Celebrating Citizenship
lian goodall, author of Photographing Greatness: the Story of Karsh, has an article about Karsh, Prime Minister King and the first Canadian citizenship ceremony appearing in the June/July issue of The Wayback Times www.waybacktimes.com.

She will be speaking about Karsh and Prime Minister King at 1pm on Sat. July 4th, 2009 at Woodside National Historic Site, Kitchener, 538 Wellington St. North.

In addition, lian is moving to Picton on July 11th. She's excited that she will be living there and exploring Prince Edward County for the next year.

On Thursday, June 18th, at the Picton Library, Peggy Dymond Leavey gave a presentation to a Grade 5 class from Queen Elizabeth Public School. They were a delightful group, who didn't mind walking to the library in the rain TWICE! There was a miscommunication about the time and they showed up both morning and afternoon. They got it right the second time. Their teacher had been reading Treasure at Turtle Lake to the class, and they were happy to discover that the book Peggy was reading from, Trouble at Turtle Narrows, was actually a sequel.

Did you know that at the first Canadian citizenship ceremony on January 3rd, 1947, immigrant photographer Yousuf Karsh was granted certificate Number Ten? Author of Photographing Greatness: The Story of Karsh, lian goodall, has an article about the first citizenship ceremony that will appear in the “Wayback Times” on June 23rd, 2009. The article looks at the historic event in 1947 through the eyes of Yousuf Karsh, and also from the point-of-view of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, recipient of Canadian citizenship certificate Number One. You can check it out at: wwww.waybacktimes.com

Bernda Chapman visited Natalie Shorkey's Grade two/three class at Churchill Public School in Ottawa on June 2, 2009. Two other classes joined in to hear Brenda talk about mysteries and read from Trail of Secrets.

On June 2nd, Peggy Dymond Leavey was one of the guest panelists discussing children's literature in Cobourg, ON before a meeting of the Retired Teachers of Ontario, District 30.
In the photo, left to right: authors Caley Fiddick, Ted Staunton, Richard Scrimger, Linda Hutsell-Manning, Peggy Dymond Leavey and illustrator, Brenda Clark.

Christopher Dinsdale was honoured to be a part of the 2009 Markham Public Library "Battle of the Books". Christopher's Stolen Away had been selected as one of the 25 "battle" books. Over 100 students participated in the big evening of book trivia and it was amazing to see the teams fire off correct answers for all 25 novels. After a brief question and answer session with the team players, Christopher enjoyed meeting many of the families at the end of the contest.

A week later, Christopher participated at Denne Public School's "Literacy Night" in Newmarket. Christopher discussed through a powerpoint presentation the steps he takes to develop a historical adventure novel. The library audience greatly enjoyed the visit and wished Christopher all the best with the launch of his new novel "Betrayed" in November.

Philippa Dowding’s new children’s novel, “The Gargoyle in My Yard”, got a great start in life at the beautiful McNally Robinson bookstore on Saturday, May 16, 2009. The book launch drew more than sixty friends, family and neighbours, who bought every book in the store – the bookstore SOLD OUT!

Philippa read a few chapters (and brought the gargoyle’s dry, gravelly voice into the world for the first time), signed dozens of books, and enjoyed every minute.

Thanks to Napoleon Publishing, and to everyone who came out in support of a naughty gargoyle! Look for a sequel coming soon…