Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Reading Olympics - Going for Gold with Kidlit Quiz!!!

International Literacy Competition Seeks Canada’s Best Readers

An international literacy competition, Kids’ Lit Quiz, will find Canada’s top readers in a tournament known as the ‘Sport of Reading’ next week. And guess who will be on the team of children's writers? You guessed it - Moi! Our team, Always Write, includes Jennifer Maruno, Susan Hughes, Adira Rotstein and me!

For two decades, Kids’ Lit Quiz has been inspiring youth to become lifelong readers by channeling knowledge of children’s books into a fun and challenging tournament.

Today, the competition continues to thrive despite distractions like video games, cell phones and computers. In fact, participation rates have continued to rise amongst girls and boys in recent years.

In the style of popular learning competitions like the Scripps Spelling Bee, Kids’ Lit Quiz is a highly spirited and intense team event for students around the world.
Are you a KLQ Quiz Whiz?
Who had two nasty aunts called Spiker and Sponge?[1]
Who owned a faithful dog named Snowy?[2]
A clip from the 2013 Canadian National Final can be seen here:
KLQ Canada 2013 Heats and Final http://youtu.be/PALTHQNcms8
Event Details;
3 Regional Heats and National Final
Date: Monday February 3                            Date: Tuesday February 4
Time:  1pm                                                 Time: 9am  AND 1pm
Location 1:                                                          Location 2:
Our Lady of Fatima CS                                 Queen Victoria Public School
3176 St. Clair Ave. E                                    100 Close Ave
Scarborough On M1L 1V6                                      Toronto, On M6K 1V6

National Final
Date: Wednesday February 5
Time: 7pm            Location: Havergal College, Brenda Robson Hall
      1451 Avenue Road, Toronto, On M5N 2H9

Backgrounder:

Kids’ Lit QuizTM is an annual literature competition for children aged 10 to 13 (grades 5 to 8).   Over 1000 schools compete worldwide from the United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, the United States, to New Zealand and Australia.  The competition celebrates children’s literacy and the love of reading.  During the competition, known as “The Sport of Reading”, student teams are quizzed on a wide range of topics, in categories ranging from poetry to authors to settings or characters.  They learn the quiz categories only minutes before the quiz. Anything published in English from nursery rhymes to comic books to the Hunger Games is fair game.
This is the fourth year that Canada will field a team at the World Final of the International Kids’ Lit Quiz TM.
Teams of students from Public, Catholic and Independent schools from across Ontario are competing in the tournament. For the first time in Canada teams from BC will also compete. Southridge School from British Columbia will field two teams at the Canadian tournament being held in Toronto February 3, 4 and 5, 2014.
Eight teams will advance to the National Final where the winner will be asked to represent Canada in Cornwall England at the Kids’ Lit Quiz TM World Final.
Kids’ Lit Quiz Canada is a not for profit organization and is run by volunteers.
Contact:
Nancy Davidson, Kids’ Lit Quiz Canada National Coordinator, at: 416 992-6903
Email:          kidslitquizcanada@gmail.com    www.kidslitquiz.ca
Twitter: @kidslitquiz_ca
Facebook: Kids Lit Quiz Canada






[1] James (from James and the Giant Peach)
[2] Tintin

Friday, January 17, 2014

What Are YOU Doing on Family Day, Feb. 17?

What are you doing for family day? I'll be presenting two fun and informative workshops for kids about the legend of the Golem at The Jewish Literary Festival in Toronto.




The Golem is the subject of my upcoming Young Adult novel Gottika, which will be published by Dancing Cat Books this spring, and includes some dramatic illustrations by new talent Alexander Griggs-Burr.




In my workshop, we'll talk about the story and its influence on pop culture (you'd be surprised!), watch some funky videos and create comic strips based on the tale. So please come out and meet the Golem with us!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

I'm Wild about this Junior Library Guild Selection!





What a way to start the new year. My latest science nonfiction project, Zoobots, from KCP,  has been picked as a Junior Library Guild selection!  Alas, you'll have to wait to read it - it won't be pubbing 'til Spring.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

What's Your Bold Vision?

It started with an idea:

"When 23 men met in Charlottetown PEI in 1864, their collective thinking and visioning ultimately led to the formation of Canada. We want to know, what do 23 women envision for our country for the next 150 years?"

Now that idea has turned into an exciting national conference, for which 23 female 'visionaries' will be selected to draft their own view of what Canada should look like in the future.

I'm delighted to announce that I've been nominated to participate! I hope I have enough vision.....

Please check out A Bold Vision to find out more about this innovative project, and for ways you can be involved too!  

Because: Science!