8 Kids’ Books That Make Great Gifts
Books are always a welcome gift to find under the tree. Here are 8 new Canadian kids’ titles to add to your gift list this year, as seen on CTV Your Morning December 15th, 2022.
Picture books, ages 3-7
Illustrator Lauren Soloy captures the joy and verve of this classic Canadian folk song with rich artwork featuring nods to the wildlife and culture of Newfoundland. The sheet music and cultural context are included in the back matter. I’s the B’y (Greystone Kids) is a family classic, perfect to read (or sing) aloud!
If you’ve ever spent any time with a cat, then the title of this book alone is going to make you laugh. In a companion book to the cheeky How To Give Your Cat a Bath, Nicola Winstanley returns to the hilarious ‘how to’ formula, this time introducing a canine element. How To Teach Your Cat a Trick (Tundra Books) is guaranteed to make kids and adults laugh.
Kaleidoscope of Dinosaurs (Wide Eyed Editions) is a must have for dinosaur fans. This over-sized, nonfiction title is full of information on the prehistoric world pulled from fossils and ancient artwork. It explores how a dinosaur’s size and climate affects coloration, the kind of plant and sea life that existed, and how much of of our understanding of extinct or ancient animals is based on artwork.
Middle grade, ages 9-13
The Bear House (Holiday House) features three kids on the run during a civil war in a Medieval-style world in which the ruling houses are based on constellations. This is the kind of epic fantasy with rich world building that adventure-lovers can spend their vacation sinking into. The sequel is also available!
Enemies (Yen Press) is another fantastic contemporary graphic novel from Svetlana Chmakova. In this latest instalment of the Berrybrook Middle School Chronicles, Felicity finds her friendships tested when she enters a pitch contest in entrepreneur club. The family and friendship dynamics are spot on and Chmakova includes plenty of humour
In How to Be a Goldfish (Scholastic), a city boy and a country girl with complicated family situations find themselves in the middle of a decades-old mystery. I particularly enjoyed how author Jane Baird Warren wove moments of Canadian history into this tender story, including the Barnardo Home Children and the civil rights protests following Operation Soap, a major moment in Canadian LGBTQIA+ history.
More Than Money (Annick) is a comprehensive, easy to understand primer on economics for kids, specifically the pervasive economics of inequality. This book defines economic concepts and places them in greater context so the reader can understand how interconnected the system is. Financial literacy as it applies to social justice is such an important concept and this book provides tons of food for thought
Teens
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (Lerner) is a smart and loving adaptation of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s classic memoir about ecology and Indigenous learning. The young readers’s adaptation includes a glossary and illustrations, but it is perhaps best described by Kimmerer, as “a braid of stories meant to heal our relationship with the world.”
Happy reading and tune in next Thursday, December 22nd for some grown-up books to add to your list!