Judging a Book By Its Cover

Whoever came up with the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” didn’t know much about book publishing. Judging a book by its cover is exactly what you’re supposed to do. The entire job of a book cover is to give you a general idea of what kind of book you would…

Book Art: Giving Old Books a Second Life

Books, like living things, have life cycles. Some cycles are short, some long, but inevitably, there comes a day when every book reaches the end of the line of its bookish life. Book lovers dread that day, especially when the book in question has reached its end due to…

Indigenous Books for Kids & Teens

This week's book suggestion list is quite the eclectic mix of genres and types to fit all ages and tastes. As always, all the titles can be found in our catalogue.   Picture Books Elisapee and Her Baby Seagull by Nancy Mike When Elisapee’s dad brings home a baby seagull,…

A Book By Any Other Name: Part 2/?

Papyrus Origin: Modern-Day Egypt (3,000 BCE) Papyrus is probably one of (if not the) most famous ancient writing media ever used. This isn’t surprising considering that it was in use for longer than any other writing medium in the history of writing. It was very similar…

9 Quotes About Reading

How are Ramses II, the Koran, Books, & Psychiatry Connected?

While perusing our online catalogue, you may have come across our bibliotherapy kits and wondered what the heck those are. What is bibliotherapy? Bibliotherapy (aka therapeutic storytelling) is, as its name suggests, a form of therapy where you use reading materials to…

Summer Reading Activities for All Ages

Summer is just around the corner, and with it come summer reading programs. Typically, we think of such programs as being for children, but they don't have to be! This year, no matter your age, we have some summer reading fun you can take part in. For Children The Summer…

Creeptastic Stories for Mini Horror Fans

Children like being spooked just like adults. So we've gathered some fun scary stories beyond the usual Haunted Canada and Goosebumps recommendations to keep your kiddos entertained. As usual, all of our suggestions can be found in our catalogue.     For Beginner Readers…

The Oldest Library Classification System in the World

We know you’re probably thinking something along the lines of “Ugh that sounds like such a dry subject. Hard pass, thanks.”. But before you scroll away, consider this: classification systems don’t just tell us where materials should be stored; they give us glimpses…

Charlotte, Anansi, and Odin, Oh My! (Part 3 of 3)

We have talked about the power of the written word as well as of oral knowledge-sharing. When it comes to Odin’s story, the power of the two converge. Compared to other literate cultures of the time, the Norse left very little in the way of written work behind. This was…

Charlotte, Anansi, and Odin, Oh My! (Part 2 of 3)

In the three posts in this series, we will be looking at the power of words and the importance of knowledge-sharing by looking at tales featuring three famous knowledge-sharers: Charlotte from E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, Anansi the Spider-Man from West African folklore,…

Charlotte, Anansi, and Odin, Oh My! (Part 1 of 3)

In the three posts in this series, we will be looking at the power of words and the importance of knowledge-sharing by looking at tales featuring three famous knowledge-sharers: Charlotte from E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, Anansi the Spider-Man from West African folklore,…

Lesser-Known Gems in Our Catalogue: Silverwing

Shade, a young silverwing bat, gets separated from his colony shortly before his first migration. With the help of a little brown bat named Marina, he must migrate on his own by using the directions his mother had sung to him in preparation for the journey. A great (Canadian!)…

4 Great Science Books for Kiddos

Looking for some good science books for your child? We have some suggestions for that (and they're all in our catalogue!). To be honest, these are all great reads regardless of your age.   George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy Hawking & Stephen Hawking If you have…

The Oldest Library Ever Found

Located in the city of Ebla, now located near the village of Mardikh (roughly 55 km outside Aleppo), you are looking at the Palace Archive of Ebla (aka the Ebla State Archives) the oldest organized library we have yet to find anywhere. The city was founded sometime around…

9 Quotes About Libraries

Not to toot our own horn, but we think libraries are pretty great. And we're not the only ones, as these eight quotes about the awesomeness of libraries can attest! To any readers with vision problems: We have attempted to add alternative text to the images. If it isn't…

3 Comics for Kids With Female Protagonists

Despite their bad reputation, comic books are actually great for kids, teaching them how to read both words as well as images in one fell swoop. They also help enforce the concept that you can take hints about the text from the images and vice versa. Plus, they're particularly…

Connecting Inmates to Their Kids Through Storytelling

You may have heard before that giving prisoners access to books helps lower recidivism rates. Well, a recent study in the US suggests that allowing inmates to record themselves reading a story to their children may have a similar effect. Inmates and wardens alike report…

The Library Robots of Oodi

We’ve talked before about library cats and library dogs, but have you ever heard of library robots? Though most libraries won’t be able to afford them for quite some time, they may become a common sight in the future. At the moment, to see library robots in action,…

Choosing Books for Preschoolers Part 2/2

One of the tricky parts of storytelling to younger children is making it through a whole book without losing their interest. The younger a child is, the shorter their attention span will be. The most effective way to help them stay focused is to find a way to make the story…