The second-annual I Read Canadian Day is set to take place on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. This national day of celebration of Canadian books for young people is a day dedicated to ‘reading Canadian’ and will empower families, schools, libraries and organizations to host local activities and events within the week. Sign up to participate here, for a chance to win author virtual visits and free books!
With more students relying on remote learning than ever before, this year a virtual series called I Write Canadian is premiering on Bibliovideo, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s YouTube channel, at 12 PM EST on February 17. Three videos, featuring 20 authors and illustrators of books for young people, will premier in tandem, with one video in French. Perfect for homeschooling and classrooms, these videos feature talks from creators about writing Canadian and what makes our books great. See the complete line-up of creators below.
I Write Canadian, featuring Picture Book and Chapter Book Creators
Poet Wali Sha introduces I Write Canadian video, delivers a land acknowledgement and performs his own poem celebrating librarians.
Melanie Florence gives whirlwind recommendations of her favourite Canadian picture books, reads from her own Stolen Words, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard and talks about the connection to her grandfather.
Tolowa M. Mollel shares some background and then reads From the Lands of the Night illustrated by Darrell McCollo.
Heather M. O’Connor, author of Fast Friends (illustrated by Claudia Dávila) takes ideas to story with bubbles, books, research, horse riding and a shining knight peer editor.
Author/illustrator Ruth Ohi talks about and reads from her latest picture book Scribble. She also demonstrates character drawing from Fox and Squirrel.
Anitha Robinson talks about the endangered animals she met on her visit to South Africa, in particular rhinos,and reads from A Family For Faru illustrated by Karen Patkau.
Mahtab Narsimhan talks about how she started writing, her diary and her first book The Third Eye and reads from her early chapter book Genie Meanie illustrated Michelle Simpson.
I Write Canadian, featuring Middle Grade and Young Adult Authors
Poet Wali Sha introduces I Write Canadian video, delivers a land acknowledgement and performs his own poem celebrating librarians.
Marty Chan talks about the dance between the reader and writer. He introduces some other Canadian authors and then talks and reads from The Haunted Hotel accompanied by some creepy visuals and sound effects.
Kenneth Oppel takes us on a tour of his daringly disheveled study. He shows us his handwritten brainstorming notes, a botanist friend’s drawings of potential alien plants, visuals of the Diefenbunker a setting from his story, his bulletin board and a drawing of Sydney Smith’s that inspires him.
Monique Polak shows us what she’s reading, Fille facile, and her own journal which she’s been writing in for 30 years. Then she talks about how her editor Sarah Harvey inspired her with the idea for A Taste of Rain and gives us the “gout” of the book by reading the first page.
David A. Robertson talks about the first book in his Misewa Saga:The Barren Grounds and the convergence of ideas that went into it, the messages and what he wants to teach.
Wanda Taylor talks about her nonfiction book Birchtown and the Black Loyalists and its origin in a documentary project, Still Here, she did with Black youth, challenging them to follow the footsteps of their ancestors. She talks about story telling and having some of the most gifted story tellers right here in Canada.
I Write Canadian, featuring Young Adult Authors
Anita Daher talks about the highs and lows of writing, how the idea for You don’t have to Die in the End came from a documentary on a program where youth offenders are reformed through working with wild mustangs. She then gives a reading.
Natasha Deen talks about how writers struggle with the first few lines of their books and reads the beginning of her novel In The Key of Nira Ghani.
Sylvia McNicoll talks about Body Swap, how the idea came from an senior empathy project at a high school she visited and reads a few pages from the beginning. Carpe Diem. Keep reading.
Eric Walters talks about how he method writes, emulating what his characters experience. He also talks about how he researched and wrote Don’t Stand So Close to Me during a pandemic.
J’écris des histoires canadiennes
L’autrice Mireille Messier lit un extrait de son album jeunesse “Sergent Billy : La vraie histoire du chevreau devenu soldat”.
L’auteur Simon Boulerice lit un extrait de son album jeunesse “Florence et Léon”.
L’autrice et illustratrice Marie-Louise Gay lit un extrait de son album “Les trois frères”.
L’autrice Linda Amyot lit un extrait de son roman pour adolescents “Le jardin d’Amsterdam”.