When I first started out writing, I really thought that you could write ANY story as long as it was logical and made sense. I didn’t understand the idea of mainstream talking points. At any one period of time the zeitgeist has a certain agenda. The vast majority of people–the mainstream believe certain things as […]

I’m not that old! Really, I’m not! And I’ve been doing this stuff for a while, but sometimes just buying a pair of socks can turn into a nightmare! Whoever heard of creating a password for an online sock account? And then there’s organizations like Kiva, where you’re really just trying to do some good […]

I keep thinking of people I met along the way who were incredibly talented. They could tap into a child’s perspective with ease, writing from an innocent yet knowing angle that never talked down to the child reader. They could express a child’s deepest concerns in a beautiful way that was accessible to the child […]

Had a very interesting conversation over the weekend with a lady originally from India. We were talking about The Breadwinner. I have a complicated relationship with this book. When it first came out, I hated it. Still do. Kind of. But…I really like the author Deborah Ellis and I think she had the best of […]

I’m really worried about this next generation of children. In response to serious abuse from some nefarious teachers (that absolutely had to be dealt with!) we’ve really undermined the whole system. As an author/storyteller, when I go into a school I’m fully aware that most of the children have no intention of following my line […]

We seem to be living in an age of outrage. An age of activism, an age of resistance. It’s about time. My goodness, I’ve been an activist for going on 30 years! I’ve been resisting for about that long too. I’ve made no secret of the fact that yes, in addition to trying to tell […]

but that does not mean that Islam is being promoted in any way. Islamic Heritage month is like Asian heritage month or Pride month or Black History month, simply a chance for schools to recognize the contribution of the disparate members of our community. Canada really does try to be ‘multi-cultural’. We try to include […]

Propaganda is the dissemination of information that is politically charged to promote a certain viewpoint. It’s usually state-sponsored. I have long felt that a lot of children’s literature consists of different, albeit at times benign, forms of propaganda. One thing I’m still processing from the international storytelling festival in Iran is an offhand comment someone […]

Recently I was approached by a thoughtful teacher librarian who questioned the addition of this book on my Muslim booklist: The teacher librarian wrote: “I am a public school librarian in a diverse, growing community. We have recently seen an increase in our immigrant/refugee population, particularly of students whose families are from Arab or Middle […]

Children’s literature is an interesting field! There’s a whole canon of academia that wrangles over the minutiae of an author’s choices. It’s quite fascinating to watch them wrangling actually. I went to the IRSCL conference over the last few days, it began with its opening keynote on Saturday evening and then wrapped up on Wednesday […]