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Showing posts from May, 2013

The Sam Smith 2013 Bird Fest

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Sunday May 26, 2013 Back in 2010 I wrote about the first Spring Bird Festival being held in Toronto's Colonel Sam Smith Park . The tradition has continued since then, and yesterday morning Steve and I headed over to once again check out the displays. Unfortunately we were a little rushed as I had another commitment to get to, but we were still there long enough to see... The Sciensational Sssnakes!! Display Snapping turtle Eastern fox snake Steve's new friend. The Wild Ontario Display (These guys are from the University of Guelph; the program used to be called the Wildlife Education & Environmental Program, or WEEP.) Artemis, the female American kestrel Whistler, the Broad-winged hawk Einstein, the Great horned owl (we've met before ) Information on Local Organizations There were lots of displays from some great organizations, such as Toronto and Region Conservation , the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) , Local

Eating Humble Alligator Pie, and Some Poetry Recommendations

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Sunday May 19, 2013 Last week, Open Book Toronto posted an article in which Canadian author Susan Hughes worried about the lack of poetry being published for kids . As she says: "Sure, poetry for all ages suffers from a small readership, in Canada or any country, but I have this sense that kids' poetry books had a heyday in Canada — maybe 30 or 40 years ago, when Dennis Lee's Alligator Pie was first published — and since then have declined in number. Probably books of poetry for kids just don't generate the sales necessary to make them viable. But why is that? Why don't we buy Canadian poetry for our kids to read?" Hughes also got a publisher, an editor, an author, and a teacher-librarian to weigh in, and the article makes for an interesting read . It's also a great place to find the names of some recently published poetry books worth a look! "You'd better be planning on feeding me pie..." Photo © Marilyn Anne Campbell

Hope for the Real Princess Merida

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Saturday May 11, 2013 So, I'm a little late to the party on this one, but apparently Disney/Pixar stirred up some controversy a week or two ago when they announced that Merida, the hero of Brave , was going to be officially named the 11th Disney Princess during a "coronation ceremony" planned for today, May 11th. As part of the announcement, they released new 2D images of Merida that will be used on some merchandise. Girl geek culture site The Mary Sue wrote with some disappointment about the new look , calling it "generic-seeming", although noting that the addition of the tartan was a nice touch: I don't know who first wrote about the change critically, but the Mary Sue article led to a Facebook post from the website A Mighty Girl and, eventually, a petition against the "Merida makeover."  Various Facebook users and petition signers noted that Merida's waist is skinnier, her hair is tamer, her dress is lower-cut and fancier, her c