Braille Books Acquired Summer 2023
Welcome to Braille Books Acquired. This quarterly newsletter contains a list of Braille books recently acquired by the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA). Previous issues are available at celalibrary.ca/braille-books-acquired.
Announcements
Letter from CELA’s Executive Director Laurie Davidson
Just about 2 years ago CELA celebrated passing the million book mark. Today we are nearing 1.3 million titles which represents an incredible array of choices for our readers, and speaks to a growing awareness of the need for and benefits of providing accessible books to people with print disabilities both here at home and around the world.
This month I attended the IFLA Pre-Conference for Libraries serving People with Print Disabilities in Rotterdam and met with some incredible colleagues who are working to remove barriers to accessible reading. I had the opportunity share about the work libraries here in Canada are doing and the ways collaborations like the Public Library Accessibility Resource Centre can help harness great ideas and practical resources to help libraries reach their accessibility goals.
One of the ways CELA aims to support the work of libraries is through our TD Summer Reading Club Accessibility Award which recognizes creative and commitment to accessibility in children’s programming and services related to the TD Summer Reading Club. There is more about this award in this month’s newsletter. If you are a library user whose library is doing great work in this area, encourage them to apply for the award!
We are also grateful for partners like Dyslexia Canada and their Mark It Read awareness campaign which helps spread the word about the need for accessible reading materials for people with dyslexia. Visit their website to learn more about their October events.
As September begins and many of us are returning to a regular routine, I hope you can carve out some time to dig into one of our new books, or an old favourite! We’ve got lots to read.
Happy Reading!
Laurie Davidson
CELA Executive Director
A note about dates
Although the majority of these books have been published within the last 5 years, there may be some books listed here which are older, but which were only recently added to our collection. To make this clearer for you, we include the date of the print version of each book at the end of its annotation.
Fiction for children and young adults in uncontracted braille
General fiction
5194192. The Funeral by Matt James.
1 volume. A child's first experience of death involves love, laughter and some big questions about life. Grades JK-2. 2018.
Multi-cultural fiction
5194191. Boonoonoonous Hair by Laura James and Olive Senior.
1 volume. A young Black girl learns to love her difficult-to-manage, voluminous and boonoonoonous hair. Grades 1-3. 2022.
Non-fiction for children and young adults in uncontracted braille
Animals and wildlife
5309634. The Girl Who Loved Giraffes: And Became the World's First Giraffologist by Kathy Stinson.
1 volume. When Anne Innis saw her first giraffe in a zoo, she was entranced. So much so that a love for giraffes shaped her whole life. She decided at a young age that she would one day travel from her home in Canada to study giraffes in their natural environment in Africa. After overcoming obstacles to doing so based on her gender, Anne succeeded in fulfilling her dream in 1956 and became the world's leading scientific expert on giraffes. Gender discrimination then interfered with her ability to share her passionate interest and her knowledge with students. The disheartening injustice of it led her into work championing equal rights for women.Anne eventually gained the recognition she deserved for her remarkable achievements in the field of animal behaviour. By then giraffe numbers in the wild were dwindling and she became devoted to helping save them. Grades 1-3. 2021.
Fiction printbraille
Animal stories
5267380. Fox and Bear by Miriam Körner.
Fox and Bear live happily in the forest until Fox decides to make life more productive and efficient. When Fox's inventions set off a chain of events that complicates life in unexpected ways, Bear is faced with the difficult decision about how he wants to live. This a modern fable that raises existential questions for readers of all ages. The illustrations for Fox and Bear were created using recycled paper cut-outs and cardboard dioramas. Grades K-3. 2022.
General fiction
5309636. All from a Walnut by Ammi-Joan Paquette and Felicita Sala.
A moving, multigenerational story about love, family roots, and the cycle of lifeWhen Emilia finds a walnut one morning, Grandpa tells her the story behind it: of his journey across the ocean to a new home, with only one small bag and a nut in his pocket. “I planted my little tree in good brown soil, so it would grow strong here forever.” “In this house? In this yard?” “Shall we go see?” Step by step, Grandpa teaches Emilia how to cultivate her own seed. But as her little nut grows, Grandpa begins to slow down—until one sad day, Emilia has to say goodbye. Emilia’s sapling looks as droopy as she feels . . . but she knows just what to do. From acclaimed author and illustrator Ammi-Joan Paquette and Felicita Sala, this tender story is a poignant reminder that the best things grow with time—and that even when they are no longer here, the ones we love are always a part of us. Grades K-2. 2022.
5365744. Annie's Cat Is Sad by Heather Smith and Karen Obuhanych.
A little girl navigates her cat's bad day in this picture book about exploring sadness and how we find comfort.Annie comes home from school to find her cat, Delilah, has had a terrible day and is quite sad.What do you do when your friend is sad? Cheer them up with all the things they love! Annie tries TV, warm milk, and even yoga! But at the end of the day, no distraction can really make our bad days simply disappear, as Annie knows all too well. You just have to face them head-on, maybe have a good cry, and find comfort inthose you love. Heather Smith has written a gentle picture book about how we sometimes have to sit in the sadness of a bad day before we can move beyond it. Paired with Karen Obuhanych's bold, emotive illustrations, readers will feel seen by Annie's Cat Is Sad. Grades K-2. 2022.
5267347. The Kindest Red: A Story of Hijab and Friendship by Hatem Aly, Ibtihaj Muhammad, and S. K. Ali.
The sequel to the acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Proudest Blue shows the power of friendship and kindness, from Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad. It’s picture day and Faizah can’t wait to wear her special red dress with matching hair ribbons, passed down from her mother and sister. Faizah’s teacher starts the day by asking her students to envision the kind of world they want, inspiring Faizah and her friends to spend the day helping one another in ways large and small. But when it’s time for sibling pictures, Faizah realizes that she and her older sister, Asiya, don’t match like her classmates do with their siblings. With help from her classmates inspired by Asiya’s hijab, Faizah finds that acts of kindness can come back to you in unexpected ways. From Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad and fellow bestselling, award-winning creators S.K. Ali and Hatem Aly comes a heartfelt exploration of friendship, faith, and the joy of spreading kindness wherever you go. Grades 1-4. 2023.
5309638. My Name Is Saajin Singh by Kuljinder Kaur Brar and Samrath Kaur.
A debut picture book that explores the importance of pronouncing names properly and celebrates cultural identity.Saajin loves his name—he loves it so much that he sees it spelled out in the world around him in his snacks, in the sky and sometimes he even sings it aloud. On his first day of school, Saajin is excited to meet his new classmates, but things take a turn when the teacher mispronounces his name as Say-jin and he is not sure how—or if he should—correct her. After trying to live with the different version of his name for a while and some thoughtful conversations with his family about the meaning behind it, Saajin realizes the importance of reclaiming his name and embracing his identity. This empowering story, accompanied by energetic and vibrant art by Samrath Kaur, will resonate with any reader who has ever felt misunderstood. Grades K-2. 2022.
5309637. Sometimes I Feel Like a River by Danielle Daniel and Josée Bisaillon
Following the huge success of Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox, this companion book is a lyrical celebration of our relationship to the natural world. Preschool – Grade 2. 2023.
Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction
5365746. Together We Drum, Our Hearts Beat as One by Chief Lady Bird.
In this beautifully illustrated book, a determined young Anishnaabe girl in search of adventure goes on a transformative journey into a forest on her traditional territory. She is joined by a chorus of her ancestors in red dresses, who tell her they remember what it was like to be carefree and wild, too. Soon, though, the girl is challenged by a monster named Hate, who envelops her in a cloud of darkness. She climbs a mountain to evade the monster, and, with the help of her matriarchs and the power of Thunderbird, the monster is held at bay. Together the young girl and her ancestors beat their drums in song and support, giving the girl the confidence she needs to become a changemaker in the future, capable of fending off any monster in her way. Together We Drum, Our Hearts Beat as One is a moving and powerful book about Indigenous resistance and ancestral connection. Grades K-2. 2022.
Multi-cultural fiction
5267354. Beautiful You, Beautiful Me by Tasha Spillett-Sumner, Salini Perera
A child who looks different from her mother finds beauty and belonging in this new book from the creator of the New York Times bestseller I Sang You Down from the Stars. Preschool – Grade 1. 2022.
5309640. Sitting Shiva by Erin Silver and Michelle Theodore.
In this gorgeously illustrated, deeply moving picture book, a young girl learns about the practice of sitting shiva after her mother dies. Grades K-2. 2022.
5267349. Water Love by Natalie Hodgson and Rajean Willis.
Water Love, a beautifully illustrated spoken word picture book, tells the story of Kaya, a young Black girl as she navigates her lifelong love of water amid the disapproval of her friends and despite her mother’s deep-seated fear of the water. Combatting stereotypes, Kaya joins an all-Black surfing program; in this program, as she begins to understand the larger struggles of the Black experience, she learns to love her “real” self and finds joy in expressing herself through her passion for surfing. Water Love was inspired by the North Preston Surf Program in Nova Scotia, an organization that works to encourage a stronger representation of Black people in water sports. Grades K-2. 2022.
Holiday fiction
5267382. Twelve in a Race by Catherine Little
Twelve in a Race takes readers through the origin story of the Chinese zodiac, including the beginning, middle, and ending of the Emperor’s great race. Young readers will enjoy the rhyming pattern and driving question of “Who will win?” Catherine Little, author of Twelve in a Race, was inspired to write this story for her son so that he could learn more about his Chinese heritage. Twelve in a Race’s illustrations, done by Sae Kimura, an artist originally from Odawara, Japan, richly portray this version of the Chinese zodiac legend and imaginatively showcase each animal’s individual character traits throughout the Emperor’s race. Readers will enjoy finding out which animal placed first, which placed last, and which animal correlates to their birth year. Be sure to make room on your bookshelf for this keepsake to read every Lunar New Year and many times in between! Grades K-2. 2022.
Non-fiction printbraille
Biography
5365743. A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis by Kathy Stinson and Lauren Soloy.
A celebration of a beloved folk artist, and her artistic expression of joy and beauty. Known for her vibrant and cheerful paintings of landscapes, plants, and animals, Maud Lewis' iconic folk art is celebrated around the world. Despite her beautiful art, she spent much of her life living in poverty with rheumatoid arthritis. In this stunning picture book, author Kathy Stinson and illustrator Lauren Soloy bring Maud's world to life: how she captured in her art what she loved most, while navigating the mobility issues caused by her condition. From bright paintings of the sea and countryside, to the flowers and birds she painted on the walls of the small house she shared with her husband, Maud's work continues to delight and inspire viewers young and old. A Tulip in Winter features: Backmatter about Maud Lewis' life and legacy Notes from the author and illustrator about how Maud has impacted their lives Uplifting and visually compelling, Maud's story will inspire young readers to find and focus on the beauty in their worlds. Grades 1-4. 2023.
Fiction for adults
Historical fiction
5267381. The Gift by Zoe Maeve.
Volume information not available. The Shining meets Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette in this gripping debut from an award-winning talent. The Gift opens on the snow-blanketed grounds of the Alexander Palace in Western Russia where a moth has come to attend the birth of the fourth Romanov princess, Anastasia. She and her siblings grow up in a gilded world, isolated from the society beyond the palace walls despite their dominion over it. After mysteriously receiving a camera on her fifteenth birthday, she begins to document her world, but the gift carries with it a weight she can't yet see. A creature moves on the edge of her vision and stalks her dreams. As the revolution unfolds, the confines of Anastasia's world keep closing in. Something is following her, and it might not be human. 2021.
Humourous fiction
5165350. Jones by Neil Smith.
Volume information not available. Eli looks up to his sister Abi, two years older, who knows how to inhabit the souls of animals, and sometimes even the soul of her brother. They share jokes, codes, and an obsession with impressive feats of word power—such are the survival tricks for growing up Jones. Pal, their alcoholic father, is haunted by demons from the Korean War, and their less-than-nurturing mother Joy hasn’t got the courage to leave him. Always moving to where Pal gets work, the Joneses go from Montreal to Boston, Salt Lake City, Chicago, and back to Montreal. No matter where they go, though, they can never get away from Jones Town. And then, on Eli’s twelfth birthday, the darkness deepens when he stumbles on something he doesn’t understand—an episode that represents the beginning of Abi’s unraveling, although no one knows it yet. Over the years, Eli and Abi lurch towards and into adulthood on separate paths that sometimes cross, negotiating the world through sexual experimentation, drugs and alcohol, art and language. Searing, affecting and often darkly funny, Jones explores the treacherous intersection between love and violence, and the extreme measures Abi and Eli must take to escape the legacy of a toxic inheritance. 2022.
General fiction
5066502. We Spread by Iain Reid.
Volume information not available. Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.” Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling? 2022.
5368261. Fictional Father by Joe Ollmann.
3 volumes. Caleb is a middle-aged painter with a non-starter career. He also happens to be the only child of one of the world’s most famous cartoonists, Jimmi Wyatt. Known for the internationally beloved father and son comic Sonny Side Up, Jimmi made millions drawing saccharine family stories while neglecting his own son. Now sober, Caleb is haunted by his wasted past and struggling to take responsibility for his present before it’s too late. His always patient boyfriend, James, is reaching the end of his rope. When Caleb gets the chance to step out from his father’s shadow and shape the most public aspect of the family business, he makes every bad decision and watches his life fall apart. Is it too late to repair the harm? Are we forever doomed to make the same mistakes our parents did? Joe Ollmann is a master at portraying inner torment. His characters vacillate and sob and rage. His furrow-browed and deeply-lined cartooning has never been more expressive than in Fictional Father. Caleb storms around and slumps in equal measure as he tries to figure out who he is beyond the neglected son of a famous man. In addition to being a devastating portrait of the Wyatt family, Fictional Father is a hilariously sardonic interrogation of art-making and cartooning in particular. 2021.
Mysteries and crime stories
5165232. A World of Curiosities: A Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Novel #18) by Louise Penny.
9 volumes. It’s spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge. But something has. As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators’ lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they’ve arrived in the village of Three Pines. But to what end? Gamache and Beauvoir’s memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother’s murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt? As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 160-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up. As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there’s more in that room than meets the eye. 2022.
Short stories
5165219. A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories by by Leonard Cohen .
Volume information not available. An unprecedented glimpse into the formation of the legendary talent of Leonard Cohen. Before the celebrated late-career world tours, before the Grammy awards, before the chart-topping albums, before “Hallelujah” and “So Long, Marianne” and “Famous Blue Raincoat,” the young Leonard Cohen wrote poetry and fiction and yearned for literary stardom. In A Ballet of Lepers, readers will discover that the magic that animated Cohen’s unforgettable body of work was present from the very beginning. Written between 1956 in Montreal, just as Cohen was publishing his first poetry collection, and 1961, when he’d settled on Greece’s Hydra island, the pieces in this collection offer startling insight into Cohen’s imagination and creative process, and explore themes that would permeate his later work, from shame and unworthiness to sexual desire to longing, whether for love, family, freedom, or transcendence. The titular novel, A Ballet of Lepers—one he later remarked was “probably a better novel” than his celebrated book The Favourite Game—is a haunting examination of these elements, while the fifteen stories, as well as the playscript, probe the inner demons of his characters, many of whom could function as stand-ins for the author himself. Meditative, surprising, playful, and provocative, A Ballet of Lepers is vivid in its detail, unsparing in its gaze, and reveals the great artist and visceral genius like never before. 2022.