It's a sad day in the children's literature world. Author Anna Dewdney of the famed Llama Llama series has passed away. Kids and paren’ts alike come into the library quite often asking for the Llama Llama & friends books by name. As a friend of mine put it, many paren’ts owe happy bedtimes to Llama Llama; […]
In honour of Italian Heritage Month, the Downsview branch is having a special Italian storytime this Saturday June 11th at 11 am. This Italian/English interactive storytime will be followed by a craft. Learn a few words of a new language or bring Nonno and Nonna along! It's a drop in program, no registration required. So stop […]
Paren’ts often come into the library looking for books that can help their children through stressful situations. My three-year-old needs eyeglasses and so I recently found myself in this very situation. I wanted to take out books that would help her understand the importance of eye care, what to expect when visiting an optician, and […]
Interactive picture books call for participation and interaction from the reader. Thanks to clever situations and charming characters, books in this category are some of my favourite storytime selections. Richard Byrne’s This book ate my dog! exemplifies the charm of these kinds of publications. Byrne builds a mystery around the gutter of the book itself […]
As has been mentioned in a previous blog post, Toronto Public Library has materials in over 40 different languages, Italian among them. For those looking to read picture books in Italian, below is a list of some personal favourites from our Children's collections which can be found in branches throughout the city. Che Cosa Ci Vuole […]
Kathy Szubert (Long Branch Library) and library customer, Isabella The annual Roncesvalles Polish Festival held in Toronto each September, is a wonderful celebration not to be missed. But if you can't get your Polish fix at the event, don't fear, Toronto Public Library has a plethora of Polish collections available at a number of its branches all year […]
While everyone will enjoy these great picture books, their design, clever plots, and humour will appeal to the hipster paren’t in all of us. “Hipsters are a subculture of men and women typically in their 20's and 30's that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-[culture], creativity, intelligence, and witty […]
Tomi Ungerer is a genius. He’s also the opposite of what a children’s picture book author should be. After hearing a CBC interview about the celebrated French illustrator, I picked up some of his books to judge their merits for myself. Our household was immediately won over. Both my daughter and my husband requested more […]
My husband and I fell in love over a production of Marat/Sade. The work, which originally premiered in Berlin in 1964, is the play with the longest name in history: The persecution and assassination of Jean-Paul Marat : as performed by the inmates of the Asylum of Charen’ton under the direction of the […]
My favourite part of the Toronto Reference Library's postcard collection are its silk embroidered WW1 era postcards. With the 100thanniversary of WW1 upon us, they are very timely reminders of earlier times. These unique postcards were sent home by soldiers to their loved ones. Instead of regular post mail, many of these WW1 silks were sent back […]