In this issue
- Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
- Awards update!
- On our blog
- Lambda Awards and Pride Month
- Reading in the news
- Braille Literacy Canada Symposium: Touch The Future
- Webinars for you
- Featured title for adults: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
- Top five books
- Featured title for kids: Kid Olympians: Summer
- Top five for kids
- Top five for teens
- TD Accessibility Award Winner Announced
- Magazines
- New videos for you!
- Service Tip: Webinars for You
- Holiday hours
- Stay connected!
Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
It’s always exciting to see libraries' work in accessibility being honoured and recognized. Earlier this month, Rachel Breau, our Manager of Member Services, had the honour of presenting the TD Summer Reading Club Accessibility Award winner at Saskatchewan Libraries Conference. The winning library, the Cambridge Public Library, put forth an incredible effort to make their summer reading club accessible to all the kids in their community and their inspiring creativity and efforts deserve recognition and applause.
As summer reading clubs kick off across the country in June, we are thrilled to partner with the TD Summer Reading Club, the BC Summer Reading Club and the New Brunswick Summer Reading Club to offer accessible versions of their featured books so that all kids can participate. Find the lists for these summer reading clubs on our website.
While we are celebrating reading, we are also mourning the passing of one of Canada’s literary giants. Alice Munro passed away this month after a long and illustrious career which included winning major awards and connecting with readers over the small details and larger struggles of her largely female characters. If you would like to explore her work, we have a number in our collection. Consider adding one of her collections to your own summer reading list. For more reading suggestions visit our recommended reading pages over the summer to find some new and interesting reads or follow our staff as they discuss books on podcasts and radio shows. We’ve got links to recent conversations in the newsletter.
Happy Reading!
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director
Awards update!
Congratulations to V. V. Ganeshananthan who won the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for her novel Brotherless Night which follows a courageous young woman as she tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka. As the winner, V. V. Ganeshananthan receives $150,000 USD and a residency with Fogo Island Inn.
The shortlist for the 2024 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour has been unveiled.
This year's nominated authors include:
- Ali Bryan for Coq
- Patrick DeWitt for The Librarianist
- Deborah Willis for Girlfriend on Mars
The winner will be announced on Saturday, June 22, 2024.
The Indigenous Voices Awards have released their nominated titles which include:
- There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow by Caleigh Crow
- And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott in audio and braille
- Truth Telling by Michelle Good
- The Secret Pocket by Peggy Janicki, illustrated by Carrielynn Victor
- Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls
by Angela Sterritt.
For more information about literary awards visit our Awards page.
On our blog
How have things changed in the ten years since CELA was established?
Check out our latest blog to learn how our collection has developed over the last decade.
Lambda Awards and Pride Month
The Lambda Awards have announced their finalists in more than 20 categories.
For more than 30 years, Lambda Literary has worked to nurture and advocate for LGBTQ writers, and to promote the authors and artists who are telling the stories of the LGBTQ communities.
The finalists for these awards are an excellent place to start when you are looking for titles that celebrate Pride Month.
The winners of the Lambda Awards will be announced on June 11. Find accessible versions of the finalists available in our collection:
Reading in the news
"When is a book not a book?"
While studies have shown that listening to an audiobook is the same as reading a printed version, at least to our brains, other aspects.
In this editorial in The Guardian, the writer explores whether the increasing popularity of dramatised audiobooks which introduce multiple narrators, are books or plays, or another medium entirely. of the experience can be quite different.
The Guardian view on audiobooks: a growing market that asks existential questions
Braille Literacy Canada Symposium: Touch The Future
Braille Literacy Canada is holding their fourth annual virtual braille symposium on Friday, June 14, 2024.
The lineup includes sessions on early braille literacy, teaching braille to adults and braille music and more. Registration is now open until June 11.
For more information or to register visit Braille Literacy Canada.
Webinars for you
We host a series of webinars to help users access CELA services, to stay up to date on new technologies and to learn more about accessible reading.
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.
Featured title for adults: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta's oil rush-part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed.
Beaton's natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, northern lights, and boreal forest. Her first full length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.
Production note: This title was created through eBOUND's Literary Image Description project. The author and illustrator wrote or consulted on the image descriptions, which are included in the body and narration of the text.
Read Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton.
Top five books
Most popular with our readers this month:
- The Fury by Alex Michaelides, Suspense and thrillers
- Terry & Me: The Inside Story of Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope by Bill Vigars, Sports and games
- The Bittlemores by Jann Arden, General fiction
- A Great Country: A Novel by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Multi-cultural fiction
- Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton, Biography
Featured title for kids: Kid Olympians: Summer
Athletes throughout history have dreamed of competing in the Olympics—and some were kids themselves when those dreams and plans began! In Kid Olympians: Summer, discover the childhood stories of legends such as:
- Usain Bolt, who used to skip practices to go to the arcade and play video games;
- Serena Williams, who sometimes hit her tennis ball over the fence on purpose!
- Tatyana McFadden, who had to fight to be allowed on her school's track team.
Featuring kid-friendly text, this book will inspire you to dream bigger, faster, and higher than ever before! The diverse and inspiring group also includes Dick Fosbury, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Gertrude Ederle, Nadia Comaneci, Ellie Simmonds, Tommie Smith, Wilma Rudolph, and Megan Rapinoe.
Top five for kids
Most popular with kids this month:
- Broken Pieces: An Orphan of the Halifax Explosion by Allison Lawlor, Death and bereavement
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Fantasy
- Aru Shah and the End of Time (Pandava series #1) by Roshani Chokshi, Adventure stories
- The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Award-winning fiction
- A Dog-Friendly Town by Josephine Cameron, Animal stories
Top five for teens
Most popular with teens this month:
- Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas, Adventure stories
- A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, Bestsellers (fiction)
- One of Us is Lying by Karen M McManus, Mysteries and crime stories
- Song of Silver, Flame Like Night (Song of the Last Kingdom #1) by Amélie Wen Zhao, Multi-cultural fiction
- The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the first part of Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings #1) by J. R. R. Tolkien, Fantasy
TD Accessibility Award Winner Announced
Congratulations to the Cambridge Public Library, presently operating as Idea Exchange for winning the 2023 TD Accessibility Award. The award recognizes a library's outstanding work in creating an accessible summer reading program.
The Cambridge Library's commmitment to accessibility is a crucial aspect of their service."We're driven by compassion for all our members' accessible service, especially for those dealing with sensory issues, and that was the inspiration for much of our summer reading club programming in 2023," says Andrea Siemens, Manager, Youth Services at the library.
The Cambridge Library's submission included information on a multi-sensory room pilot project at Clemens Mill, inclusive programming, and a summer reading club mobile.
The prize for the award includes $2000, which can be put towards accessible programming resources within the library.
"As the awareness around the need for accessibility and equity grows, we are thrilled to see libraries meet challenges with creativity and compassion. We're delighted, not only with the submission from the Cambridge Library, but from all libraries which took the time to document their efforts and share them with us. We can't wait to see what libraries come up with this summer," says Rachel Breau, CELA's Manager of Member Services.
If your library makes a special effort to create inclusive programming for their TD Summer Reading Club, encourage them to apply for our award and get the recognition they deserve.
Magazines
With the continued changes happening in the magazine publishing world, some of the magazines in our collection are ceasing publication and we are adding new ones to replace them. We will have more information about the additions in the coming newsletters, but you can always visit our Magazines page to see what is available. We hope you find some you love!
New videos for you!
We have recently added some new videos to our YouTube channel including:
- CELA at your fingertips: All about CELA's braille collection
- Deliver students with dyslexia accessible reading experiences
- Navigating the CELA website with JAWS or NVDA
If you have missed recent webinars or just want to learn more about CELA services, our recordings on YouTube are a great place to start!
Service Tip: Webinars for You
This summer, spend some time learning with us! Our Webinars for You page lists upcoming webinars and links to our recorded webinars and informative videos. Browse our list and learn something new!
Holiday hours
CELA and its Contact Centre will be closed on Monday, July 1 for Canada Day. We will resume usual hours on Tuesday, July 2.
Enjoy your holiday!
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.