The Children's Book Bank Canada
350 Berkeley Street M5A 2X5 Toronto, ON, Canada

Feeling crafty? Follow local artist Naomi Moyer (author/ illustrator of Black Women Who Dared) as she shows us how to create our own biographies! https://youtu.be/ZKjUoA4t08I

It’s Dr. Seuss's birthday today! Dr. Seuss Day celebrates reading and a mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship. So, we were happy to read that the team at Dr. Seuss Enterprises are moving forward with some necessary change https://www.cbc.ca//dr-seuss-books-publication-racist-imag... * A lesser-known fact about Dr. Seuss is that he created the word nerd (so this book nerd thanks him). #books4kids #keepreading #DrSeussDay

Maybe it’s the way they squeal as they run and make little grunts with their stout noses as they dig in the dirt. Or maybe it’s their cute coiled tails and their plump pink bodies. Whatever it is, we really seem to love pig tales! It’s surprising how many of our favourite and popular children’s stories feature piggies as their heroes. So as we celebrate National Pig Day today, we’d like to quote Charlotte, our fav web-weaving storytelling spider, Some Pig! #books4kids #keepreading #nationalpigday #somepig

Our Authors Like Me series continues with a video workshop by local artist and friend of the Book Bank, Naomi M. Moyer! Naomi is the author of "Black Women Who Dared", a picture book about the lives of exceptional Black Canadian women. Watch her video to learn how she creates her artwork, and how you can make your own biographical art! Learn more about Naomi and her work here: https://www.naomimichelle.com/

Got the winter blues? Nina is here to talk about sadness for this week's Mental Health Story Time.

Today is Tell a Fairy Tale Day! What a perfect opportunity to read fairy tales with your kids, or to revisit some of your favorite childhood tales yourself. So, make a cup of hot chocolate, curl up in a chair and immerse yourself in the world of princes and princesses, witches and wizards, fairies, dragons and unicorns, talking animals and magical plants. We’ve decide to showcase some of the amazing fairy tale books now available new and surprising interpretations of the cl...assic stories, with diverse characters and heroes that look like all of us. #books4kids #keepreading #TellAFairyTaleDay

The Children's Book Bank's 2nd Annual online auction, A Few of Our Favourite Things goes LIVE at 10AM this morning. We have a huge selection of wonderful packages to bid on. And all the money raised goes to help the Book Bank continue to share the love of books and reading! Visit: https://www.32auctions.com/favouritethings2020 #books4kids #keepreading #shoptillyoudrop #shoplocal

We are six days into our online auction and we are almost 80% of the way to our goal! And there is still time to bid on some amazing things. Don’t miss out on the fun. https://www.32auctions.com/favouritethings2020 #books4kids #keepreading #shoptilyoudrop

We have another Book Donation Day THIS Saturday, November 21 from 11:00am - 2:30pm here at the Book Bank. And we have two more dates planned for December. Bundle yourselves and your gently used children's books up and drop them off for us to share with other children. #books4kids #keepreading #community

Here's the news for November! https://mailchi.mp/90e83ff8081a/cbbnews_fall2020

On Fri, the Province of Ontario announced additional measures to help curb the rise in the COVID-19 cases we have been seeing. Effective today (Mon, Nov 23), Toronto and Peel have moved to the 'Grey-Lockdown' category. The Children’s Book Bank will be closed this week (Nov 23 - 28) to work on how we can modify our services to align with the new regulations. We will post our plans as soon as possible. Please check back here for updates. #books4kids #keepreading #stopthespread #wearamask

Kevin Sylvester will be making a special drawing tutorial called How to Have More Fun Doodling for our Youtube channel for the PA Day - Friday, November 20th. The Book Bank will also be open that day from 10am to 3pm. Drop in to receive a link to the video, or you can subscribe to our Youtube channel (The Children's Book Bank Canada). It will also be here on our Facebook page! Kevin Sylvester (@sylvesterartwork) is an award winning illustrator, author and broadcaster. He il...lustrates and writes books for all ages. His picture books include Gargantua (Jr.): Defender of Earth, Super-Duper Monster and Splinters. His middle grade novels range from science fiction (The MINRs trilogy) to mystery novels (The Neil Flambé Capers), road trip silliness (The Fabulous Zed Watson with Basil Sylvester) and super-heroes (Mucus Mayhem, The Hockey Super Six). He also writes and illustrates non-fiction books. There are sports books (Gold Medal for Weird, Basketballogy, Baseballogy) and books on financial literacy (Follow Your Stuff and Follow Your Money). See more

Today is Plush Animals Day - a day to show a little extra love to those stuffed friends that offer many of us joy and comfort all year long. To celebrate, we asked some of our fuzzy friends here at the Book Bank to give us a little peek into what they get up to when our visiting families aren’t around. #books4kids #keepreading #stuffies #funtimesatwork #plushanimalsday

Can reading scary stories benefit children? Yes. Reading spine-chilling tales with your children may teach them some important life lessons. No, you shouldn’t be scaring the pants off your kids, but it’s okay for them to read some scary stories or get scared of the bogeyman every once in a while. Read more about it here: https://bit.ly/31PHTDP (via The Rabbit Hole)... #books4kids #keepreading #halloween

Happy PA Day! Enjoy this video made for us by illustrator extraordinaire, Kevin Sylvester. Learn to draw by using different shapes and lines - it's easy! (And stay tuned for part 2, also live on our Youtube channel).

Only one more week of October! Here are our November hours - we've made a few changes, adding more drop-in time for everyone. A reminder, you must bring your children with you to visit. Masks (and hand sanitizing) are required to enter the storefront. Contact the Book Bank if you want to book a visit with your school, daycare, or other group of 5 or more children.... #books4kids #keepreading

We are working away, writing descriptions and uploading images for our A Few of Our Favourite Things online auction, which kicks off this Thursday, November 19 at 10:00am. We have close to 100 amazing items and packages to bid on and we'll be adding things right until the starting bell rings. For a preview you can visit: https://www.32auctions.com/favouritethings2020

Nina is back for another Mental Health Story Time! Today she's reading about making good choices and setting reasonable goals.

Happy Birthday to Gordon Korman! Did you know that his writing career started as a 7th grade school assignment? After he had finished his project, he decided to submit his book to Scholastic, and at age 14 This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall was published! Korman has sold more than 30 million books (in 32 languages) and has won numerous awards over his four decades of writing. ... You can learn more about Gordon Korman and his books on his website at: https://gordonkorman.com/

The Book Bank wishes you a Diwali that brings happiness to your family! Here's our friend Zenia reading from her book, "'Twas the Night Before Diwali." Enjoy!

Today is #WorldKindnessDay. Something we need more than ever. #books4kids #keepreading

The days are getting shorter, the sky is greyer and it’s definitely colder outside. Skeletons, ghosts and creepy things are showing up on front lawns in every neighbourhood... Halloween is just around the corner. Here are some more scary books this time geared toward older children.... https://imaginationsoup.net/spooky-scary-chapter-books-kids/ #books4kids #keepreading

Today would have been Ursula K. Le Guin’s 91st birthday. Le Guin was a celebrated and beloved author of 21 novels, 11 volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, 12 children’s books, six volumes of poetry and four of translation. The breadth and imagination of her writing also earned her numerous awards. #books4kids #keepreading #dragonsarereal

A reminder that we have our next Book Donation day scheduled for this upcoming Saturday, October 24 from 11:00am - 2:30pm. #books4kids #keepreading #community

I was this many days old when I learned this. Happy Monday All! #books4kids #keepreading

We've got another great Mental Health Storytime with Lori. Today we're focusing on making mistakes - something we all do and all need to learn from. Enjoy!... https://youtu.be/9um4pIOmQc4 #books4kids #keepreading

It's National Boss Day. So here's a shout-out to all the wonderful bosses out there, including our amazing ED, Mary Ladky - who helps us navigate and inspire us to achieve all the good we do here at the Book Bank! #books4kids #keepreading #nationalbossday

It’s a gloomy rainy day. Halloween is coming. So why not climb under a warm blanket with a scary book. Here are some great titles geared to younger readers from Children's Library Lady. https://childrenslibrarylady.com/best-halloween-books-for-/ #books4kids #keepreading

Today is National Dessert Day (let’s be honest, every day should be dessert day)! Why not consider visiting a local bakery, ice cream or chocolate shop or fruit market (safely, of course) to pick up something sweet to enjoy while reading a good book. #books4kids #keepreading #nationaldessertday