The List June 16, 2008

Since I’m very busy procrastinating and not working on the take-home midterm exam that is due tomorrow at 11:55pm, I thought I’d come up with a list of the books I would like to read for the second Canadian Book Challenge. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it through the first challenge because I started so late and had too much school reading to do. My theme for the first challenge was Canadian Children’s Literature and since I now have many sad children’s books calling to me from the shelf I’m going to stick with that theme for the second challenge.

Here’s the list:

• Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
• Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel
• A Perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson
• The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton
• The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier
• Stella Fairy of the Forest by Marie Louise Gay
• Some of the Kinder Planets by Tim Wynne-Jones
• Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler
• Owls in the Family by Farley Mowatt
• The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch
• An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton
• The Singing Stone by O.R. Melling
• Death Over Montreal by Geoffrey Bilson

Okay, so some of them may be crossing over into Young Adult fiction instead of staying in the Children’s fiction genre, but I think that they’ll all prove to be fantastic reads.

Bowing Out June 12, 2008

Sadly, I’m going to have to bow out of the Canadian Book Challenge this year. I am so swamped with reading for my two summer courses that I just can’t seem to find the time to do any extra reading for myself. I will definitely be back to participate in the next Canadian Book Challenge, and I think I’ll stick to the same theme of children’s books, although I won’t cheat! The books I have already read for this year’s challenge don’t count..I’ll have to read more.

Although I’m kind of bummed about not having time for the challenge this year I’m really enjoying all the reading I am doing. I am taking Fiction of the Fantastic, a third year university course where we are exploring elements of the fantastic in books like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Harry Potter, The Shining, The Castle of Otranto, and numerous others. I am also taking Genre Fiction and Readers’ Advisory, which will count towards my Library Technician’s diploma. In this course we are exploring a few different genres (western, romance, science fiction, historical fiction, crime/mystery, horror, suspence, and fantasy) and instead of following a set reading list we are making up our own reading lists and choosing our own books from the different genres to complete the assignments. Both courses are a lot of fun and incredibly interesting but the amount of reading I am doing right now is unbelievable. Good thing I like to read!

Of course, just to make sure I’m not bored, on top of my summer courses I am planning and running two different summer camps this year. The first is a month-long literacy program for kids from an inner-city school. The focus is media literacy and I am in charge of the “camp” activities such as games and visual arts while the three teachers I am working with are in charge of the classroom part of the camp. The second is a two-week residential French camp that I run with my best friend. This year I am in charge of the CIT program as well as being the program director for the entire camp. Wow! Just rereading all of that is freaking me out. I had better get to work.