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CBC Books Canada Reads 2021: Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
Francesca Ekwuyasi's debut novel, Butter Honey Pig Bread, is a literary feast for the mind, the soul and the senses. Butter Honey Pig Bread is a novel about twin sisters, Kehinde and Taiye, and their mother, Kambirinachi. Kambirinachi believes she was a spirit who was supposed to die as a small child. By staying alive, she is cursing her family ...
- 2021
- 00:14:59
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/03/2021
CBC Books Canada Reads 2021: Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
Natalie Zina Walschots is a writer and journalist from Toronto. She is also the author of the poetry collections DOOM: Love Poems for Supervillains and Thumbscrews. Hench is her first novel. Hench is a novel about Anna, a woman who pays the bills by doing administrative work for villains. But when an incident involving the world's most popular superhero leaves ...
- 2021
- 00:13:51
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/02/2021
CBC Books Canada Reads 2021: The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
Set in a fantasy land named Chasland that feels like the Regency era in England, The Midnight Bargain is a fantasy about a woman named Beatrice Clayborn who makes her debut at "bargaining season" — an annual event where wealthy young men and women gather from all over the world to make advantageous marriages. But Beatrice dreams of becoming a ...
- 2021
- 00:13:12
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/02/2021
CBC Books Canada Reads 2021: Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead's debut novel, is the first book by an Indigenous author to win Canada Reads. The novel centres on the life of a two-spirit Indigiqueer young man who leaves the reserve and becomes a cybersex worker in the big city to make ends meet. But he must reckon with his past when he returns home to attend ...
- 2021
- 00:15:45
- 15-17
- Added on: 03/02/2021
CBC Books Canada Reads 2021: Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee
Scott Helman is championing Two Trees Make a Forest by writer and environmental historian Jessica J. Lee on Canada Reads 2021. In her memoir, Lee returns to her mother's homeland of Taiwan to understand the landscape that shaped her family — and in turn, shapes her. The book intertwines her grandparents' histories, the political history of Taiwan and the island's ...
- 2021
- 00:14:06
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/23/2021
CBC Books The First Page: Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow, best known for science fiction writing, talks about the importance of cutting the sentences you don't need when writing a story and how sci-fi writers drop clues for their readers about the kind of world they're living in. He reads the first page from Radicalized, his collection of four novellas that explore ethical questions surrounding how technology is abused ...
- 2020
- 00:03:35
- 9-12
- Added on: 11/06/2020
CBC Books Canada Reads 2020: Cory Doctorow on Radicalized
Radicalized by Cory Doctorow collects four science fiction novellas, all of which explore ethical questions surrounding how technology is abused on both personal and corporate levels. Cory Doctorow is a Toronto-born science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger.
- 2020
- 00:06:26
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/02/2020
CBC Books Canada Reads 2020: Samra Habib on We Have Always Been Here
Samra Habib's first book spans continents — from Pakistan to Canada — as Habib describes her long journey through religious persecution, racism and embracing her identity as a queer Muslim woman. Samra Habib is a journalist, photographer and activist based in Toronto.
- 2020
- 00:04:05
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/02/2020
CBC Books Canada Reads 2020: Eden Robinson on Son of a Trickster
In Son of a Trickster, celebrated Haisla and Heiltsuk author Eden Robinson tells the story of a 16-year-old named Jared who is known in his community for making the best weed cookies and for having a scary mom. Jared takes care of his struggling family the best he can and shrugs off the fact that the ravens are talking to ...
- 2020
- 00:07:20
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/28/2020
CBC Books Canada Reads 2020: Jesse Thistle on From the Ashes
Métis-Cree writer Jesse Thistle talks about how our own story can emerge from getting the "small fragments of our experience" down on the page. In his memoir, From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way, Thistle describes how he transformed his life — from being homeless and struggling with addiction to winning awards in academia. ...
- 2020
- 00:05:57
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/27/2020
CBC Books Canada Reads 2020: Megan Gail Coles on Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club
Megan Gail Coles talks about her novel Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club and explains why she warns the reader, “This might hurt a little. Be brave.” Her novel revolves around a cast of flawed characters connected to a St. John's restaurant called The Hazel. They are implicated in each other's hopes, dreams and pains as they ...
- 2020
- 00:07:14
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/26/2020
CBC Books The First Page: Linwood Barclay
Linwood Barclay reads from the opening of his novel Escape, a sequel to his book Chase. He believes that what makes a good first page is something that grabs you right away: “You’ve got that first page, maybe two, to really grab the reader’s attention.” Download the First Page teacher guide for discussion questions on Barclay's novel, key concepts to writing a ...
- 2019
- 00:05:06
- 9-12
- Added on: 11/12/2019
CBC Books The First Page: Fonda Lee
Fonda Lee reads from the first page of Exo, her young adult sci-fi novel. She remarks that, when she starts a novel – particularly because she writes science fiction and fantasy – she thinks about presenting something familiar and presenting something strange; the idea being to make the reader feel comfortable while also giving them something to be curious about. She ...
- 2019
- 00:06:28
- 9-12
- Added on: 11/12/2019
CBC Books Shakespeare Selfie: David Chariandy on getting into your character's head
Novelist David Chariandy (Brother) delves into his writing process, how he gets into a character's head and the importance of the question "what if."
- 2019
- 00:02:42
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/26/2019
CBC Books Canada Reads 2019: Lindsay Wong on The Woo-Woo
In this video Lindsay Wong discusses The Woo-Woo, her dark, witty and touching memoir that gives an honest account of the impact of mental illness on her family. The Vancouver-based writer delivers a raw and emotional look at whispered secrets, dysfunctional relationships — and how her grandmother, mother, aunt and even herself initially blamed the mythical "woo-woo," Chinese spirits that plague ...
- 2019
- 00:03:02
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/27/2019
CBC Books Canada Reads 2019: Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette on Suzanne
In this video Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette discusses Suzanne, an English translation of her celebrated 2015 novel La femme qui fuit. Barbeau-Lavalette’s novel is an imagined account of the life of her estranged grandmother. A novel that blurs the lines between fact and fiction, Suzanne tells the story of more than eight decades of art and political history through its portrait of a conflicted woman and ...
- 2019
- 00:05:35
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/27/2019
CBC Books Canada Reads 2019: Max Eisen on By Chance Alone
In this video Max Eisen discusses his deeply moving memoir By Chance Alone. When Eisen was 15 years old he and his family were taken from their home to Auschwitz, where he worked as a slave labourer. He survived the Holocaust and emigrated to Canada in 1949. Eisen has toured the world, educating people about the horrors he survived during the ...
- 2019
- 00:04:32
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/27/2019
CBC Books Canada Reads 2019: David Chariandy on Brother
In this video David Chariandy discusses Brother, his novel which takes us inside the lives of the mixed heritage sons of Trinidadian immigrants. Rooted in Chariandy's own experience growing up as a person of colour in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, the novel is a beautiful meditation on discrimination, agency, grief and the power of human relationships.
- 2019
- 00:03:38
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/27/2019
CBC Books Canada Reads 2019: Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung on Homes
In this video Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung discuss Homes, a memoir of al Rabeeah's childhood in Iraq and Syria. Just before civil war broke out, al Rabeeah's family left Iraq for safety in Homs, Syria. Al Rabeeah was 10 years old when the violence began in his new home. He remembers attacks on his mosque and school, car bombings ...
- 2019
- 00:06:16
- 13-14
- Added on: 02/27/2019
CBC Books The First Page: Performance of 2017 winner (Grades 7 to 9) – Nameless by Sari Warshawsky
Hear the 2017 winning entry for The First Page student writing challenge in the Grades 7 to 9 category. The winning author, Sari Warshawsky, is a student at Royal West Academy in Montreal, QC. Sari's piece entitled Nameless tackles the pressure of perfection in a virtual world. It's performed by actor Nicole Volossetski. For the 2017 First Page writing challenge, over ...
- 2018
- 00:02:37
- 13-14
- Added on: 10/19/2018
CBC Books The First Page: Omar El Akkad
Author Omar El Akkad reads the first page from American War, his debut novel that was featured in Canada Reads in 2018. He suggests that what writers hold back from the reader in the opening pages is just as important as what they include. Download the First Page teacher guide for discussion questions on Omar's novel, key concepts to writing ...
- 2018
- 00:03:10
- 9-12
- Added on: 10/19/2018
CBC Books The First Page: Jennifer Chen
Jennifer Chen reads the first page from her debut YA novel, Super, and talks about the importance of not only finding a great hook, but building on the intrigue of the hook. Download the First Page teacher guide for discussion questions on Jennifer's novel, key concepts to writing a compelling first page and more.
- 2018
- 00:04:39
- 9-12
- Added on: 10/19/2018
CBC Books Shakespeare Selfie: Current affairs in fiction with Sharon Bala
Novelist Sharon Bala shares what sparked her to write about the recent experiences of Tamil refugees. For students working on their entries for CBC Books' Shakespeare Selfie youth writing challenge, Sharon's advice will inspire them to search for real-life details when depicting current events through fiction.
- 2018
- 00:02:47
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/21/2018
CBC Books Canada Reads: Stephen Lewis on the art of debate
Former UN ambassador Stephen Lewis stresses the importance of being well-organized, but also maintaining the ability to enjoy a great argument from another debater (like Wab Kinew). Stephen defended The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood in Canada Reads 2014.
- 2018
- 00:08:48
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/19/2018
CBC Books Canada Reads: Kristin Kreuk on the art of debate
Actress Kristin Kreuk emphasizes the importance of being prepared for difficult conversations, plus other debating advice. She defended Kamal Al-Solaylee's memoir Intolerable in Canada Reads 2015.
- 2018
- 00:07:19
- 13-14
- Added on: 03/16/2018
