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Kids’ Day/Journée jeunesse

With Jack Wong, Marie-Louise Gay, Penelope Jackson, Sarah Everett, Heidi Tattrie Rushton, Lindsay Ruck, Bria Chiome-Miller, Meghan Marentette, Rebecca Thomas, Alan Syliboy, Marie-France Comeau, and Johanna Lezziero

Saturday, November 2
12:30PM – 4:00PM
Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library (5440 Spring Garden Road, Halifax)
$0.00

Out of stock

Description

Drop by our fun-filled free-for-all for infants to age 12. Kids can get their Kids’ Day passport stamped or signed by authors Jack Wong, Marie-Louise Gay, Penelope Jackson, Sarah Everett, Heidi Tattrie Rushton, Lindsay Ruck, Bria Chiome-Miller, Meghan Marentette, Rebecca Thomas, Alan Syliboy, Marie-France Comeau, and Johanna Lezziero. Plus, enjoy activities, crafts, author readings in our Cozy Corner and free popcorn from the library’s old-fashioned popcorn machine!

Accessibility Notes: ASL, low-sensory room

Speakers

  • Jack Wong was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver. In 2010, he left behind a life as a bridge engineer to pursue his Bachelor of Fine Arts at NSCAD University; he continues to live and work in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. As a children’s author/illustrator, Jack seeks to share his winding journey with young readers so that they may embrace the unique amalgams of experiences that make up their own lives. Jack’s picture books include ​W​HEN YOU CAN SWIM (Scholastic; winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and a Governor General’s Literary Award, finalist for the Ezra Jack Keats Award), ​T​HE WORDS WE SHARE (Annick Press​; winner of an Atlantic Book Award), and ​ALL THAT GROWS (Groundwood Books).

  • Marie-Louise Gay has written and/or illustrated over seventy books for children: from picture-books like the Stella and Sam series, Caramba, Any Questions? Fern and Horn, I’m Not Sydney! The ThreeBBrothers, Walking Trees to novels like Travels with my Family and Travels in Cuba. Her books have been published in over twenty languages. Some of her books have been adapted for puppet theatre, live theatre and an award-winning animated TV series. She has won many awards for her work, such as two Governor General’s Award, the Vicky Metcalfe Body of Work Award, the E.B.White Award and has been nominated twice for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

  • Penelope Jackson is the co-author of the middle-grade books Papergirl and Amazing Atlantic Canadian Women. An editor and ghostwriter of children's and adult books for over two decades, she is also a singer/songwriter and gardener. She hikes wild trails and swims in the cold ocean with her family in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

  • Sarah Everett is the award-winning author of several books for young readers. Her newest is THE SHAPE OF LOST THINGS. When she is not reading or writing, she is dreaming about summer, gearing up for her next travel adventure, perfecting her tree pose, or yodeling with her dog.

  • Heidi Tattrie Rushton has been a freelance reporter, social media manager, international recruiter, and preschool teacher. She also, like her Pet Tales protagonist, has experience working at an animal shelter, was a kid-activist through her writing, and rides the roller coaster of life with anxiety. She calls Fall River, Nova Scotia, home, along with her husband, two children, and a tiny dog who thinks she’s a cat. In 2021, Pet Tales was awarded the WFNS Joyce Barkhouse Writing Prize and was released by NP’s imprint, Trap Door Books, in April 2024.

  • Lindsay Ruck is an author and editor from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She studied journalism at Carleton University’s School of Journalism in Ottawa before returning to her home province to continue her writing career. Her first three books were works of non-fiction (Winds of Change, Against the Grain, and Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians. Winds of Change was nominated for an Atlantic Book Award and Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians was nominated for a Hackmatack Book Award. Lindsay has written two children’s picture books (My Favourite Colour and This Big Heart). Her next book (My Nova Scotia) will be released Spring 2025.

  • Bria Miller (they/she) is a multidisciplinary artist, illustrator, jewelry maker, graphic facilitator, graphic designer and owner of Bria Makes Things. Bria was born + raised in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, currently residing and creating within Kjipuktuk (Halifax) since 2011.

  • As a child, Meghan Marentette loved collecting odds and ends to build miniature homes for her toy animals, and wandering in the woods, building forts from fallen logs. As an adult, she turned her love of craft into a career in the film industry, eventually becoming costume designer for a stop motion animation TV series. It was during that job she was reminded of her childhood passion for tiny worlds, inspiring her to write a children’s novel about a family of mice (The Stowaways―Pajama Press, 2013), before moving on to create an actual tiny world in her photo-illustrated diorama picture book, Rumie Goes Rafting (Owlkids, 2024). She lives near the forest in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she continues to combine her love of writing, craft and nature into stories about Rumie.

  • Rebecca Thomas is an award winning Mi'kmaw writer of things. Sometimes they are poems, sometimes they are childrens’ books and sometimes they are love notes for family and friends. But they are always done with purpose and intention. She is a registered band member of Lennox Island First Nation in Epekwitk. Her ultimate goal is to take up space as an Indigenous woman in a world where they aren’t as valued or worthy as other groups of people. Rebecca dares you to tell her to be smaller and see what happens. She has been the Poet Laureate of Halifax and caregiver to her father who is a survivor of the Shubenacadie Residential School. She has performed with the Halluci Nation, Symphony Nova Scotia, and has spoken and lectured at conferences and coffee houses from coast to coast. Her first book I'm Finding My Talk has been shortlisted for the First Nations Community Reads Award. Her most recent collection of poetry called "I place you into the fire" was listed as one of CBC's top 20 books of 2020. Her book "Swift Fox All Along" was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Award for children's literature. She has an upcoming children's book called "Grampy’s Chair" is set to be released in September of 2024. She pays her bills by helping students who are overwhelmed with life and studies as a Student Services Advisor at the Nova Scotia Community College.

  • Artist Alan Syliboy studied privately with Shirley Bear and attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where twenty-five years later, he was invited to sit on the Board of Governors. Alan looks to the Indigenous Mi’kmaw petroglyph tradition for inspiration and develops his own artistic vocabulary out of those forms. When the Owl Calls Your Name is his fifth children’s book. He lives in Truro, Nova Scotia.

  • Marie-France Comeau Marie-France Comeau est une autrice, une éducatrice, et une médiatrice littéraire hors pair. Grâce à son écriture poétiques et son rapport authentique avec les enfants, elle et ses albums jeunesse circulent constamment dans la francophonie mondiale. L’étoile dans la pomme, un bestseller de littérature jeunesse est en constante réédition depuis vingt ans.. Marie-France Comeau a reçu en 20O5 le prix de l’alphabétisation Marilyne Trenholme Counsell du N.-B. Son album Un monstre dans ma cuisine a été finaliste du prix Champlain, album jeunesse 2022 et a reçu une mention « Meilleur livre publié en Atlantique» de l’Atlantic Publisher Book Publishers Awards. Un bisou coquelicot, son plus récent album fait partie de la sélection de lectures de Communication Jeunesse automne 2023 et finaliste pour les Éloizes 2024 artiste de l’année en littérature, et a été sélectionné pour le prix Jeunes lecteurs comme le gagnant 2024 de roman français Hackmatack.

  • Originally from France, where she worked as a textile designer for 10 years, Johanna Lezziero moved to Canada 7 years ago. She lives in New Brunswick, near the Bay of Fundy, where she draws the inspiration she needs to nourish her creative universe. Her watercolors are populated by forest animals, houses lost in the woods and wild landscapes that draw inspiration from her daily life. She has illustrated 3 children's books with Bouton d'or Acadie.