Tidying up the mind.
Illustration by Ilustrista “Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children’s minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in...
View ArticleHow (not) to dress as a Canadian for Halloween
If you google “how to dress as a Canadian for Halloween” you’re not going to get many hits. You might find something about hockey players, hosers (those beer drinking, tuque wearing guys) and the...
View ArticleWhat to do with a Wolfish mood: Build a glad-day box
When my child is blue, sometimes it seems there is nothing I can do. I want to hug her pain away, but it doesn’t always work that way. How do you chase that wolf away, so you can all go out and play?...
View ArticleBook review: Anne Frank. Her life in pictures.
“I want to go on living even after my death.” Anne Frank (1929-1945) Anne Frank was thirteen when she started writing in her famous diary, fifteen when she died in a German concentration camp. I was...
View ArticleCrazy squirrels go “ha ha ha!”
“I’m a merry, merry squirrel, All day I leap and whirl, Through my home in the old beech-tree; If you chase me, I will run In the shade and in the sun, But you never, never can catch me! For round a...
View ArticleHow do I get there from here?
“”Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where – ” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter...
View ArticleOverdue books: How to vanish, play chess and gross out your friends
My daughter is part of a very interesting generation: The children born after 9/11. They have been dubbed the iGeneration, Gen Tech, Gen Z, Plurals (as in coming from a pluralistic society),...
View ArticleGoodnight super moon
“The moon. Even though we know it’s coming. Every time we see it, it makes us pause, and hush.” ― Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam (2013) Look out your window tonight and you might see a super-sized, golden...
View ArticleTake a HOLIDAY: Part II
Here’s the intriguing HOLIDAY magazine that I mentioned in my last post. I rescued it from a cardboard box in an antique store last summer (for $3!!!). I was immediately attracted to the beautiful...
View ArticleSummer vacation: the good, the bad and the ugly
Summer vacation. In Canada, that means eight long weeks during which children escape from the daily grind of school…and spend lots of quality time with their parents. So far this summer, we’ve taken...
View ArticleThe First Snow: A silence deep and white
The first snow. That magical morning when you wake up and everything is covered in a white blanket…the sky an icy grey… I’m not quite ready for winter. I’m ready in all the practical ways–the garden...
View ArticleMerry Bookmas: Christmas penguins, pledges, puns and picks
Are you feeling festive yet? Publishers, authors and bookstores are all a twitter about the holidays. I’ve selected some of my favourite book news and bookish delights to help you get in mood. Let’s...
View ArticleKaleidoscope Kids’ Books: A bookstore to love
It happens every time we go to Kaleidoscope Kids’ Books. My daughter starts reading. She is drawn to the books, like a kid in a candy store. Kaleidoscope Kids’ Books, Ottawa’s only independent...
View ArticleJanuary…an open book
We are two weeks into the new year. I love starting the year out fresh with a new calendar, new books to read, new courses, new projects, new goals…a clean slate. It feels like anything is possible....
View ArticleThe joy of family reading and the reluctant reader
Today is Family Literacy Day, a gentle reminder about the importance and joy of reading at home. Just 15 minutes a day, say literacy advocates, can have a dramatic impact on your child’s reading...
View ArticleThe pleasant land of counterpane
It’s -30 with the windchill here in Ottawa. It’s cold, snowy and slippery outside. Like so many others, we have the snuffles and so there is nothing else to do but stay home and do nothing. I remember...
View Articlethe pages were softly turned…
“The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.” ― Louisa May Alcott, Little...
View ArticleGoodnight moon. Hello nightmare. A short film.
Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon is one of the best-selling picture books of all time. More than 11 million copies have sold since it was published in 1947. My nephew Ian is one of the millions of...
View ArticlePatrick McGahern Books: Ottawa bookstore steeped in history
“So often, a visit to a bookshop has cheered me, and reminded me that there are good things in the world.” Vincent Van Gogh Opened in 1969, Patrick McGahern Books is one of Ottawa’s oldest and most...
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