Brother is an excellent book -- challenging, interesting, timely, beautifully written and suitable for all ages. I loved it. But, I can't decide how I feel about the same title being granted both awards. The cons for me: 1) it makes it seem as though the field of production is so small, that we need to double up awards, 2) it takes away the uniqueness of the young adult field if books that are suitable for all ages can be nominated and win the YA award. For what it's worth, Half Brother for me, is solidly in the YA camp, but that wouldn't stop me from recommending it to strong younger readers. The pros: 1) really good books float to the top, regardless of age category, 2) the resistance of age categories suggests the kind of wiliness that is such a big part of reading -- you just can't pin readers down.

Emma Donoghue reading at FIMS November 15



The Faculty of Information & Media Studies and The Book Store at Western, are honoured to host a reading event featuring London, Ontario literary sensation, Emma Donoghue on Monday, November 15 at 4:30 pm.

Donoghue's recent book, Room, has been nominated for a number of prestigious literary awards this year including the Man Booker Prize, (for a novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland and published in the United Kingdom), The Governor-General's Literary Award (for Canadian English-language fiction) and the Roger's Writers Trust Fiction Prize (for the year's best Canadian novel or short story collection). For more information about Emma Donoghue and her writing please visit her website at http://www.emmadonoghue.com.

The reading will take place at The Faculty of Information & Media Studies, North Campus Building, The University of Western Ontario, in room 117 at 4:30 pm and will be followed by a question and answer session and book signing. Seating is limited.

Copies of Room will be available for purchase at the event. All are welcome. This is a free event.

Questions?
Please contact: Paulette Rothbauer at prothba2@uwo.ca

A new book by Martha Brooks

Lucy Silag reviews Queen of Hearts the new novel by Canadian writer Martha Brooks, published by Groundwood. Martha Brooks is, hands down, is one of my favourite writers of any genre, but in my opinion, she's also one of the very best of the ya genre. Can't wait to read this one. And there's a Ben McNally event at The Dora Keogh on October 4 to celebrate the launch

CFP: Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood (Lethbridge, Canada)

from the conference website (where additional information can be found):

Childhoods Conference: Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood

Venue: University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Date: Thursday, May 5 – Saturday, May 7, 2011

This multidisciplinary conference will engage scholars and practitioners from a wide variety of academic disciplines (including the sciences, arts, humanities, social sciences, policy studies, and education) in a consideration of the state of child studies, which has changed significantly in recent decades.  Disciplines long dedicated to the study of the child, and childhood, have been recently revitalized and are engaged with the central problematic of what the child and childhood represent, including how these categories relate to others such as infant and youth.  Figured in the plural, childhoods pose a significant crossroads for theoretical and empirical work on the nature of being human and development broadly construed.  Various disciplines consider childhood as an experience, as a biological fact, as a social category, as an artistic and literary construct, as a category for historical and demographic analysis, as a category of personhood, and as a locus for human rights and policy interventions.  Participating scholars will examine childhoods of the past, present, and future from around the world, and will present research results, policy approaches, and theoretical paradigms that are emergent in this re-engagement with the child and childhood.  Bringing together divergent networks of expertise, this conference offers the opportunity for new research collaborations and the scholarly dissemination of innovative research.

Conference Format: three days of multidisciplinary panels with scholarly presentations on conference themes; poster sessions; several keynote events; practitioner sessions; and a film night.

Conference Themes and Questions: definitions and boundaries of childhood:  invented or discovered?; indigenous theories and experiences of childhood; the importance of gender; the impact of globalization; the impact of changing technologies on children and childhood, and on the study of children and childhood; concepts of adolescence; vulnerability and empowerment; and health, development, disability, and risk.  Proposals for papers on additional themes will also be considered.

Keynote Speakers:

• Dr. Patrizia Albanese (Co-director of the Centre for Children, Youth and Families, Ryerson University)
• Dr. Mona Gleason (Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia)
• Dr. Allison James (Professor of Sociology and Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences, University of Sheffield)
• Dr. Perry Nodelman (Professor Emeritus, Department of English, University of Winnipeg)
• Dr. Mavis Reimer (Canada Research Chair in the Culture of Childhood and Director of the Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures, University of Winnipeg)
• Dr. Richard Tremblay (Director, Research Unit on Children’s Psychosocial Maladjustment, University of Montreal)

Submission Guidelines: For presentations, and for posters, please submit a proposal/abstract of between 300 and 500 words through the "submit paper/poster proposal" tabs to the left of this screen by October 1, 2010.  Please complete all fields of the proposal submission form.  Proposals for multidisciplinary panels are also welcome.  Please note that presentations should be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. We would especially like to encourage graduate students to contribute posters on their current research and will offer a prize for best student poster.

https://www.uleth.ca/conreg/childhoods/content/call-papers

SHARP 2010

In a few weeks, I'll be giving a paper presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Reading, Authorship and Publishing. My paper is called: "Enough Books to Make Reading for Fun Possible: The inconspicuous emergence of the Canadian young adult novel and the rise of the teenage reader."  A copy of the abstract along with abstract from the other presenters in the session Reading Through Life is available here or from the SHARP Conference Website.

Reading through Life Sessions: Abstracts

Canadian Online Teen Reading Club needs your attention

A Canadian online reading club for teens with benefits for its member libraries needs your help to continue. Erin Walker has a post about its value to teens and libraries. There might be an opportunity here for a new funding line -- perhaps "Friends of the Teen Reading Club" that would enable individuals (i.e., non-institutional members) to make a contribution? Although the teenrc is run by the Greater Victoria Public Library system, it is national in its scope and audience.

A depressing update on the Teen RC

CBC News - Books - Fugitive Pieces picked by teen readers panel

"On Monday, members of a British youth panel named Fugitive Pieces as their favourite Orange Prize-winning novel as part of this year's celebrations surrounding the literary honour's 15th anniversary."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/06/08/orange-fugitive-pieces-michaels-teens.html?ref=rss#ixzz0qHCYX8rt

The [VERY] Sad Tale of Mrs. Mole and Mrs. Mouse

In my research into the history of the Toronto Public Library, I just came across this catalogue entry for a very cool manuscript of an early Canadian children's story called "The Sad Tale of Mrs. Mole and Mrs. Mouse". I've seen the original manuscript a few times in the collection at the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, but I hadn't seen the scanned version.

Interview with Jeff Lemire on YALSA's blog

I love Jeff Lemire. His Complete Tales from Essex County ranks among my all-time favourites. Sweet Tooth is strange, lovely and provocative too. The Nobody captures the weirdness of small town life and makes strange happenings seem normal. Matthew Moffett interviewed Jeff Lemire via email -- you can read it over at the YALSA blog.

NYTimes article on China and self-censorship

-begins with the experiences of Chinese Canadian author, Denise Chong, upon the publication of Egg on Mao.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/books/review/Parker-t.html