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Trees are so much a part of our daily lives, whether we take them for granted or find ourselves fighting for their survival: so it is perhaps unsurprising that there are many stories from all over the world that feature trees, woods or forests as a central theme or ‘character’… … Continue reading ... →

Picture a Tree
by Barbara Reid
(North Winds Press, Scholastic Canada, 2011)

‘There is more than one way to picture a tree.’ So begins this … Continue reading ... →

Who does the reading to your child at night?  Mommy or Daddy?  And what books do they choose to read?  In our household, it’s mainly me who does the night time reading ritual with my daughter, but on occasion my husband has done the bedtime reading.  Of course, he picks different books than me and for today’s post, I’m featuring a book he’s been working on steadily with my daughter titled To Kill a Queen: An Elizabethan Girl’s Diary 1583-1586 by Valerie Wilding (Scholastic Canada, 2005)  This book is one in a series of Scholastic titles — the My Story collection — of girls living through historical events like the Great Plague, the Blitz, and the Irish Famine.

To Kill a Queen features an Elizabethan girl named Catherine Anne Lumsden, the 12 year old daughter of a former lady-in-waiting on Queen Elizabeth the I, Lady Matilda Lumsden and Sir Nicholas Lumsden, a secret agent in the service of the Queen.  With such a family so close to the Queen, it’s not surprising that they become embroiled in the intrigues of the court of the day, including a plot to kill the Queen.  So what happens to our dear diarist, Catherine?  Well, I don’t know since I’m not the one reading the book to her!  Since my husband is an English professor, specializing in the literature close to the period covering this book, I could see why he selected this title for his choice of a bedtime read.  How does my daughter like the book?  I assume she likes it well enough, but by now, she is quite used to her parents, particularly her mother, foisting interesting and unusual reads on her!  This doesn’t prevent her from voicing her opinions on the matter.  She came home one day wanting us to read the popular The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins to her and so when Daddy went shopping recently, he picked up a copy for her to read to her at night.

Who does the bedtime reading in your household?  And what books do you or your spouse choose to read?

What am I reading now? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
 
Last year, on Sunday, May 23, 2010, the Rainforest Action Network examined the paper policies of American-based children’s publishers with the report Turning the Page on Rainforest Destruction. The RAN found that:

Five out of the top ten American children’s book publishers have public environmental and paper procurement policies that pledge to reduce the companies’ impact on the climate, protect endangered forests, increase the use of recycled and FSC certified fiber and maximize resource efficiency. However, despite these important policy commitments, wood fiber from Indonesia is ending up in children’s books.

This got me thinking: How do Canadian-based children’s publishers measure up? So, using a completely unscientific approach, off I went. I had a singular goal: How many publishing companies have an environmental/paper policy on their respective sites. Three out of the top nine Canadian children’s publishers that I researched have such policies. HarperCollins Publishers Canada created HarperGreen, Raincoast Books has a clear environmental record and Scholastic Canada established their green initiatives.

Like RAN and the companies identified above, Eco-Libris believes that “[c]hoosing recycled and FSC certified paper helps protect the world’s forests, species and climate.” For the second year in a row, Eco-Libris illustrated their stance on this issue by launching the Green Books Campaign. Sponsored by Indigo Books & Music, on Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at precisely 1:00 PM Eastern Time, 200 bloggers took a united stand to support books printed on environmental paper by simultaneously publishing reviews.

Reading green is not only about reading those books that discuss green issues but also reading those books that are published using green methods. The movement calling for sustainable practices is underway. Changes need to be made and there’s no reason why we cannot start with children’s publishing.