Jolly news for Jack the Bear

The 2011 Blue Spruce Official Selections are out and hip-hip-hurray!
Jack the Bear by Christina Leist was one of the selected titles.



The Blue Spruce Award is part of the Forest of Reading Awards, a program headed by the Ontario Library Association. For each of the Forest of Reading Awards, readers are encouraged to read all or a selection of the books and vote on their favorite. Usually 250,000 readers across Canada (mainly Ontario) are involved.
It's a brilliant way of exciting readers!

fairy tale photos

These photos are fairy tale perfect. Flickr blogger Lissy Elle is so inspirational. Every photo suggests an enchanting story.

GG nomination, Owls See Clearly at Night

Here is the big Simply Read Books news!

Owls See Clearly at Night: a Michif alphabet / Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: l’alfabet di Michif by the talented Julie Flett was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Awards 2010 for the category Children's Literature - Illustration.

The awards are announced November 16 in Montreal, and presented on November 25 in Ottawa at Rideau Hall.

As Canada Council says, "In Owls See Clearly at Night, Julie Flett’s beautiful and elegant illustrations eloquently describe the Michif alphabet. Each letter’s vignette is thought-provoking, depicting elements of the natural world in an illumination of meaning. The letters appear deceptively simple at first glance, but in fact each contains its own mysterious, lyrical story."

Congrats to all the other books nominated too! The competition is steep!

Here are some images from Julie's book:

TVO features The World is Your Oyster

Great news! The lovely TVO program, Gisele's Big Backyard, has featured another one of our titles, The World is Your Oyster by Tamara James and illustrated by Emma SanCartier.

Here's a link to the show!

When you are done learning all about the book, there is a great activity that includes questions relating to the book. Fun, fun, fun!

pom-pom activity for Foggy

Here is the first of a series of blog posts today!
This is the super cute pom-pom activity that goes along with the (also super cute) book Foggy, by Robin Mitchel-Cranfield and Judith Steedman.

The link to the pdf of the activity (on our website) is here.
And another great set of instructions is here.

We at Simply Read love craft activities that go along with books and are always looking for more. If you have any to suggest for any of our titles, please email at kgeorge@simplyreadbooks.com!

simply read books sign

At Word on the Street in Vancouver, it was raining quite a bit! Check out what happened to our sign: