In this issue:
- Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
- Awards updates
- Reading for Truth and Reconciliation
- Murray Sinclair, Barbara Taylor Bradford have passed away
- Canada Post service interruptions and CELA services
- Books to promote at your library
- New on YouTube
- Reading in the news
- Webinars
- Featured title for adults: The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #19)
- Top five books
- Featured title for kids: The Shape of Lost Things
- Top five for kids
- Top five for teens
- Service tip: Library search preferences
- Holiday hours
- Stay connected!
Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
Canada has a rich literary culture and that is due in part to awards programs which recognize our authors, poets, illustrators and translators. We appreciate the opportunity to work with some of Canada’s most prestigious awards which allow us to ensure we have nominated titles in advance so we can get them ready for CELA readers. When you are promoting these books in your library or community, please remember to include accessible formats in those promotions so that people with print disabilities can be included in these important conversations.
I had the honour of being an invited guest to the Nordic Directors for Libraries Serving People with Print Disabilities meeting in Copenhagen a few weeks ago. The opportunity to share ideas and learn from our colleagues in accessible libraries in parts of Europe was encouraging and energizing. We face similar challenges and together we discussed innovative ways to move forward in creating an equitable reading landscape for all.
I want to thank you for your ongoing support, especially in light of the impact of the Canada Post strike on our users. We appreciate all you are doing to help these readers get the accessible reading materials they rely on.
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director
Awards update!
If you love to read award winners, November is the month for you. Let's get started!
This year's Giller Prize winner was awarded to Anne Michaels for her book Held.
The Governor General's Award for Literature honoured Jordan Abel for his novel Empty Spaces in the fiction category and Niigaan Sinclair won the nonfiction category for his book Wînipêk. Skating Wild on an Inland Sea by Jean E. Pendziwol won the Young People's award.
The Writers' Trust awarded the Atwood Gibson Prize for fiction to Sheung-King for his book Batshit Seven, and the Hilary Weston Prize for nonfiction to Martha Baillie for her memoir There Is No Blue. The Balsilie prize, another Writers' Trust prize, was given to Wendy H. Wong for her book We, The Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age.
The National Book Award in the US was given to American author Percival Everett's novel James, his retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Congratulations to all these incredible authors. Watch our Awards page for updates as more award announcements are made.
Reading for Truth and Reconciliation
Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre is written by Niigaan Sinclair, son of Murray Sinclair, and was the winner of this year's Governor General's Award for Nonfiction.
Niigaan Sinclair delivers a defining essay collection on the resilience of Indigenous peoples. Here, we meet the creators, leaders, and everyday people preserving the beauty of their heritage one day at a time.
Sinclair uses the story of Winnipeg to illuminate the reality of Indigenous life all over what is called Canada. This is a book that demands change and celebrates those fighting for it, that reminds us of what must be reconciled and holds accountable those who must do the work.
Read this book in our collection in braille and audio narrated by the author.
Murray Sinclair, Barbara Taylor Bradford have passed away
In early November, Murray Sinclair, author, judge and leader passed away. As the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he challenged Canadians to wrestle with our history and to embrace an inclusive vision for our shared future.
His book Who We Are: Four Questions For a Life and a Nation was just recently published.
And prolific author Barbara Taylor Bradford passed away Sunday November 24 at the age of 91.
CELA has many of her 40 novels in accessible formats. If you are promoting titles to honour these authors, please mention accessible options available to people with print disabilities.
Canada Post service interruptions and CELA services
CELA users who receive their books by mail have been impacted as a result of the Canada Post strike.
Your CELA patrons who rely on physical materials may turn to you for assistance. You can help them by:
- Promoting your DAISY CD deposit collection if you have one.
- Downloading CELA titles and delivering them to patrons on a CD or USB.
- Providing technical assistance for those who would like to download books directly on to their devices
- Circulating devices such as an Envoy Connect or Daisy Player which have preloaded books.
- Offering to download books onto patrons’ devices directly.
Visit our blog for information about our digital services including tips and links to tutorials to assist you and your CELA users.
Additional information including tutorials can be found on our Public Libraries page.
Books to promote at your library
Are you looking to promote some new accessible titles in your newsletters, social media feeds, or as part of an in-branch display?
Download our printable book list or forward the link to your colleagues.
Find the new list, updated monthly and featuring links to new books in our collection, on our For Libraries page.
New on YouTube
CELA's webinars are recorded and made available on our YouTube channel. We have recently added "Help! How do I support struggling readers? An introduction to accessible literacy and reading formats". The video features extenive information on a variety of accessible reading formats, as well as helpful advice on supporting struggling readers. Watch to discover a broader approach to reading and literacy development.
You can find this video and others on our YouTube channel.
Reading in the news
Henry Winkler played Fonzie on Happy Days for 11 seasons, but it wasn't until after the show wrapped up that he learned why he had struggled so much with reading the script.
In an recent interview with CBC, he opens up about being diagnosed with dyslexia at age 31 and how it inspires his work now.
Read more about his life in his recent autobiography Being Henry, The Fonz and Beyond. Henry Winkler's children's books feature a young boy struggling in school as a result of his dyslexia. Find even more of Winkler's children's books through Bookshare.
Webinars
Are there topics related to accessibility that you would like to see included in our webinars? We regularly update our content and always appreciate hearing ideas from library staff. Send your suggestions to members@celalibrary.ca.
Orientation webinar
This webinar will provide a comprehensive overview of CELA services for library staff who work in, or are responsible for, accessible services.
Audience: Staff who act as the primary CELA contact at your library, as well as other public library staff with an interest in the full services CELA provides to patrons through their public library.
Learning goals:
- What is CELA and why accessible library services are important
- What flexible options are available for libraries: direct registration of patrons with print disabilities; interlibrary loans to libraries, deposit collections of DAISY CDs
- What alternate format materials are available: books and magazines in audio, e-text and braille
- How library staff can connect patrons with CELA
- What support is available from CELA
Length: 60 minutes
Educator Access Program webinar
This webinar will introduce library staff and educators to the CELA Educator Access program. This program is offered through public libraries and gives teachers and other educators access to CELA’s collection to support their students with print disabilities at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels.
Audience: Public library staff and educators. Educators can include teachers, teacher librarians, educational assistants, and special education teachers – anyone who supports students with print disabilities in a formal educational setting.
Learning goals:
- How to register with the Educator Access program
- What alternate formats and reading technologies are available for students at all levels in the CELA collection
- What is Bookshare and how can educators get access
- How to find, access and read our books, magazines and newspapers in audio, e-text and braille
Length: 60 minutes
Featured title for adults: The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #19)
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.
That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny's #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder—all propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.
Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they're chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages. Including Three Pines.
Read The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #19) by Louise Penny.
Top five books
Most popular with our readers this month:
- The God of the Woods: A Novel by Liz Moore, Suspense and thrillers
- The War We Won Apart: The Untold Story of Two Elite Agents Who Became One of the Most Decorated Couples of WWII by Nahlah Ayed, Women biography
- Tom Lake: A Novel by Ann Patchett, Family stories
- Intermezzo: A Novel by Sally Rooney, Serious and literary fiction
- The Briar Club: A Novel by Kate Quinn, Suspense and thrillers
Featured title for kids: The Shape of Lost Things
Skye Nickson's world changed forever when her dad went on the run with her brother, Finn. It's been four years without Finn's jokes, four years without her father's old soul music, and four years of Skye filling in as Rent-a-Finn on his MIA birthdays for their mom. Finn's birthday is always difficult, but at least Skye has her best friends, Reece and Jax, to lean on, even if Reece has started acting too cool for them. But this year is different because after Finn's birthday, they get a call that he's finally been found.
Tall, quiet, and secretive, this Finn is nothing like the brother she grew up with. He keeps taking late-night phone calls and losing his new expensive gifts, and he doesn't seem to remember any of their inside jokes or secrets. As Skye tries to make sense of it all through the lens of her old Polaroid camera, she starts to wonder: Could this Finn be someone else entirely? And if everyone else has changed, does it mean that Skye has to change too?
Read The Shape of Lost Things by Sarah Everett.
Top five for kids
Most popular with kids this month:
- Harry Potter and the cursed child: Parts I & II (Harry Potter Ser.) by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and J. K. Rowling, Fantasy
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Fantasy
- Harry Potter: The Cinematic Guide by Felicity Baker, General non-fiction
- The City of Ember: The First Book of Ember by Jeanne Duprau, Science fiction
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #6) by Jeff Kinney, Family stories
Top five for teens
Most popular with teens this month:
- A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, Bestsellers (fiction)
- As Good As Dead: The Finale to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, Suspense and thrillers
- Killer Instinct (The Naturals #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Mysteries and crime stories
- Hatchet: Hatchet Series, Book 1 by Gary Paulsen, Adventure stories
- Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, Suspense and thrillers
Service tip: Library search preferences
Did you know you can set search preferences on your library’s CELA account? If you mainly help patrons who are adults, for example, or read in a specific language, you can save time when looking for books by specifying your search results. It’s easy! Just log in, go to My Account then set your search preferences.
Holiday hours
For the holiday season, our Contact Centre will be available from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on December 24. It will be closed on December 25, 26 and January 1 for the holidays. On December 27, 30, and 31, our Contact Centre will be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time. We will return to normal opening hours on January 2, 2025.
Our Member Services will be available for regular business hours with the exception of December 25, 26 and January 1, 2025. Happy holidays!
Stay connected!
Visit CELA's social media, including X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, YouTube and our blog, for more news about what's happening in the world of accessible literature.