Month: June 2021

Summer Break

The 2020-2021 School Year has come to an end. It was a year unlike any other. We hope that the School Library was able to serve you as well as possible both in and out of the classroom.

Enjoy some rest and recreation over the summer. We really hope you can find some extra time for reading. Read for fun. Read to learn something you are interested in. Read to laugh. Read to cry. Read to be scared. Read to escape. Read for whatever reason you have.

Over the summer you can continue to visit us online, including access to our ebook collection. We hope that we have fought this pandemic well enough that our full slate of services can return for the 2021-2022 School Year. We will see you again in person in September.

Summer Reading

The Summer Reading Library Cart is making its way around the building. Staff are encouraged to have a look and pick up something for reading over the break!

Come down to the school library for more selections. Students and staff are reminded that we have THOUSANDS of books in the School Library and that we would love to have you take home some books to enjoy for some summer reading.

National Indigenous Peoples Day

June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, and a focal point of Indigenous History Month.

source: canada.ca

In 2021 we observe this day with a particular grief, as we mourn those children whose bodies were found in a mass unmarked grave at the site of a former Residential School in Kamloops. We grieve for the parents who never got to see those children come home from Residential School. We grieve for the generations of indigenous people who suffered, and still suffer, great trauma from the Residential School system. We grieve for our country, which will never be whole while the hard work of truth and reconciliation remains ahead of us.

We try at the same time, however, to use this day to celebrate the rich and beautiful lives of Indigenous people, their culture, history, art, wisdom, and more. We celebrate our First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples as Canadians. And most of all, together we celebrate our shared humanity.

Find out more:

Canada.ca: National Indigenous Peoples Day

Juneteenth

Also known by such names as Freedom Day and Jubilee Day, Juneteenth is a celebration of the end of slavery in the former Confederacy after the end of the American Civil War.

This year marks the first celebration of Juneteenth as an official Federal Holiday in the United States.

source: amny.com

Juneteenth has grown to be a day that is observed in the US and around the world, as it symbolizes not only the fight against the evil that is slavery, but also the fight against racism in all its forms. Slavery finally came to end in the US in 1865, but racism lies at the heart of so many of the evils that still haunt the United States, Canada, and indeed, humanity. Current issues such as Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, and on June 19th, the establishment of Juneteenth as an official holiday, are all just part of the ongoing and centuries old struggle against racism.

Find out more about Juneteenth:

source: mosaictemplars.com

2021 Teen Summer Adventure: Time Travel Edition

From Surrey Libraries:

Sign up for the 2021 Teen Summer Adventure (TSR).

Combat summer brain drain with our All-Access Passport to summer fun!

Need some inspiration for how to spend the summer?

Get ready to go back in time with Surrey Libraries’ Teen Summer Adventure 2021, Time Travel Edition (Ages 12-18)

Combat summer brain drain with our All-Access Passport to summer fun! Our All-Access Passport is filled with time travel themed challenges and activities you can do all summer long. Complete activities to earn tickets that go toward 8 weekly prizes and 3 summer-end grand prize draws!

Sign up by July 10 to be eligible for all 8 weekly prizes!

Go to Surrey Libraries to find out more.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely

The Surrey Teens Read book of the year, as selected by the students of Surrey Schools, is A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer.

Thanks to all the students who voted in this year’s Surrey Teens Read. And special thanks to the Teacher Librarians on the Committee for all their work running this program. Every year they manage to come up with a slate of outstanding titles for Surrey Teens Read. Once again they gave the students of our district an enjoyable set of books to read during the 2020-2021. We are already looking forward to the next set of nominated titles for 2021-2022.

Find out more: Surrey Teens Read