Philippa Dowding shared her book, The Gargoyle in My Yard, with the grade 4 and 5 students at Hawthorne II Public School in downtown Toronto. Over the course of four visits, Philippa shared the story about Katherine and the problem gargoyle living in her backyard. The children were interested in the description of their neighbourhood and city, and asked questions about how a writer comes up with stories. They also liked the books about gargoyles, and the gargoyle puppet Philippa brought along as a sidekick.

lian goodall Photographing Greatness: the Story of Karsh

Yes Oui CANSCAIP, the Quebec chapter of CANSCAIP, hosts its last meeting of the spring on Monday, May 25th at 7 p.m. at the John A. Simms Community Centre at 8 Westminster South in Montreal West. At 7:30 p.m., Lian Goodall, author of four non-fiction books for children, will give a talk entitled "The Joys of Non-fiction: What Elvis Knew". Free Admission. Open to adult creators of children's material (ie. books, magazine articles, etc.) of all levels of abilities and experience. For more information, please contact one of the Yes Oui CANSCAIP's co-representatives: Carol-Ann Hoyte at kidlitfan1972@yahoo.ca or Alastair Reeves at a_reeves@videotron.ca.

On March 30th, Christopher Dinsdale ran a day-long writing workshop for the Grade 7 and 8 students at Ashton Meadows P.S. in Markham, Ontario. Christopher walked the students through an interactive program that explained how research drove the storylines of his novels Broken Circle and Stolen Away. By the end of the session, the students had in hand the framework to begin their own historical stories. A good time was had by all and Ashton Meadows wished Christopher good luck with his soon-to-be-released third novel, Betrayed.