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Introduction
Welcome to the TD Summer Reading Club 2004 !
This summer will be hot! Over 260,000 youths from Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Yukon will be reading books and having fun as they shout: "Fire up your imagination!" The TD Summer Reading Club is offering these kids who have just gotten out of school a fun-filled vacation of games and reading. Each year, there is a specific theme and, this year, children will be on a quest for dragons.
This fun reading Club is funded by TD Bank Group. It was started by the Toronto Public Library in 1994 and expanded across Ontario in 2001, in English and French. In 2003, it found a new partner, Library and Archives Canada, whose mandate is to extend the reading club's activities to other provinces and territories in Canada. This year TD Summer Reading Club welcomes nine regional partners: Newfoundland and Labrador Public Libraries in Stephenville; Prince Edward Island Provincial Library Service in Morell; Montréal Public Library; Regroupement des Centres régionaux de services aux bibliothèques publiques du Québec; Northwest Territories Public Library Services in Hay River; Nova Scotia Provincial Library in Halifax; Yukon Public Libraries in Whitehorse; and Nunavut Public Library Services in Baker Lake. Library and Archives Canada would like to thank all its regional partners who will be disseminating the TD Summer Reading Club.
The activity/logbook for children and the staff manual for the libraries were produced and designed by the Toronto Public Library. The French version was prepared by the Ottawa Public Library and the Canadian Children's Literature Service of Library and Archives Canada. The poster shows a fabulous dragon circling the earth and other design elements created by Paul Morin, an illustrator known for his vibrantly coloured and richly textured works.
The TD Summer Reading Club will help children 12 and under develop a taste for reading, while encouraging them to retain what they have learned and to pick up good reading habits. The Club offers a fun approach to reading. Participants will receive a poster and an activity/logbook filled with word games, riddles and other games related to this summer's theme, dragons. The municipal, provincial and territorial libraries that joined the Club are encouraged to organize activities such as riddle, reading and drawing contests, creating murals, and arranging thematic events and author and illustrator visits. The TD Summer Reading Club will bring more children and teens into public libraries to show them that there is a plethora of amazing information that they can access to their heart's content. As they expand their knowledge, they will grow as individuals and enrich the society in which they live.
On behalf of Library and Archives Canada, I invite teachers and school principals to "spread the word" by distributing TD Summer Reading Club invitations to students throughout the month of June. Parents and other adults can also help children develop a taste for reading by taking them to one of the public libraries participating in the TD Summer Reading Club.
So, look out fans of dragons, castles and extraordinary characters from epic and marvellous adventure books. Leave your inanimate TV screens and game consoles behind and discover the fantastic and chivalrous world of books. It will be a hot summer. Let the dragons and other legendary monsters beware; valiant knights and fearless princesses armed with their favourite books will chase them into the deepest corners of the libraries, shouting "Fire up your imagination!"
Roch Carrier
National Librarian of Canada
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