scholarly journals NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Pearce

Greetings all,It has been a long winter in the Edmonton Area so we are very happy to be welcoming spring weather and warm temperatures! This issue’s news items are a bit of a mixed bag of recaps and award announcements:Recap of TD Canadian Children’s Book Week & Lana Button TD Canadian Children’s Book Week was held May 5-12 across Canada. Events across the country featured 400 readings to 28,000 children in 175 communities. At the University of Alberta we featured Lana Button on May 9th for a presentation, showcasing her newest picture book, My Teacher’s Not Here! To read more about Lana Button check out the UAlberta Library Blog: Library News. To read more about other Book Week events see: http://bookweek.ca/CCBC AGMCanadian Children’s Book Centre is holding its Annual General Meeting 2018 on June 14, 2018. This year’s guest speaker is veteran publisher Jim Lorimer. CCBC members and the general public are welcome to attend.WHEN: Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 6:30 pmWHERE: Room 200, Northern District Library40 Orchard View Blvd.Toronto, Ontario The American Library Association Announces Youth Medal Awards for 2018  The annual ALA Medal Awards for 2018 were announced in February. Notable award winners were as follows:John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature: Hello, Universe written by Erin Entrada KellyRandolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children: Wolf in the Snow illustrated and written by Matthew CordellCoretta Scott King Book Awards recognizing African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults: Piecing Me Together written by Renée WatsonMichael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults: We Are Okay written by Nina LaCourStonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience: Little & Lion written by Brandy Colbert and The 57 Bus written by Dashka SlaterFor a full description of all award winners see the announcement on the ALA website.Finally, as some food for thought I thought this article from the Family section of The New York Times (April 16, 2018) might be of interest to some our readers.  Perri Klass, M.D. writes about how Reading Aloud to Young Children Has Benefits for Behavior and Attention.All the best for an enjoyable spring!Hanne PearceCommunications Editor

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Feisst

Shireen, Nadia. Good Little Wolf. New York: Alfred A Knopf. 2011. Print. Good Little Wolf is British illustrator Nadia Shireen’s picture book debut, and a successful one at that. Shireen, who earned an MA in Children’s Book Illustration from Angela Ruskin University in Cambridge, originally planned a career in law but thankfully pursued her passion for illustration and now, authorship. The story begins with the narrator ensuring a group of youngsters, including a red-hooded girl and a (soother) suckling pig are all comfortable. Rolf is a good little wolf. He is helpful to his friends, the elderly Mrs. Boggins and Little Pig, eats his vegetables and enjoys baking.  One day Rolf meets a Big Bad Wolf, who is clearly surprised by Rolf’s goodness; young children will delight at the Big Bad Wolf sniffing Rolf’s butt to confirm that he is, indeed, a wolf. A few tests are in order to determine his wolf-ness and Rolf fails miserably – until the Big Bad Wolf shows up with Mrs. Boggins and a fork. Suddenly Rolf shows his fierce side and the Big Bad Wolf is going to reform – or so it seems. The quirky illustrations and fresh take on a traditional tale will delight the 4-8 crowd, though parents may need to do some explaining after the final twist when we learn the identity of the narrator . I look forward to Shireen’s next book and won’t have to wait long – “Hey, Presto!” is due out this summer. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Debbie FeisstDebbie is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta.  When not renovating, she enjoys travel, fitness and young adult fiction.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Pearce

Hello! As this issue quickly follows our last there are only a few news items to share with you. The Forest of Reading / Festival of Trees 2019 which is a national festival, held its largest event in Toronto from May 14 to 16. Students read a variety of Canadian children’s books throughout the year and then vote on their favourite book. Awards are then granted for books in a variety of different categories. The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has a lovely summary article about the festival that includes a lengthy list of all the winners. You can also see all the nominees for the various awards on the Ontario Library Association website. The Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable (VCLR) has announced it’s Information Book Award Shortlist. It includes eight juvenile non-fiction titles. Voting for winners continues into the fall and the winner will be announced in November. The Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Annual General Meeting will be taking place on Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 6:00 pm. CCBC members and the general public are welcome to attend: Room 224, Northern District Library / 40 Orchard View Blvd. / Toronto, Ontario M4R 1B9 On a final note, the Children’s book author Judith Kerr passed away earlier this month. Kerr was known for her book The Tiger that Came to Tea. The New York Times recently published an obituary tribute to Kerr. Best wishes for a wonderful summer! Hanne


Author(s):  
С.Б. Фомина

В статье рассматриваются лексико-семантические характеристики сокращений современного англоязычного газетного дискурса на материале англоязычных электронных изданий The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday-Times, особенности их функционирования. Газетный дискурс представлен как сфера функционирования различных сокращений, а именно контракций, усечений, блендинга, аббревиаций. Предметом выступают сокращенные лексические единицы, их функционирование в современной прессе и стратегии их передачи с английского языка на русский. Обработка фактического материала позволяет произвести количественный анализ лексики и определить наиболее характерный тип аббревиаций для текстов СМИ, определить их функции. Анализ материала позволяет фиксировать тот факт, что среди рассмотренных лексических единиц, именно аббревиатуры преобладают в современном газетном дискурсе, что подтверждает влияние событийности на изменение лексического состава языка и является мощным средством его пополнения. Функционирование образно-оценочных и культурно-маркированных сокращений в газетном дискурсе может как облегчать, так и усложнять восприятие информации. Однако сокращенные лексические единицы содержат широкий информационный потенциал, что позволяет фиксировать основное значение текста в памяти получателя и влияет на восприятие информации в нужном автору направлении. Словарь, включенный в текст, приобретает как информативное, так и эмоционально-оценочное значение. ____________________________ © Фомина С.Б., 2021 The article observes the lexical and semantic characteristics of abbreviations of the modern English-language newspaper discourse based on material of the English-language electronic publications from of The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday-Times, discusses the functioning of abbreviations. Newspaper discourse is presented as the sphere of functioning of various abbreviations, such as contractions, clipping, blending, abbreviations. The subject is abbreviated lexical units, their functioning in the modern press and strategies for their transfer from English into Russian. Factual material analysis allows carrying out a quantitative analysis of the vocabulary and determine the most typical type of abbreviations for media texts, their functions. The analysis of the material proves quantitative superiority of abbreviations that prevail in modern newspaper discourse that confirms the influence of eventfulness on the change in the lexical composition of the language and is a powerful means of replenishing it. The functioning of figurative and evaluative and culturally-marked abbreviations in newspaper discourse facilitates and complicates the perception of information at the same time. However, abbreviated lexical units contain a wide information potential, which allows fixing the main meaning of the text in the receiver's memory and affects the perception of information in the direction the author needs. The vocabulary included in the text acquires informative and emotionally evaluative value as well.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Feisst

Huget, Jennifer LaRue. The Best Birthday Party Ever. Illus. LeUyen Pham. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2011. Print. “My birthday is 5 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, and 8 hours away.  Today I started to plan my party.” And so the planning begins for the 5-year-old soon-to-be birthday girl in this charming picture book.  She has to start planning early if she wants the best birthday party ever.  She is going to invite all 57 of her friends including the mailman and the invitations will be sprinkled with fairy dust.  She will have 9 thousand balloons, streamers and napkins: all in pink.  On the menu is a 17-layer cake, each layer a different flavour, with 6 zillion candles on top.  Not only will there be: a magician, camel rides and a Ferris wheel, but each lucky guest will receive a hamster as a party favour. In a kid-friendly countdown style towards the big day, our sweet party planner gets more and more excited as her birthday approaches and the plans get more and more grandiose.  Only after her mother comments that this birthday party is “getting out of hand” does she agree to skip the sparkly necklaces.  The day finally arrives and while it may not be the party she dreamed of, she is appreciative and enjoys her day so much that she immediately begins plans for her next birthday. This beautifully illustrated read-aloud captures the excitement of a child as she looks forward to her special day and will appeal to lower elementary grades as well as preschoolers.  The whimsical mostly-pink drawings may be initially off-putting to boys but they are certain to relate and enjoy the story. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Debbie FeisstDebbie is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta.  When not renovating, she enjoys travel, fitness and young adult fiction. 


2020 ◽  
pp. 171-180
Author(s):  
Derritt Mason

This book’s conclusion reiterates the argument that queer YA is an anxious genre that perpetually rehearses a nervous uncertainty about its own constitution. Mason steps back to consider queer YA’s relationship to children’s literature more broadly, entering the discussion through a concept developed in Beverley Lyon Clark’s Kiddie Lit: the “anxiety of immaturity” that circulates around and within children’s literature and its criticism. Mason revisits the “Great YA Debate” of 2014, which followed a Slate piece by Ruth Graham entitled “Adults Should Be Embarrassed to Read Young Adult Books.” This debate included high profile pieces by Christopher Beha and A.O. Scott in The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, both of which evince a profound ambivalence about whether or not adults should be reading young adult literature. These conversations, Mason concludes, illustrate how young adult literature continues to be an unceasing source of adult anxiety.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desmarais

Thompson, Lauren. Polar Bear Morning. Illus. Stephen Savage. New York: Scholastic Press, 2013. Print.Ten years ago, Lauren Thompson and Stephen Savage collaborated on “Polar Bear Night”, which was a splendid picture book that swiftly became a New York Times best seller. “Polar Bear Morning” follows up on the simple story of a polar bear cub that ventures out onto the arctic tundra for an adventure, but this time our favourite cub meets a new friend. The story begins when the cub emerges from her dark den, peeks out at the clear blue sky, and follows the sound of seagulls. Soon after heading out into the snow and ice, she notices something tumbling down a snow hill. It’s a snow cub! The moment when the cubs first meet is beautifully portrayed in a two-page spread that shows two furry faces in profile looking at each other without words on the pages, which perfectly captures a child’s speechless, wide-eyed bliss upon meeting a new friend.The story continues with several charming scenes that show how the friendship develops: they climb the snow hill and tumble down together; they sprint beside the sea; they race past seals, walruses and whales; they pause at the ice’s edge; and finally, they jump into the sea together. It’s a delightful portrayal of a budding friendship, with simple, yet charming illustrations rendered in a gentle palette of soft blues, greys, pinks, and browns. This picture book is a joy to read and has all the makings of a beloved classic, including frolicsome illustrations, thoughtful design, and a captivating story. It’s a wholly satisfying picture book that will be a pleasure to read again and again.Recommendation: 4 stars out of 4Reviewer: Robert DesmaraisRobert Desmarais is Head of Special Collections at the University of Alberta and Managing Editor of The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Studies, with a Book History and Print Culture designation, he also has university degrees in English literature and publishing. He has been collecting and enjoying children’s books for as long as he can remember.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desmarais

Ever since The New York Times published an article in October 2010 about the impending demise of the picture book, I have wanted to publish a short screed in its defense. I thought this was an opportune time because so many splendid picture books are featured in our spring issue. Let it be known that I am a devoted fan of children’s picture books. I read them voraciously as an adult, and have done so for as long as I can remember. I collect them. I purchase them in stores and from online booksellers. I present them to friends and little ones as gifts. As a special collections librarian, I also purchase them to complement and strengthen our antiquarian collections. To my immense satisfaction, I am literally surrounded by them. I understand that my passion for picture books is intense, but picture books are essential to feeding the child’s imagination and developing his or her critical thinking skills. A simple keyword search on the University of Alberta Libraries’ online catalogue revealed numerous peer-reviewed articles about the ways that picture books open up imaginative worlds to children; with this richer understanding of stories, children gain a greater understanding of themselves and the world they live in. If we acknowledge that picture books encourage children to construct meaning about characters, events, settings, and so on, then it seems only natural to conclude that picture books are essential to preparing beginning readers for pictureless chapter books. The author of the Times article reported that many parents are saying “My kid doesn’t need books with pictures anymore”, which is utterly shocking especially when we know the important role that pictures play in communication. When we introduce picture books to young readers, we allow them to make connections between their own life experiences and the illustrator’s use of colour, imagery, perspective, characterization, and dramatization. Picture books can provide powerful learning opportunities for children. I am always astonished at how much there is to learn about reading pictures. Whenever I open a picture book, I take great delight in the interpretive process. Indeed, interpretation is the essence of picture books, which is why sharing picture books with children is one of the best ways to develop their critical thinking skills. Are picture books dying “a sad little death”? The answer is obvious. I think not. I hope you enjoy this issue and please do get in touch if you have comments or questions. Robert Desmarais, Managing Editor


2020 ◽  
pp. 89-92
Author(s):  
Irina Sergeevna Golovanova ◽  
Elena Valerevna Bolotova

The authors of the article outline that in modern linguistics, the role of human character in language and speech is studied, new concepts such as the conceptual picture of the world, language portrait, speech portrait, the ratio of language and speech, etc. are defined. The relevance of the article is presented in the linguistic description of the speeches by politicians of the Republican party in connection with the increased international interest in political life. The language features of speeches by American politicians are reviewed. The goal-directed factor of the research is to determine the lexical features of political speeches that characterize representatives of the Republican party as well-known political figures. Methods. Accordingly, the description of the lexicon of politicians, which acts as a lexical analysis in this work, is the main method of research, which is inextricably linked with semantic analysis. The language base for the research is English-language publications, such as The Guardian, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. The results of the study are associated with the identification of words used in political speeches that show the attitude of Republicans to the needs and values of American society, special abbreviations, expressions related to political, military, and social spheres of activity. It is concluded that the lexical and semantic characteristics influence the formation of ideas about the communicative and personal qualities of politicians.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice Kung

Pignat, Caroline. Unspeakable. Toronto: Razorbill, 2014. Print. Ellie Ryan is an eighteen-year-old girl who has suffered an insurmountable number of personal tragedies that have taught her the importance of perseverance. After her mother’s death, she finds herself unwanted by her father and is forced to move in with her aunt Geraldine. Due to Ellie’s inability to cope with her circumstances, her aunt sends her aboard the Empress of Ireland where she learns to embrace her new position as a stewardess with the help of her most trusted friend, Meg.On the second crossing of the Empress, Ellie meets Jim, a lonely fire stoker who has experienced his share of grief and tragedy, something Ellie is all too familiar with. After many chance encounters late at night along the ship's rail, she finds Jim writing in a journal. He is a quiet and secretive young man who doesn’t share much of his life, which intrigues and compels her to discover more about him. When the ship docks at Quebec City, they explore the city together, a memorable experience for her. However, tragedy strikes on their next voyage when the ship collides into another ship. Ellie appears to be the one of the few remaining crew members to survive the disaster and has no word of Jim’s whereabouts; it seems unlikely that Jim would have survived the frigid ocean. Wyatt Steele, a journalist with The New York Times, later asks Ellie for her story. She refuses at first, but unwittingly gives into him when he appears one day with Jim’s journal. Wyatt represents the last remaining hope she has to learn more about the man she had fallen in love with and to possibly discover what happened to him. In exchange for her story, he agrees to provide Jim’s journal as payment, one page at a time.               This young adult novel follows Ellie’s journey aboard the Empress of Ireland in 1914 and offers a realistic context for Canada’s worst maritime disaster. It explores themes of depression from the loss of family and friends, survivor’s guilt, and redemption. The story weaves an intricate plot that alternates the timeline before and after the ship’s sinking, in order for the reader to actively live through Ellie’s recollections in the present. Overall, the author intricately writes a romantic story in the backdrop of a historical Canadian event that is well suited to young adult audiences.Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Janice KungJanice Kung is an Academic Library Intern at the University of Alberta’s John W. Scott Health Sciences Library. She obtained her undergraduate degree in commerce and completed her MLIS in 2013. She believes that the best thing to beat the winter blues is to cuddle up on a couch and lose oneself in a good book.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Feisst

Armstrong, Kelley. The Calling. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2012. Print. Ontario writer, Kelley Armstrong, author of the New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling Darkest Powers young adult urban fantasy trilogy, brings us the second offering of her Darkness Rising trilogy.  The first in the trilogy, 2011’s The Gathering, was previously reviewed in the inaugural issue of Deakin, Vol. 1 No 1. This book is not recommended as a standalone, as The Calling starts immediately where we left off with The Gathering and the author’s recap on events and characters is minimal, which for fans of series is refreshing. Sixteen-year-old Maya Delaney and her friends have been forced to flee from their community of Salmon Creek, a small town on Vancouver Island, during a forest fire that was surely deliberately set.  After their rescue helicopter makes an emergency landing in the remote wilderness, the group is on the run and forced to survive using nothing but their wits and their supernatural abilities that begin to unfold as they find themselves in danger.  Through this we learn more about Maya’s friends as well as the circumstances surrounding the death of her best friend, Serena, in a bizarre swimming accident the previous year. Maya also learns a lot about her own powers but perhaps the most mysterious event is the introduction of Calvin Antone, a man who is pursuing Maya, and who admits to being her biological father. Teen readers will certainly delight in the run-and-hide action as well as the intensifying romance, but I couldn’t help feeling a little let down by The Calling.  After the adrenaline-fuelled and plot-driven action of The Gathering, the lack of storyline and character development in this book was disappointing. With that said, however, we don’t have long to wait to see how things turn out for Maya - the final title in the trilogy, The Rising, is set for release in April 2013. As such, I am giving it three stars out of four on the promise of the final book. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Debbie Feisst Debbie is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta.  When not renovating, she enjoys travel, fitness and young adult fiction.


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