Summer Reading Week 3: The Aliens Have Landed!

Summer Reading Week 3: The Aliens Have Landed!

by | Jul 15, 2024 | Books, Children & Families, Reading, Summer Reading

Welcome to week three! Morgan and Nadine were thinking about space this week (did you know that scientists don’t know how big space is – it could be infinite – never ever ending!) and we thought that somewhere in all the unexplored space there could be crazy aliens!

This week’s theme is “The Aliens have Landed!” Together we are going to read a silly story about an alien puppy that tries to take over the world (Bloop by Tara Lazar), make bizarre drawings of aliens that everyone contributes to, and search for aliens! We will also check on our rocket ship reading log and see how much we’ve done in only the first three weeks! What a summer we have ahead!

For those who cannot join us this week, we have another colouring sheet that you can print off at home or at the library, and a fun reading list all about stars can be found on the Huron County Library’s online catalogue!

Bleep blorp!

Nadine and Morgan

Summer Reading Week 2: Shoot for the Stars!

Summer Reading Week 2: Shoot for the Stars!

by | Jul 13, 2024 | Children & Families, Reading, Summer Reading

And that’s a wrap on Week 2 of the TD Summer Reading Club! We hope you’re starry eyed and ready to learn, because this week’s theme was “Shoot for the Stars!”. Did you know that if you traveled to the nearest star, it would take 70,000 years?  

This week we had a super fun craft planned, where we made stained-glass stars to hang in your windows at home! Together we read the book, Star of the Party by Jan Carr, and played a game with moon rocks – be sure to practice your balancing skills for this one!  

Don’t forget to bring your reading log this week, so you can start collecting beads for read-a-bead!  

For those who cannot join us this week, we have another colouring sheet that you can print off at home or at the library, and a fun reading list all about stars can be found on the Huron County Library’s catalogue.  

Lastly, we have a super fun reading challenge for our friends who are not able to come to the reading club: print off this Rocket Ship Reading Log, and colour in one rocket ship for every book or chapter you read!  When the page is full, show it off to your local librarian and win a small prize! 

Aim for the stars! 

Nadine and Morgan  

Bayfield Pizza Pages: Summer Reading Challenge

Bayfield Pizza Pages: Summer Reading Challenge

by | Jun 5, 2024 | Bayfield branch, Children & Families, Reading

Kids, get ready to dive into the wonderful world of books and embark on a reading journey like no other! Join us this summer for an exciting adventure as Olio partners with the Huron County Library’s Bayfield Branch to present the ultimate summer reading challenge! From July through August, kids ages 4-12 are being challenged to read as many books as possible.

At the end of the challenge, top readers will earn an exclusive invitation to a pizza party provided by Olio! Imagine enjoying delicious slices of pizza or some fabulous spaghetti with fellow bookworms, celebrating everyone’s reading accomplishments in style.

Gather your favourite books, unleash your imagination, and let’s make this summer a memorable one filled with stories, excitement, and of course, plenty of pizza! Get ready to turn the pages and devour those books – the Pizza Party awaits the champions of reading!

Full program details:

  • Ages: 4-12
  • How to Participate: This program is intended for patrons of the Bayfield Branch. Please visit the branch to register and to receive your reading log. Track your reading, and once it’s full bring it back to the branch to be entered into the Pizza Pages Reading Challenge. The top readers will be invited to attend a special pizza party hosted by Olio. Each log will earn readers a small prize.
  • Dates: July 2-Aug 23
  • Deadline: All reading logs must be returned to the branch by Aug. 23.
  • Questions? Email bayfieldlibrary@huroncounty.ca or call 519-565-2886

 

Canada Reads 2024

Canada Reads 2024

by | Feb 26, 2024 | Books, Reading

Get ready for the Canada Reads 2024 debate with this years’ theme being: ‘one book to carry us forward.’ “When we are at a crossroads, when uncertainty is upon us, when we have faced challenges and are ready for the future, how do we know where to go next? This collection of books is about finding the resilience and the hope needed to carry on and keep moving forward.”

A list of the five finalist titles and the longlist titles can be found on our online catalogue.

The debates take place March 4-7 on CBC TV, CBC Radio and CBC Books 2024 and the contenders are:

Book cover image of Shut Up You're Pretty

Shut Up You’re Pretty by Téa Mutonji; defended by actor Kudakwashe Rutendo

These punchy, sharply observed stories blur the lines between longing and choosing, exploring the narrator’s experience as an involuntary one. Tinged with pathos and humour, they interrogate the moments in which femininity, womanness, and identity are not only questioned but also imposed.

Place a hold online…

 

Book cover image of Meet Me at the Lake

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune; defended by fashion influencer Mirian Njoh

One day. One promise. Two lives forever changed. Random connection sends two strangers on a daylong adventure where they make a promise one keeps and the other breaks, with life-changing effects, in this breathtaking new novel from author of the New York Times bestselling and TikTok hit, Every Summer After. More than just a summer beach read romance though, this book also tackles important mental health topics and has a surprising amount of depth, with a personal connection and note by the author included at the end.

Place a hold online…

 

Book cover image of The Future of Catherine Leroux

The Future by Catherine Leroux; translated by Susan Ouriou; defended by author and former Canada Reads winner Heather O’Neill

Set in an alternate history in which the French never surrendered the city of Detroit, where children rule over their own kingdom in the trees and burned houses regenerate themselves, where rivers poison and heal and young and old alike protect with their lives the people and places they love, Catherine Leroux’s The Future is a richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future.

Place a hold online…

 

Book cover image of Denison Avenue<br />

Denison Avenue by Christina Wong; Illustrated by Daniel Innes; defended by former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi

A poignant meditation on loss, aging, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese Canadian seniors experience in big cities, Denison Avenue beautifully combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book that is truly unforgettable.

Place a hold online…

 

Book cover image of Bad Cree

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns; defended by athlete and CBC Sports contributor Dallas Soonias

In this gripping debut tinged with supernatural horror, a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.

Place a hold online…

 

2023 Holiday Reading Guide

2023 Holiday Reading Guide

by | Dec 21, 2023 | Readers' Advisory, Reading

To celebrate the holidays this year, library staff have curated a list of new titles in our system sure to delight readers of all ages and foster lots of festive cheer. Even more of our recent favourites can be found on our online catalogue.

Feel-Good Hallmark Holiday Vibes 

Book cover image for Three Holidays and a Wedding<br />

Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley

As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays—Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding, and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time—neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another or that they will get snow stayed in the cutest little Canadian small town over Ramadan, Hanukkah and Christmas.

Place a hold online…

 

Book cover image of It Happened One Christmas

It Happened One Christmas by Chantel Guertin

A charming and rollicking holiday rom-com about a big-city film director who must convince the dreamy, yet grumpy, mayor of a small Quebec town to give her the permit to shoot her Christmas movie in his idyllic hometown. Perfect for fans of Hallmark holiday movies.

Place a hold online…

 

Book cover image of The Book Club Hotel

The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan

A heartfelt exploration of change, the power of books to heal, and the enduring strength of female friendship. Three long-time friends reunite for the holidays for their annual girls’ book club vacation, landing at a picturesque Vermont inn that’s owned by a single mother and recent widow. Full of family secrets and lots of drama this delivers on all the feels.

Place a hold online…

 

Hallmark After Dark Vibes

Book cover image for Christmas Presents

Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger

Coupling a picturesque, cozy setting with a deeply unsettling suspenseful plot, Christmas Presents is a chilling seasonal novella about a true crime podcaster who is determined to solve a cold case and the woman who’s trying to keep the past in the past.

Place a hold online…

 

Book cover image of Murder Most Royal<br />

Murder Most Royal by S.J. Bennett

Agatha Christie meets The Crown in this much-anticipated third book of the ‘Her Majesty The Queen Investigates’ mystery series. It is December 2016 and when the Queen comes across a severed hand she is able to quickly identify the victim, finding the killer however, proves much more complicated. Perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Agatha Christie and M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin.

Place a hold online…

 

Book cover image of The Twelve Books of Christmas

The Twelve Books of Christmas by Kate Carlisle

In this 17th installment of the Bibliophile cozy mystery series, San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright and her hunky security-expert husband, Derek Stone, face a locked-room murder mystery during their holidays in Scotland. Asked to help solve the disappearance of twelve rare books, things get deadly fast when one of the other guests is poisoned and another is shot through the heart with an arrow.

Place a hold online…

 

Young Adult Fiction

Book cover image of Sleepless in Dubai

Sleepless in Dubai by Sajni Patel

From the author of My Sister’s Big Fat Indian Wedding comes this hilarious, smart, and swoon-worthy rom-com about two teens traveling to Dubai for Diwali

Place a hold online…

 

Juvenile Fiction

Book cover image of A Very Bad Holiday

Very Bad Holiday by Kate Howard

When Christmas is unexpectedly cancelled, thwarting their city-wide holiday heist, the Bad Guys must do the unthinkable: reignite the city’s holiday spirit by giving instead of taking.

Place a hold online…

 

Picture Books

Book cover image of Peas on Earth

Peas on Earth written by Huw Lewis Jones; illustrated by Ben Sanders

In this bitingly refreshing picture book, Bad Apple faces his greatest challenge: festive cheer. It’s Christmas day and everyone is just so . . . jolly . Granny Smith has kick-started the caroling, and the Cheese family’s merriness is grating to say the least. But it’s the arrival of Pea and his extended family that really puts Bad Apple’s goodwill to the test. Sure to entertain the whole family, Peas on Earth serves up a refreshingly bitter counterbalance to sickly sweet Christmas books, without sacrificing its goodwill message.

Place a hold online…

Book cover image of Santa's Gotta Go

Santa’s Gotta Go! written by Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Courtney Lovett

The number one thing on Monte and Mabel’s Christmas wish list is the chance to hang out with Santa Claus. So when his sleigh breaks down in their yard as he’s finishing up his last delivery, they couldn’t be more delighted–Santa’s gonna stay with them while he waits for spare parts to be delivered! It’s a dream come true . . . or is it? It turns out Santa doesn’t have a lot of experience being a houseguest, and likes to rock out late at night and swigs spaghetti sauce from the jar. But when he messes with Dad’s motorcycle and Mabel’s computer tablet, he’s gone a step too far and the whole family agrees–Santa’s gotta go! Readers will get a kick out of this hilarious holiday tale about being careful what you wish for.

Place a hold online…

Passport to Discovery – Peace and Kindness

Passport to Discovery – Peace and Kindness

by | Nov 2, 2023 | Children & Families, Reading

Calling all young explorers! Your next adventure starts today! Join us as we practice more peace and kindness!

Let’s get started:

  • Pick up a Take & Make Kit from your library branch to make a poppy or a peace dove.
  • Play Kindness Bingo.
  • Use our conversation prompts to have important discussions about conflict resolution.
  • Read one of these books from our collection that explore peace, kindness and friendship.
  • Download this month’s activity sheet if you prefer to get started from home.

Explorers are welcome to join the program at any time. Here’s how it works:

  • Pick up a passport from your local branch to begin a full year of learning, reading, doing, and having a whole lot of fun!
  • Visit your local branch each month to pick up a themed craft kit and activity sheet.
  • Complete at least one of the activities
  • Return to the branch to get your passport stamped and ballot entered into a grand prize draw for a tablet! The draw will take place at the end of the program in February 2024.