Saturday, December 26, 2020

Reading: Christmas Eve


OKAY!  In and around other things - reading for work, reading with kids, reading about knitting, reading my chainsaw manual - I finally finished reading the Witcher series, putting a nice bow on my 2020 reading.  At least, I thought that's what I did.  I read the first Witcher book (which lines up with Season One on Netflix), and then the boxed set of three (Blood of Elves, The Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire).  And I have to say, I was totally disappointed with how it finished!  You know, at the end of a book? When there’s another book to read?  And there's a teaser chapter (which there totally was for the second and third Witcher books I read)?  Well, the fourth book handed me a teaser chapter for a totally different series.  And I'm like, hey!  This is how it ends?  What happened to Ciri?  Did Geralt just give up looking for her?  What about this war they’re in the middle of?  What the....

After stomping around about this for a few days, I spotted my problem - there are seven Witcher titles, not four.  I don't know why the publisher was teasing me with some new series; but in any case, I now know that I've yet to read the Tower of Swallows, Lady of the Lake, and Season of Storms.  Some light reading for 2021, I guess.  Actually, I've been down this road before with Ender’s Game which I thought was a series of six books but turned into twelve and became the longest book series I'd read since my Nancy Drew days.

What didn't disappoint me was my family's Christmas Eve reading tradition, a thing my family has been doing for more than 20 years.  Ever since my kids were little, we've put out cookies and milk, hung up our stockings, and then sat to listen to a family member reading Clement C. Moore’s T'was the Night Before Christmas.  This year, one of my sons had to join us by zoom call - bittersweet - but we were still together and whole, and I'm grateful for that.

And with that, I'm wrapping up my year of writing about reading.  Thanks for reading along.


Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.  



Thursday, December 10, 2020

Reading: Maps


Recently, I got to participate in a 'Great Canadian Hike Challenge.'  I read the Fundy Footpath map to plan my route (choosing this particular section because I hadn't yet seen the famous flower pot).  While I was walking (and checking my map), I thought about the many other kinds of map reading I do.  I frequently use Google Maps with my phone for work travel - finding highway exit numbers, street addresses, gas stations - but my glove box is an equally rich resource.  I always consult some kind of map before going on any hiking trail for the first time.  The Rockwood Park Map I carried in my back pocket, initially so I wouldn’t get lost, became a useful tool for crossing off 'completed trails' and planning new hikes.


There are lots of other kinds of reading to do on trails such as signage indicating trail names, lengths and accessible hours, or signs detailing points of historical or pictorial interest, signs identifying common or unique flora & fauna, and signs telling us about things like elevation and other geological or oceanographic descriptors.  Still, paper maps are special things.  We 'own' our paper maps.  We carry them with us, make marks on them, hold them up against the landscape as we seek to place ourselves in a larger context of community and nature.

In my home office I have a drawer full of typical highway or tourist maps of places I've been.  (At a glance, I can see maps of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the Maritimes, Maine, the Southeastern U.S., the White Mountains & New Hampshire.)  I always grab a street map of anywhere I'm visiting, and I've saved more than a few: Washington DC (showing Smithsonian locations); Montreal, Vancouver, Portland, NY City.  I also keep an eye out for specialty maps like my small hand-drawn-styled map 'A Traveller’s Map of the St. John River Ferry System.' I have maps of zoos and other tourist attractions (King’s Landing, Minister’s Island), a wonderful map of Canada’s federal parks, and even an N.B. map of farmer’s markets!  I remember getting National Geographic in the mail (or looking through my grandfather’s collection of back issues) and always being excited to see what map was included (among my favourites:  Antarctica, 1957; Whales of the World, 1976; The Historic Mediterranean, 1982; Sky Survey - Charting the Heavens, 1983; The Alps, 1985; Great Lakes, 1987.  I don't subscribe to N.G. anymore, but my interest in maps hasn't flagged.

Meanwhile, there are many types of maps I don't have on hand: topographical; socio-thematic (e.g., population density or voting patterns), navigation charts.  And let’s not forget the fictional maps we find in the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or the Eragon series.

Like any other type of functional reading, map reading is a skillset that strengthens and broadens with use, contributing to the growth of our overall literacy skills.  Beyond their practicality, however, maps are special things that invite us into places, and even periods, we might not otherwise go; making map reading at once an intensely personal and social activity.   

For another take, and with an eye to January 27th, check out A. Alexandra's 2015 'Explore a Map on Family Literacy Day.'


Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.  


Saturday, October 24, 2020

Reading: Newspapers

It's Saturday, and the first thing I did today was read the newspaper. Last Saturday morning I read the Saturday morning newspaper; like the Saturday before, and the Saturday before that. It’s a tradition in my home.

I don’t know when reading Saturday morning papers became a tradition more broadly. According to Britannica something like our modern newspaper began appearing in western Europe and eastern Asia in the first half of the 17th century. Perhaps the earliest recognizable London daily newspaper, The Daily Courant (which took its name from the Dutch corantos meaning "currents of news") was first published on March 11th of 1702 by Elizabeth Mallet. Moneyweek tells us that editions of The Daily Courant were pretty thin, consisting of "a single sheet with two columns, and adverts on the back" - bit like our Monday morning papers, really. The Daily Courant offered reprinted articles from the continent as well as limited (politically safe) local news written up by Mallet herself. Typically, The Daily Courant pushed sensationalist stories, showing a modern understanding what sold well and thereby attracted advertisers. Alas, the technical limitation of her 18th century printing press prevented her from putting out a fully modern, 20th century newspaper.  There were no fashion spreads, no pictures of cute animals, and, most important, no full-page funnies.

Wikipedia credits the Americans with the first modern, full-page funny papers, circa 1900; typically published Sunday morning (as opposed to our more conservative Saturday printings). When I was little, my grandmother would sometimes wrap presents in colourful funny pages – delightful and important wrapping paper you sit and read if you removed it carefully enough. Otherwise, Saturday mornings, I had to sit and wait while my father laughed his way through the funny pages. Then I learned to get up early if I wanted first dibs on the Saturday funnies – or, as my interests matured, the school sports section, the recipes, the crossword, and the front page.

Competition of another sort showed up when I had my own children. When my twins were born, I specifically asked for “Saturday morning paper time,” which didn’t seem to prevent my oldest from climbing into my armchair to see what was so interesting about Saturday’s news.

I read our Saint John newspaper daily. I feel my day is missing something if I don’t read the paper.  I also read local community papers when I can. When I lived in Grand Bay - Westfield, I always read the monthly River Valley News and its successor The District. In Saint John, I follow the quarterly Around the Block community newspaper. When I travel, I love finding small local newspapers like The Island Times (Grand Manan) or The Grand Lake Mirror (Chipman). Last summer, while in Calais, Maine, I picked up a copy of The Quoddy Tides, billed as the “Most Easterly Newspaper Published in the United States.” I was impressed by how many stories it had about New Brunswick’s Charlotte County, and I became a subscriber.  In the Oct 9th edition, I learned about a fire on Grand Manan, about St. Stephen’s municipal budget decisions, and how students at Campobello Consolidated are adapting to Covid-19 rules.  (By the way, the Deer Island Home and School Association is collecting items for this year’s online auction to raise funds for outdoor activities for students – it’s in the Quoddy Tides.) This 40-page paper, published twice monthly, offers birth and death notices, opinion pieces, photo spreads and job ads.

The Quoddy Tides also prints a generously sized crossword puzzle. I mention this because in my parents’ house, where daily newspaper reading still goes on, I’ve begun hearing complaints about how small the local paper’s crosswords have become. So when I am done reading my Quoddy Tides, I pass it along with the crosswords unsolved – another bit of newspaper I share with my dad. It’s a tradition in my home.


 Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.  

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 6, Libraries Here, Libraries There


The Smith Family Little Free Library is two-sided; adult titles in the front, books for kids and teens in the back. In Tracy, the library is tucked in between the postal outlet and a senior's activity centre. The Gornish (Rusagonis) set up their little free library in a community park located at a sign-posted crossroads; 0.5km to the Baptist church and 1.6km to the Rec Centre in one direction, 3.3km to the schoolhouse in another, and a third takes you across the Patrick Owens covered bridge (1909).



The twin little free libraries in St. Martins feature miniature murals by a local artist. The overlapping roof boards of the library on Mecklenburg St. wear the same slate grey as the rocks of nearby Tin-Can beach.  The library at Bates Landing, standing between river and field, wears a cedar-shingle roof. In Lorneville, the tin-roofed little free library is painted all white and absolutely glows in the morning sun. In Red Head, the library lights up at night (as does the solar-powered Smith library in Waterville).

 


What all these varied libraries have in common - just like the laundry-room libraries on Roxbury Drive, and the bookshelf in the Outflow men's shelter, the shelves in the Tenant Association buildings in Crescent Valley and on Anglin Drive, and the library snugged in the back of the Irving in Brown's Flat, and still others from St. Stephen to L'Etete, St. Andrews to Long Reach, across Charlotte, Sunbury, Kings, Queens and Saint John counties - is an invitation to borrow, to share, to read.  And now, they all have books by New Brunswick authors in common as well.

For almost 20 years, Quality Learning New Brunswick has been promoting literacy by bringing our books, blankets and reading tents to New Brunswick community events.  This year, in light of Covid-19 restrictions, we chose to deliver packages of New Brunswick authored books to free community libraries in or near those south-western NB communities our 2020 event tents would have served. While the gift-packs varied, most included seven small picture books for children and families published by the University of New Brunswick Early Childhood Centre, an NB authored board, picture, youth fiction and youth non-fiction book, and a fiction and non-fiction book for adults (e.g., David Adams Richard's Mercy Among the Children or Nicholas Guitard's Waterfalls of New Brunswick: A Guide). We've finished our deliveries - just in time to start celebrating National Library month - and begun writing the final report.

Major funding for this project comes from a New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture Literacy Promotion Grant.  Additional support has come from the New Brunswick Department of Social Development, a Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick - Peter Gzowski Invitational (PGI) grant, and various private and corporate donations.



For more information on books, borrowing and libraries in the current context, check out New Brunswick Public Libraries' COVID-19 and Your Library and, from earlier this year, a CBC webstory Is it safe to borrow library books? Your COVID-19 questions answered.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 5, "Accessible" Reading

Outflow (Ministry Inc.) hosts a men's shelter in the heart of Saint John. When the Covid-19 related closing began, lots of Saint Johners - especially our poorest residents - lost access to many daily supports, including the Saint John Free Public library. Sheltering in place was tough enough; sheltering in place with nothing to read was... well, bad.

Outflow spoke with us about creating an in-house library of sorts. Talking it through, they decided they wanted a shelf with good quality books, books written for adults, and books written at various levels of reading difficulty. Through a private donation, we were able to provide a 'starting kit' of mixed level reading materials, including some very popular titles by Nova Scotia newcomer William Kowalski.


Photo from bookseller Lakesidebooks.com

When we checked back in, a few weeks later, we heard that the Outflow library was still chugging along: helpful, popular, accessible.

For us, that last term is key, and means something more than just "in-house" or "libraries have re-opened." It also means books people can read, books they don't find too hard or too easy, too simple or too complex. "I like to read when I can read," someone told us long ago. That's been our rationale for proving good reads at multiple levels of reading difficulty ever since.

Easier-to-read books by Mr. Kowalski and many other top-notch authors can be found at Grass roots Press or Orca Books and, of course, your local public library.


Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 4, International Literacy Day (#backyardstorytent)

 Happy International Literacy Day.  :\

According to the UN 'International Literacy Day 2020 focuses on “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond,” especially on the role of educators and changing pedagogies.'  The authors note that during the initial responses to Covid-19, many in-person literacy supports and services were suspended, and communities turned to distance learning methods; online or virtual in some contexts, 'through TV and radio, or in open air spaces' in others.

In the posts below, we've highlighted shifts QLNB made in response to Covid-19: chiefly, suspending our work of hosting community learning spaces, and bumping up our work of providing tools and information to support learning-in-place.  However, we also dabbled in virtual outreach with our #backyardstorytent videos - four short YouTube videos encouraging summer-long, family-sized 'storytents.'

Backyard Storytents - Imagine Yours


Backyard Storytents - Cats


Backyard Storytents - Staycation


Backyard Storytents - Any Time


'What is the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on youth' the UN asks, 'and adult literacy educators and teaching and learning? What are the lessons learnt?'  We don't claim any special insights or accomplishments.  With many of you, we are also using this International Literacy Day 'to reflect on and discuss how innovative and effective pedagogies and teaching methodologies can be used in youth and adult literacy programmes to face the pandemic and beyond.'  At this point, all we can bring to the table is our determination to not stop working in and for those urban and rural New Brunswick communities who reach out to us for support.  After all, as the UN also points out, the 'existing gap between policy discourse and reality... already existed in the pre-COVID-19 era.'  Covid-19 is a challenge, but it is neither the most widely felt, nor the steepest, barrier to increased community, family and adult literacies.

So, yeah.  Unironically. Happy International Literacy Day.  Let's go.  :)

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 3, (Rural) Little Free Libraries


In past years, the end of August would see us writing reports and sorting pictures, reflecting on a summer of storytenting at rural NB events - Canada Day spent in Grand Bay - Westfield, Campobello Island's Fogfest, Field Day in Browns Flat, Come Home Week at the Junction.  This year, event tents have been replaced by visits to little free libraries both in and out of the city.

We've already shared our kick-off visit to Redhead.  This weekend we dropped packages of books authored by New Brunswickers to little free libraries in Browns Flat (inside the Irving), Bates Landing (at the Roadside Market) and in Long Reach (at the Fullerton Corner Market).


We met up with Hon. Bill Oliver at Bates Landing (he was dropping off a couple of books at the library) and another NBer who said she regularly stops by on a weekly commute.

We met extraordinary white pumpkins of Fullerton Farms at our Long Reach stop (this one came home with Cheryl).  And we drove past acres of gorgeous Acadian forest and fields of fresh cut hay.  It's turning into a lovely autumn.

(Still, winter is coming - plan your reading now.)



Major funding for this project comes from a New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture Literacy Promotion Grant.  Additional support has come from the New Brunswick Department of Social Development, a Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick - Peter Gzowski Invitational (PGI) grant, and various private and corporate donations.

For more information on books, borrowing and libraries in the current context, check out New Brunswick Public Libraries' COVID-19 and Your Library and, from earlier this year, a CBC webstory Is it safe to borrow library books? Your COVID-19 questions answered.

Friday, September 4, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 2, SRC in a Box

 


Back when we all crowded the supermarkets and bus stops with nary a care in the world, QLNB had plans to run a six-week storytent program on Anglin Drive.  We'd outreach the provincial Summer Reading Club (SRC), snack on oranges and bananas, maybe bring along a jump rope or some sidewalk chalk, and make sure everybody knew about the neighbourhood library just down the street (open Tuesday evenings by QLNB for general borrowing and Thursday evenings by workers from the Public Library for stories, arts and crafts).

Then things changed.  There wasn't going to be a Thursday night program, nor an open Tuesday night, nor any oranges and bananas to share beneath the storytent.

Plan B: “Summer Reading Club in a Box.”  If children couldn't attend the storytent, maybe we could take books to them.  If lending or returning books was deemed inappropriate (as it was during the early months of Covid-19), maybe we could give the children brand new books, packaged in plastic and "rested" for 72 hours.  Given the cost of high quality new books - and we saw no benefit in handing out less expensive but unpopular books - we calculated we could stay within budget and still get books and SRC materials to approximately 20 children in the neighbourhood.  Each child would receive two new books on our first visit, and two more when we returned three weeks later.  On our first visit, we would ask families for specific titles and authors so that we could personalize the second pair of books each child received (requests ranged from graphic novels to Robert Munsch storybooks to Diary of a Wimpy Kid in English and French).  We reworked the budget, swallowing most material costs and all staffing costs.  We talked with our partners and funders to make sure they were on board.  And we shopped as shrewdly as we knew how.

Then, one evening in early July, we walked the neighbourhood.  Always mindful of the need to social distance, we made a specific approach to those children and families who had participated in the previous summer's SRC, while also offering to support any new families who spoke to on our first delivery night.  In keeping with our established practice of signing interested children up to SRC in the storytent (this is the ‘outreach’ component of outreaching SRC) we looked after the 2020 online signup and ensured participants received their SRC certificate by summer’s end..

In all, twenty-one children registered for SRC 2020, each child receiving four new books.  In addition, one newcomer family with multiple children, who did not register for SRC due to language and cultural barriers, received ten free books. In total, QLNB was able to deliver 94 new books to 25 children from 12 families.

This project was made possible by financial support from the City of Saint John, as wel as in-kind and materials support from the Department of Social Development - Housing and the Saint John Free Public Library.

QLNB weren't the only storytenters sidelined by the impact of Covid-19 and resulting restrictions on summer programming.  The Saint John Free Public Library was unable to provide their planned Storytent in the Courtenay Bay neighbourhood.  Knowing about our Anglin Drive plans, the Department of Social Development asked QLNB to help these neighbourhood families obtain quality reading materials and access to the library’s Summer Reading Club 2020.  Once again, we talked with our partners (the Department of Social Development - Housing and the Saint John Free Public Library) and developed a budget that would allow us to support approximately 20 children.

As was the case on Anglin Drive, each child would recieve two new books on our first visit, and two more when we returned three weeks later.  On our first visit, we relied on a community representative who had spoken with families in advance and who walked us around, introducing us to her neighbours.  In the end, seventeen children registered for SRC 2020, each receiving four new books to call their own. In addition, a newcomer family with two children, a resident’s grandchild, and five toddlers out and about in the neighbourhood received two free books each. In total, QLNB was able to deliver 84 new books to 25 children from 15 families.

Financial support from the Department of Social Development - Housing, and materials support from the Saint John Free Public Library, made this project possible.



Children expressed delight (and many adults surprise) at being able to keep the books.  For our part, we believe that reinforcing personal book ownership by giving away good quality books is an important factor in children coming or continuing to see themselves as readers.  QLNB also views this project as a practical way to support community literacy while respecting provincial COVID-19 guidelines.





P.s., for more information on books, borrowing and libraries in the current context, check out New Brunswick Public Libraries' COVID-19 and Your Library and, from earlier this year, a CBC webstory Is it safe to borrow library books? Your COVID-19 questions answered


Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Community Literacy Work in a time of Covid-19: Part 1, Little Free Libraries

Most summers, QLNB supports and promotes family and community literacy by showing up - tents and tarps, boxes of books to read and borrow, writing materials and singing games and healthy snacks and laying about in the sunshine (or huddled away from the rain) talking with kids and adults about stories and words and "how's your week going?"

This year, things have been different.

Our first change in plans came when we recognized there would be no New Brunswick community event storytents because New Brunswick wasn't having community events.  In place of event tents, we chose to deliver a package of books, authored by New Brunswickers, to little free libraries in or near-by those south-western NB communities our 2020 event tents would have served.

While these gift-packs vary, most include seven small picture books for children and families published by the University of New Brunswick Early Childhood Centre, an NB authored board, picture, youth fiction and youth non-fiction book, and a fiction and non-fiction book for adults (e.g., David Adams Richard's Mercy Among the Children or Nicholas Guitard's Waterfalls of New Brunswick: A Guide).

We kicked off this project by placing a book pack in Red Head's Little Free library (pictured above), as well as stocking four laundry-room libraries in the Roxbury Drive public housing neighbourhood.

Major funding for this project comes from a New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture Literacy Promotion Grant.  Additional support has come from the New Brunswick Department of Social Development, a Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick - Peter Gzowski Invitational (PGI) grant, and various private and corporate donations.

 


P.s., for more information on books, borrowing and libraries in the current context, check out New Brunswick Public Libraries's COVID-19 and Your Library and, from earlier this year, a CBC webstory Is it safe to borrow library books? Your COVID-19 questions answered





Monday, July 27, 2020

Summer Reading Club 2020


You can sign up for the NB Public Library's Summer Reading Club online at https://www1.gnb.ca/0003/src=cle/2020/en/index-e.asp 

Reading: Schooldays, Workdays

In a University of New Brunswick course named "Challenging Authoritative Texts," students are encouraged to think of “text” as more than print on paper.  That’s an interesting idea. Alas, what I learned was that taking this particular course meant ‘challenging’ near acres of print on paper. 

It begins with the two course textbooks, Stephen Brookfield’s 2005 The Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching with core content spanning 387 pages (the whole text is 435 pages long), and Lois Tyson’s 461 page (487 page total length) Critical Theory Today: A User-friendly Guide (2006, 2nd ed.).

Then there was the week-by-week reading of Power Points (“Introduction to Critical Literacy,” “Notes on White Fragility,” “Introduction to Critical Disability Theory”), a Wikipedia piece (“The Death of the Author”), and class notes “Notes and Questions about Authority” and “Liberal Humanism Notes.”  This was accompanied by a long list of articles with titles like “Bakhtin and Carnival,” “Grappling with Text Ideas,” “The Five Stages of Colonialism,” “How Picture Books Work,” “Portrayals of Class Mobility in Newbery Titles” and “Beyond Shrek” (as if!).

I read “Assimilation Ideology: Critically Examining Underlying Messages in Multicultural Literature” by Yoon, Simpson & Haag, “First Graders and Fairy Tales” by Bourke, “Children’s Literature to Support Critical Literacy Engagement” by Enriquez et al., “Slurs, Interpellation, and Ideology” by Kulla and “Chattling the Indigenous Other: A Historical Examination of the Enslavement of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada” by Erica Neeganagwedgin.

There was also, “The Colour of Supremacy” by Leonardo, “Contesting Controlling Images” by Heinecken, “Putting Read-Alouds to Work for LGBTQ-Inclusive Critically Literate Classrooms” by Ryan & Hermann-Wilmarth as well as “Learning to Queer Texts” by Nicola McClung.

I read “Books that Portray Characters with Disabilities” by Prater & Taylor Dyches, “Reading Disability in Children’s Literature” by Yonika-Agbaw, and “Respectful Representations of Disability in Picture Books” by Pennell, Wollak & Koppenhaver.

Phew!  I’m not going to deny that these readings were interesting and enlightening and challenging in the best sense.  Still, my-oh-my, it felt good to kick back and read some real literature for the course
  • Machines at Work by Byron Barton
  • I love My Hair! by Natasha Tarpley
  • How Smudge Came by Nan Gregory
  • Heather has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
  • Mi'kmaw Waisisk / Mi'kmaw Animals by Alan Sylaboy
  • Mommy, Mama and Me by Leslea Newman 
  • Daddy, Papa and Me by Leslea Newman
  • And Tango Make Three by Justin Richardson
  • Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beers
  • Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
  • The Family Book by Todd Parr

All this reading might have felt a little less daunting had I not been already swimming in text at work.  I remember seeing a note someplace that upwards of 90% of our daily reading is on-the-job or work related.  My day job recently included facilitating an online course for a couple of dozen future early childhood educators - more reading!

Besides, obviously, reading all the course pages, I read about 600 written assignments and responses, to which I composed 600 replies, as well as re-reading significant portions of the New Brunswick Curriculum Framework for Early Learning and Childcare document.  I composed 10 reports for (and exchanged hundreds of emails with) my manger and colleagues - in the time of COVID-19 email is at least as important as tools like Zoom or Skype for getting things done.  On the side, I’ve been reading Linguistically Appropriate Practice: A Guide for Working with Young Immigrant Children by Chumak-Horbatsch for a workplace book study, and the journal Childcare Exchange.

Again, all of it interesting and enlightening and challenging in the best sense.  And I really was energized reading the written responses of my online learners.

Still…  there was some other reading I’d been looking forward to.



* At time of writing, CB began facilitating two additional online courses as well as entering another UNB course on critical literacy. The Witcher remains unread.

Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading. 

Friday, May 8, 2020

Reading: Wild Things!


"Children’s literature makes us fall in love with books and we never recover – we’re doomed”
- Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson & Peter D. Sieruta.  Wild Things!: Acts of mischief in children’s literature. (2014) p. 5.

I own a book series by Bernadette Gervais - That’s Dangerous; That’s Mean and That’s Disgusting - which all have Amazon descriptions that start off "Not for the faint of heart" and use descriptors like "kid-approved."  Sometime in late July, I toss That’s Disgusting into my Storytent book box to meet what we call the "mid-summer slump" - that point when kids have read the books they think they like and are looking for something new, something different.  Gervais never disappoints.

So, not surprisingly, Wild Things! caught my eye and seriously interfered with my leisure reading of The Witcher series.

Wild Things! talks about books with scary things, and weird things and other things children like, including subversive literature.  The authors remind us that Sendek’s Where the Wild Things Are was a pretty big deal at the time it was published (Max is not a pleasant, obedient little boy).  They tell us that Robert Munsch's Paper Bag Princess originally had Elizabeth punching Ronald in the nose (a scene that, after a dragon ate a whole castle, seemed a step too far for the publisher of the day).  Wild Things! includes some behind the scenes stuff like GLBT in books for children and youth, concerns about e-readers, and the ways and means of book banning (a complicated topic - I'm not in favour, but then again you won't find a Caillou book anywhere I live, work or read aloud).  Celebrity picture book writing and the lasting impact of Harry Potter's adult readership on the world of books for children and youth also come up for discussion.

One area that particularly interested me was the idea of recommended books.  I own seven different books listing “great books for kids,” included some that promote gendered lists.  I also have three children (now grown) whose strong opinions about books didn’t seem to have anything to do with these lists.  Furthermore, having read hundreds of titles to diverse children in diverse settings over the past two decades, I have some pretty strong opinions myself on what makes for a "great book."  When I'm not sure, I ask the kids around me.  That's why, despite some lukewarm adult reactions, book series like R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps, Dave Pilkey’s Captain Underpants, and Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid have so much room in our book borrowing boxes and little free library shelves.  Children ask for them, read them and, from time to time, hide them under their beds to avoid having to give them back.  Children are discerning readers - or, at least, fussy ones - and my coworkers and I have had the unfortunate experience of running low on great books and being force to watch kids look through our not-great books only to leave empty handed.

No surprise, then, that my favourite chapter of Wild Things! was "Kids Love ‘Em, Critics hate ‘Em…. And Vice Versa."  Book reviews and "recommended" lists may lead to increased sales, but, the authors point out, children "neither know nor care what the critics think" (p. 142).  Importantly, a title appearing on a book list isn't enough to write it off.  One perennial, Goodnight Moon, became my daughter’s favourite and by far most requested book even though I didn't think much of it at the time.  Why did she like it?  Was it in the way I read it, as a little song?  Was it the time we spent together reading it?  Was it the illustrations?  Was it the mouse hiding in a different spot on each coloured page?  I really don't know and now she says she doesn't remember.  In any case, it is a reminder that, as the authors of Wild Things! point out, the gulf between critics' takes and children’s tastes is only “part of the truth, part of the time” (p. 168).  The trick of it is to remember that if you can’t trust the list, you can trust the children.



Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading. 

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Reading: Family Recipes


It was the inscription in a little handwritten recipe book my mother gave me that prompted me to think about reading recipes this morning:

To Cheryl,
A collection of some of “old” and new favourites that I’ve enjoyed making for us over the years.
   -  Love you, Mom.  Easter 2008

Be it Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving, the recipe I always look up is the "Turkey Dressing" recipe I grew up enjoying.  I see in my book that Mom has written “Del, Ruth, Pat, 1998” here, telling me that her mother (Del), mother in-law (Ruth) and she all contributed to this recipe.

In addition to a offering good excuse to open the red wine early (it calls for a half cup), this recipe calls up warm family memories.  I am always amazed that bread crumbs (in my case, gluten-free bread and 'crumbed up' in a blender), summer savory, salt, pepper, onions, celery, mashed potatoes, butter and wine can come out of the turkey tasting so delicious!  Or maybe it’s the taste of good remembrances.  (Or maybe it's the wine.)

My Whole Foods for the Whole Family cook book by Roberta Bishop Johnson has the apple crisp recipe I am making for dessert today, while the Practical Paleo cookbook by Diane Sanfilippo has a lovely gluten-free blueberry crumble recipe.  (Two desserts - because when you cook for a household where some eat gluten free, and others emphatically do not, you end up making two versions of everything.  Today it will be dual dressings and dessert.  Last evening it was dual pizzas.  Lots of mornings it's two type of pancake.  I read a lot of recipes for that reason alone!)

I'm happy to share the blueberry crumble recipe with you, with credit going to Diane Sanfilippo:

  • 2 pints (that’s 4 cups) of fresh blueberries
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 cup almond meal/almond flour
  • ¼ cup chopped macadamia or walnuts.
  • ¼ cup melted butter or coconut oil
  • 2 T maple syruo
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • 2 pinches sea salt

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
  • Place blueberries in a 9 x 9 inch baking dish
  • Squeeze the juice from half the lemon over and toss slightly
  • In a bowl, combine almond flour, chopped nuts and melted butter or oil, remaining lemon juice, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt
  • Spread the nut topping evenly over the blueberries and bake until fruit is well cooked/bubbly and the topping is golden brown (about 30 – 40 minutes).

Some Easter, when I handwrite a recipe book for my kids - and I will - I will be sure to include this one.  I hope you are enjoying some recipes, traditional family or brand new, this holiday as well.





Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.

Friday, April 3, 2020

Learning at Home


This Government of New Brunswick webpage offers an important message affirming of the importance of parents to family learning, and also links to tools for families with children at home.

Learning happens in the everyday moments that you share with your children. Although many of our roles are different right now, we want to assure you that, as caring adults, we will continue to be right beside you and your child/ren, providing you with resources and encouragement.

We want to thank you and remind you that you are doing a great job.  We also want to remind you that it is okay to keep learning expectations reasonable for your child/ren and yourself!  While going through this, everything you and your child/ren do together is teaching them very important lessons about life, our province and the world around them.

We know that children are always learning, and will continue to learn, even when schools are closed.  This page provides resources and information to help your child/ren keep learning.


 

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Reading: Magazines



One day not long ago, I noticed these magazines all over the floor beside my bed, and I thought, “I should clean those up.”  Then I remembered I was writing about my daily reading, and I thought, “I should write about reading magazines.”  So I did that instead.

In my pile of magazines there is a December 2015 edition of National Geographic, three more recent editions of Alive magazines which I collect monthly from natural health food stores (the Corn Crib in Saint John or Aura in Fredericton), two recent editions of Eating Well, the latest Vogue Knitting magazine, the latest ECO Parent magazine, two editions of Saltscapes from last fall, and the winter 2019-2020 edition of Edit.  Missing from this list - I suppose because they are in my car or further under the bed - are Mother Earth, Sage and Knit Simple.

Actually, this is starting to sound less like daily reading, and more like an obsession.  What is it about magazines?

I’ve always enjoyed magazine reading.  I grew up on Highlights magazine and Young Miss.  I remember how exciting it was to receive a magazine in the mail.  Wanting to pass on that excitement, I made sure all my children got their own Chirp, Owl or Highlights magazine in the mail.

My reading habits changed when I had children.  Life before kids meant two or three novels a week.  Life after meant re-reading Dr. Suess and Spot the dog.  What bridged these two worlds was reading magazines.  I could finish an adult article, or at least an interesting article, in a short period of time, and feel semi-productive intellectually.  I remember reading a lot of Mothering magazines, editions of Today’s Parent and, later, the magazine Rethinking Schools.

When I was a young adult, I loved spending time with my grandmother.  I remember her telling me a story about how she and my grandfather read magazines.  They used to purchase all the magazines available to them each month, read the whole lot, and then “talk” (discuss, debate, argue, rant) about the articles.  I remember thinking how wonderful it was that my grandfather, a real man’s man, would read the ladies’ magazines.

But why wouldn't he?  Magazines are so enjoyable!  I love when they have a local flavour.  I was delighted to read about Saint John’s own Santa (Vern Garnett) in the December 2019 Saltscapes.  What a lovely article – yay Vern!  As well, this winter’s edition of Edit features Jenn Carson, physical literacy guru and library director of the L.P. Fisher Public Library in Woodstock.  Yay New Brunswick!

I also love those magazines that come cleverly disguised as journals.  They’re the same size and shape, give you good up-to-date information and allow for quick, profitable reading.  They also have a lot fewer advertisements, and sometimes you can get away with reading them at work.  (For my workplace, I get Childcare Exchange in the mail.)

Finally, I love magazines as a kind of collective memory.  Libraries bind and preserve magazines for good reason - for the same reason I am not sure I can part with my Mothering collection, or my Mother Earth mags.  I still have all my Hallowe'en magazines, including many of Martha Stewart's, and, I'm sure, every Christmas magazine I have ever purchased.  I don’t even want to try to list or count my knitting magazines!  Is this obsessive?  No, it's not.  Not really.  It's a sensible and effective way to ensure I can share an article, refresh my own memory, or reach back for a needed recipe or pattern.

Anyway, I love reading magazines.

Photo by Britta Jackson from Pexels
Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Reading: The Witcher

Editor (narrator voice): Cheryl, isn't it time you wrote another 'What I'm reading' post?  Maybe about reading a storybook to a child, or an essay on family literacy, or perhaps a literary classic?

Cheryl (waves hand): Go away.  I'm busy.  I'm reading... something else.




Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Reading: Knitting Patterns and Baby Yoda


Sometimes knitting patterns are for very useful things, like socks, or dishcloths, or sweaters.  Sometimes you knit something just for fun.  For the past 10 days or so, I have spent most of my free time reading a very special knitting pattern.

If you have watched The Mandalorian, you are familiar with The Child, a.k.a Baby Yoda.  If you haven't watched the series, you've most likely seen the social media memes featuring that cute little Yoda face!  I was talking to a friend whose wife loves Baby Yoda. “I bet I could find a pattern to knit her a Baby Yoda,” I said.  And sure enough, thanks to the internet, there were a few pattern options.  I chose one by Addie.
 
Now, I’ve been knitting for over 40 years, so I thought this would be easy.  But this is how the pattern started:
Head (begin by working  widest part of head up to crown). Using scrap yarn, US #3 dpns, and crochet hook, CO 80 sts with the provisional cast on method.

Whaaaa…?  With some help from YouTube, I tried this new-to-me method of casting on.  Things didn't turn out exactly like the pattern said they should, and I'm pretty sure I need more practice.  There was a lot of specific knitting vocabulary in the 8 page pattern (i-cord, gauge, knitwise), plus all sorts of knitting abbreviations (M1, Ssk, K, P, K2tog, CO, p2tog tbl).  Plus, the pattern suggested buttons for eyes, while I stuck on two animal noses.  Still, my end result was pretty adorable, and my friend scored major Valentine points with his wife.  Here's the selfie I took with the finished product.




Somebody said (I've seen it on T-shirts), "Knitting is not a hobby, it’s a post-apocalyptic life skill."  Reading knitting patterns is an example of authentic literacy.  I've moved on to reading a nice simple seed stitch hat pattern.


Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.




Sunday, February 9, 2020

Annual General Meeting

Quality Learning NB

Notice of

Annual General Meeting

 

Thursday March 12, 2020

Saint John Free Public Library Maker space

6:00 pm

Friday, January 31, 2020

Reading: With Little Kids


This week I was invited to Family Literacy Week activities, and asked to read to infants, toddlers and preschoolers.  Yay!  Little kids are my most favourite reason to read.  I read
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Sing a Song of Mother Goose by Barbara Reid
I am a Frog by Mo Willems
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin
This is not my Hat by Jon Klassen
T is for Terrible by Peter McCarty.
You can see in the photo that the little ones are interested in playing with the little story basket I made.  Ann from Little Worlds tells us story baskets are "baskets with random objects from the play room, daily life or nature which prompt children (or adults) to tell a story using those objects."  Jode from The Empowered Educator adds that they "also introduce a wonderful tactile experience to storytelling and this can help educators and parents introduce and engage visually impaired children as well ...[providing] a hands on learning opportunity for all children no matter their age group or developmental stage."

I put in items from Goodnight Moon (comb, brush, bowl, three little bears, mittens...  but no mush) in a wide basket.  Making this type of story basket with book available and accessible is a wonderful opportunity for little ones to experience a story physically, and to later go back and re-tell it in their own way and own time as often as they like.

I had a cow and dinosaur puppet helping me tell some of the stories (which elicited a wild response - the Dino was tickled to death, completely failing to convince the children he was "terrible").  I gathered some musical instruments from the room to help with the Sing a Song of Mother Goose book.

The children loved the subtraction in the tale of Pete’s wayward buttons, and they were very quick to infer possible fates for the little fish in Klassen’s book "He’s in the big fish's belly!" "No! he’s still hiding in the leaves!" "He’s behind the rock!" Very, very cool.





Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Reading: Family Books

“Behind every great movie is a great story”

I think Walt Disney said that in a black and white preamble to Bambi or some other movie I watched as a child (and again as a parent).  It is often true. So when the latest rendition of Little Women in movie form was released this holiday season, I was anxious to see it, but not before reading the book again.  It has been about 40 or so years since I first read it, after all.
   
I found it after the Christmas tree came down - it was on the bookshelf behind the tree - and put it on my to-read pile.  I just finished it this weekend.

I fondly remembered the illustrations.  It was a familiar story and yet different read through my adult lenses.  I probably didn’t notice the impacts of the poverty of wartime or the preposterousness of the patriarchal structures of the time on my first read.  I cried a couple of times: once when Beth died (Spoiler Alert!) and then again at the end when Jo found love and contentment after a restless period.  Of the four women, Jo, the book loving 'tomboy' sister, was my favourite.

I own a 1955 printing of the Louissa May Alcott classic that once belonged - and maybe still belongs - to my mother; I see that she wrote her name and address on the inside cover.




She wrote her name again on the back cover, adding the date XMAS 1956.  (She would have been 10 years of age).

Daughters read their mother’s books.  Last year, my adult daughter told me she got hooked on Harry Potter because one day, having read all the books on her own bookshelves, she came searching through mine.  She found The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, the second book in the Harry Potter series.  She read it and loved it, and realized there was a first book, The Philosopher’s Stone, that she also found my bookshelf.  Since then, I have purchased and read each new Harry Potter book, only to watch it end up on her shelf.  In fact, it was only this past fall I finally got a full set that stays on my shelf.

Last evening, I asked my mother if she gave me the Little Women book, or if I absconded it.  She couldn’t remember and said either was likely.  Maybe in the end it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that we parents have bookshelves full of great books that are available and accessible to our children.  That is how children ‘borrowing’ these books becomes a wonderful family literacy tradition.

Happy Family Literacy Day!



Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.