In this issue
- Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
- Awards Update
- A new way to read magazines at CELA
- Tribute to Dolly Parton
- Reading in the News
- Truth and Reconciliation titles
- Canada Post updates about community mailboxes
- Celebrating Back to School
- Webinars for you
- Featured title for adults: Table Boss: How to Build a Restaurant When Your Life Falls Apart
- Top five books
- Top five for kids
- Featured title for teens: In the Country I Love
- Top five for teens
- Service tip: Search preferences
- Holiday hours
- Stay connected!
Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
The beginning of September always feels like the real “new year” with a shift away from the laidback days of summer and towards new projects and a return to our routines.
At CELA we have some exciting new projects to announce. We have just launched a pilot project to test five AI voiced magazines. With AI voice technology, we are able to offer readers access to a human-sounding audio magazine shortly after the magazine is published. As part of this pilot, we will be asking magazine readers to complete a short survey and provide feedback about this new format. You can read more about the pilot project in this newsletter or on our blog.
We are also delighted to have added 61 new audiobooks in German to our collection in response to some of the user feedback we have received about the value of adding books in languages other than French and English. We are continuing to investigate options to add additional languages to meet the needs of our users. Stay tuned!
Back to school means that libraries are wrapping up their summer reading clubs. If your library offered an accessible program, encourage them to submit an application for the TD Summer Reading Club Accessibility Award. They could win $2,000 to put towards future programming or accessible resources!
If the back-to-school season has you thinking about learning some new skills, why not sign up for one or more of our upcoming webinars. You can find the full list of this season’s offerings on our Help page. And as always, fall brings new books, lots of awards programs and some great opportunities to enjoy a new book.
Happy reading!
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director
Awards update
The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has announced the finalists for their six major awards celebrating Canadian books for young people. The awards include the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the David Booth Children’s and Youth Poetry Award, among others. Read titles available in accessible formats in our collection.
The Aurora Awards celebrate the best in Canadian science fiction, fantasy and horror. This year's winners included Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee in the Young Adult category.
The Aurora Awards also inducted Kelley Armstrong, author of more than 50 books, including the popular Rip Through Time series, into its Hall of Fame.
The Hugo Awards were announced. The Hugo Awards are one of science fiction and fantasy’s most prestigious awards. Winners include The River has Roots and the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi. Read the winners in our collection.
Many of the major Canadian literary awards announce their lists in the fall. Stay up to date on all the announcements and find accessible versions on our Awards page.
A new way to read magazines at CELA
CELA is pleased to announce a new addition to our magazine offerings.
As a pilot project, a few of our popular magazines are now available as audio magazines, created using an AI voice. With AI voice technology, we are able to offer readers access to a human-sounding audio magazine shortly after the magazine is published.
Five popular magazines: Canadian Living, AppleMagazine and Newsweek in English, and Lire and Coup de Pouce in French have been selected for this pilot project.
You will find a list of the AI voiced audio magazines on our magazines page. In our catalogue, you can search for the magazine title and filter the results using magazine, and DAISY audio options. Use the date added filter to narrow your results even further.
You can also subscribe to any magazine on the Magazine subscriptions page under My Account to receive new issues on your bookshelf as soon as they are available.
AI voiced magazines are DAISY audio files and can be read in the same way you would access any other audio books or audio magazines, including in the Dolphin EasyReader app, on DAISY players, and on Envoy Connect devices.
Our goal with this pilot project is to determine if this option is one our users enjoy and will use. To do this, we are launching a survey which requests feedback on our magazines in general, and on the AI voiced magazines specifically. If you are interested in providing feedback, our survey is available and open until September 21, 2026.
Read more about this pilot project on our blog.
Tribute to Dolly Parton
In addition to being renowned for her incredible musical talent, singer Dolly Parton also wrote many books across multiple genres, including a novel, memoirs, children's books and a cookbook.
One of her most beloved songs, Coat of Many Colors, has been captured in a picturebook for children.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library supports early literacy and a love of readng in children by mailing free books each month to children from birth to age 5 in communities across Canada.
Read books written by Dolly Parton.
Reading in the News
Are you struggling to get your kids to read a book?
New data suggests kids and teens today aren’t reading for fun the way older generations did. In fact, only 14 per cent of 13-year-olds reported reading for fun almost every day, compared to 27 per cent in 2012, and 35 per cent in 1984.
The CBC's show The Current examined the issue and has published an article with some tips to help get kids reading again.
Visit CELA's Kids and Teens page for book suggestions, our Top 5 lists, and links to book awards for kids and teens.
Also, check out other resources for great recommendations for books for Kids and Teens. CELA partners with the following organizations to provide accessible versions of their featured titles.
Hackmatack
Forest of Reading
The Fold Kids Book Fest
The Canadian Children's Book Centre
Truth and Reconciliation titles
As we approach the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation at the end of September, we have book recommendations which tell important stories about residential schools and their impacts on Indigenous communities.
You can find these and other books by using the Browse by categories option and searching the Indigenous Peoples in Canada section.
For kids:
- I am my name by Na'Kuset
- Rez kid by Andrea Landry, 2026
- Miya wears orange by Wanda John-Kehewin
- Tess's red dress: honouring love and family by Carolyn Roberts
- Shirley: an Indian residential school story by Joanne Robertson
For Adults
- Beyond the Orange Shirt Story: A collection of stories from family and friends of Phyllis Webstad - Before, during, and after their Residential School experiences by Phyllis Webstad
- Decolonization and me: Conversations about healing a nation and ourselves by Phyllis Webstad
- Five seasons of Charlie Francis by Danica Roache
- True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change by Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
- Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente in audio and braille
- Children Like Us: A Métis Woman's Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home
by Brittany Penner
For other Indigenous stories and authors, visit our blogs
- Books for National Indigenous People's Day
- Books for Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
- Orange shirt day: From story to movement
CELA also has the full set of reports from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Truth and Reconciliation Reports
Canada Post updates about community mailboxes
In some neighbourhoods across the country, Canada Post has begun its work of converting home delivery to community mailboxes.
Accommodations are available for those residential customers with functional limitations to access packages and mail.
Learn more about this program and how to apply on the Canada Post website.
Celebrating Back to School
For many of us, back to school conjures up images of desks in rows and playground games at recess. But school experiences and access vary widely, around the world and even here in Canada.
We've put together some titles that celebrate how important schools can be for the students and the communities they live in.
Off to class: incredible and unusual schools around the world by Susan Hughes.
Grandmother School by Rina Singh available in audio and braille.
Shannen and the dream for a school (A kids' power book #4) by Janet Wilson.
Webinars for you
We host a series of webinars on Zoom to help users access CELA services, to stay up to date on new technologies and to learn more about accessible reading. Most of our webinars are recorded.
On the Webinars for you page, you will find upcoming webinars. On that same page you will find links to other CELA video resources available on our YouTube channel.
Envoy Connect: An accessible and affordable audiobook player
This webinar will provide a basic introduction to the Envoy Connect player, a portable, affordable and easy-to-use device to listen to CELA's audiobooks. This webinar is for both library staff and CELA patrons who want to learn more about this device.
This webinar will cover:
- Basics of the Envoy Connect Player: what it is, how it works, etc.
- How to manage books on the Envoy Connect with the CELA Connect software.
- Where to find learning resources or purchase the player.
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Ask Us! Come chat with CELA staff and have your questions answered
This hour long interactive conversation gives CELA users an opportunity to ask questions related to using CELA’s library services. We encourage you to bring your questions and learn from CELA staff, as well as to share experiences with other CELA patrons in the audience. This Q&A aims to support how you access the books, magazines and newspapers in CELA’s multiple format collections for people with print disabilities.
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Getting Started with Accessible Reading Canada: Listen to CELA Audiobooks with Alexa
Join us for a live webinar introducing Accessible Reading Canada, a new way for CELA patrons to enjoy CELA audiobooks using Alexa-enabled smart speakers. This 60-minute session will walk you through how to use voice commands to search, browse, and listen to audiobooks from your CELA Direct to Player Bookshelf using the Accessible Reading Canada Alexa skill.
This webinar will cover:
- What Alexa-enabled smart speakers are and how they work
- How to set up and use the Accessible Reading Canada skill
- How to use voice commands for browsing and reading
- Where to find help guides and additional support
After the presentation, there will be a Q&A session to ask additional questions. This session will be recorded.
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Starting with CELA: finding and getting books and magazines
Have you recently registered for CELA or would you like a refresher on how to find and read books and magazines? Are you helping someone with a print disability manage their CELA service? assists a CELA user with a print disability manage their library service? We’re pleased to share how you can use our 1.5 million titles available to you in this 60-minute webinar. We will cover:
- What CELA offers: books & more!
- What kind of devices can you use to listen to CELA's books and magazines
- Discover how to use CELA's site: log in, search and choose a book
- Find tutorials and videos for more help
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Tuesday Nov 17 7:00-8:00pm EST
Featured title for adults: Table Boss: How to Build a Restaurant When Your Life Falls Apart
From the beloved restaurateur behind The Black Hoof, Grey Gardens, and General Public, as well as the bestselling author of I Hear She's a Real Bitch, comes a hilarious, heartbreaking look at love, success, and, most importantly, good lighting. Jen Agg had a thriving restaurant group, a beautiful marriage to a handsome artist husband, and extremely good skin.
If anyone could give advice on living well in your forties, it was her. Then, disaster struck. As a global pandemic threw the restaurant business into chaos, Jen’s husband, Roland, suffered a catastrophic stroke. In her new memoir, Jen captures what it felt like to rethink everything just when she thought it was all working out as she’d planned. Readers will love the book for its painful rendering of what it’s like to care for a loved one through a health nightmare, its witty analysis of restaurant culture, and its insights into building a business on your own terms.
Top five books
Most popular with our readers last month:
- Culpability: a novel by Bruce Holsinger, Suspense and thrillers
- The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett, Serious and literary fiction
- Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, General fiction
- She’s a Lamb! by Meredith Hambrock, Ghost and horror stories
- Theo of Golden: a novel by Allen Levi, Friendship stories
Top five for kids
Most popular with kids last month:
- My Weird School: books 1-10 by Dan Gutman, Jim Paillot, Humourous fiction
- Bad Dreams by Anne Fine, Friendship stories
- Marching North by Yolanda T. Marshall, War, police and military
- Rise! From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou by Bethany Hegedus, General non-fiction
- Little House in the Big Woods (#1) by Laura Wilder, Garth Williams, Family stories
Featured title for teens: In the Country I Love
As a seventeen-year-old single dad and a soon-to-be high school drop-out, Yassir Al-Azzawi's lapsed Shia faith is just another thing convincing his parents he's a failure. One more mistake, and they'll send him back to their homeland, a war-torn Iraq. Khaled Al-Hakim is perfect on paper: devout in his faith, a straight-A student, and captain of the debate team. But beneath the surface, Khaled is no saint either, and his worst sin yet is ignoring his parents' command to stay away from Yassir.
When their secret friendship is exposed, the consequences set off a series of events that cause family secrets from both sides to come to light, and neither Yassir nor Khaled are prepared to learn the stains that taint their family names. Told through multiple POVs across time, this authentic exploration of the Shia Muslim experience in the U.S. seamlessly combines classic YA themes of identity, coming-of-age, and relationships with timely social themes of racism, Islamophobia, and justice.
Read In the country I love by Alaa Al-Barkawi in our collection.
Top five for teens
Most popular with teens last month:
- The Wildest Dreams Bookshop by Gracie Page, Contemporary romance
- Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, Indigenous peoples fiction
- Killer Instinct: a Naturals novel (#2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Mysteries and crime stories
- Shatter Me: book 1 by Tahereh Mafi, Science fiction
- Ghost Queen (Orca Anchor) by Mahtab Narsimhan, Ghost and horror stories
Service tip: Search preferences
Did you know that you can set “Search preferences” in My Account to automatically filter your search results to be more relevant to you? You can save time and effort and avoid having to use multiple filters to find the books you want. And you can change your search preferences at any time. Visit My Account and use “Search preferences”.
Holiday hours
CELA and the Contact Centre will be closed September 7 for labour day and on September 30 to recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Stay connected!
Visit CELA's social media, including Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, YouTube and our blog, for more news about what's happening in the world of accessible literature.