Category: Books

Drop Everything & Read on Monday

Next Monday the students and staff of our school will rise to the DEAR Challenge: Drop Everything and Read. During the long 2nd block (C block) everyone is challenged to read for 20 minutes.

October 27 is Canadian School Library Day & BC School Library Day. School Libraries are valuable in so many ways. Amongst the most important is how much school libraries can educate students and staff about the massive importance of recreational reading, and how vital school libraries are in supporting students by giving them access to books. We encourage everyone in our school– indeed, everyone in the community at large– to take up the challenge to Drop Everything and Read.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for? Take some time this Thanksgiving to appreciate the good things in your life.

We have a long weekend with the day off of school on Monday. For many Canadians, this is a day of traditions.. Perhaps you will be eating a turkey, surrounded by friends and family. But will you take some time to “give thanks” on Thanksgiving?

Staff at Lord Tweedsmuir getting ready for a Thanksgiving meal.

Thankfulness is strongly correlated with positive mental health outcomes. According to Harvard Medical School: “In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

Some of us are incredibly privileged. Some would even say blessed. Over this Thanksgiving long weekend, we encourage you to take some time to consider the things in your life for which you are thankful.

Find out more:

Note: Life is full of challenges and hardships for all people. However, it may be worse for some, whose difficulties may be profound, perhaps even traumatic. In the midst of painful circumstances, it may be difficult to reflect on the things for which one might be thankful. Being grateful for the good things in life does not take away from the pain and trauma that may also be there. Gratitude alone is not a substitute for seeking help from mental health professionals.

“The Librarians”

A new documentary explores how public school librarians are standing up for our rights in the fight against book bans and the rise of fascism.

Source: PBS News

Librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities.

“In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQia+ stories – triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of extremism fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work – the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale. ” (thelibrariansfilm.com)

Find out more about the documentary film “The Librarians”

The fight against book bans by public school librarians shown in new documentary. Check out this story from PBS News.

October 5-11 is Banned Books Week
October is Canadian Library Month
October is International School Library Month

Banned Books Week

October 5-11 is the ALA’s “Banned Books Week.” Censorship and book banning is alive and well, and we need to fight it. In Canada, and other nations that claim to embrace democracy and freedom, fascism no longer just lurking in the shadows– it is here, out in the open, and seizing power where it can. Fascists seek to control information as a means of controlling the population, and the censorship of books and other reading materials is one prong in that attack.

In Canada we observe the similar “Freedom to Read Week” in the new year. However, we can also join with our American neighbours in recognizing Banned Books Week and the attacks on freedom and democracy that are posed by the massively sharp rise of book banning. The US has seen an especially concerted attack on books for teens about marginalized communities. We are not immune from such fascist tactics in Canada, as book challenges have risen in step with the rise of far right propaganda, and in most cases are centered on schools, classrooms and school libraries.

Find out more about Banned Books Week.

Have you checked out our latest “genrefication” updates?

Come down to your School Library to see the reorganization of our fiction collection. We have moved Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, and Adventure onto their own shelves. You can still find other genres, such as Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Classic, Adult Literacy, and more, on the “General Fiction” shelves.

We have also created a Biography section. Learn more about the lives of all sorts of people, some famous, some not-so-famous, some heroes, some villains… We have biographies (and autobiographies) of activists, athletes, singers, writers, leaders, scientists, actors, thinkers, musicians, artists, and more.

Click here to see our School Library Map

Overdue Books?

If you have overdue library books, please return them. Don’t worry, we don’t charge overdue fines!

However, if books don’t come back by the end of the year, they are marked as lost and you will be charged replacement fees. Avoid that, and get your books in before Summer Vacation starts.

Libraries always have something that bookstores can’t compete with: Free books!

Overdue Books?

If you have overdue library books, please return them.

Bad News: If you have an overdue book, you can’t take out any more books until you return them.

Good News: We don’t charge overdue fines.

Worse News: If your overdue books don’t come in by June 20, the books will be marked as lost and you will be charged replacement costs.

Best News: Return all your overdue books and pay nothing. Libraries are still the best deal going!

Anne Frank

Anne Frank was born on this day in 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. Her family moved to the Amsterdam in 1933, among the over 300,000 Jews who fled Germany between the rise of Hitler and the onset of WW2. Nevertheless, the Netherlands fell to the Nazis in 1940. Eventually Anne and her family went into hiding in 1942. While hiding in the “Secret Annex,” Anne would write what would become perhaps the most famous diary in history, published after the war as The Diary of a Young Girl. The Franks were betrayed, discovered, and arrested, in 1944. Anne and her sister perished in Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi death camp, in 1945. Most of her family ended up numbered among the more than 100,000 Dutch Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust, although her father survived. It was he who discovered Anne’s diary and was able to have it published so that many generations may be enriched by it.

Find out more:

Anne Frank The Writer

Anne Frank House

Anne Frank Fonds (Foundation)