January / February 2002 Vol. 34, no. 1

The Nature of Words: A Stroll among Books

Daniel St-Hilaire
Research and Information Services

Every year, the National Library of Canada's Canadian Children's Literature Service publishes both a print and an electronic version of its Read Up On It kit. The publication's immense popularity makes it a highly anticipated event each fall. The kit is then distributed free of charge throughout the country, encouraging reading for pleasure and the discovery of new children's authors and illustrators.

But few people know that we also present an exhibition devoted entirely to our reading kit.

The result of several months of work by our team, this year’s exhibition, The Nature of Words: A Stroll among Books, was launched on September 3, 2001.

The exhibition also offered a rare opportunity to admire the original works of two Canadian children's literature artists, Ludmila Zeman and Christiane Gaudette. For the duration of the exhibition, Ms. Zeman graciously loaned all the original drawings for her book The First Red Maple Leaf, whose cover was also chosen to illustrate the 2001 edition of Read Up On It. Ms. Gaudette also loaned a series of original drawings from the book Opération papillon.

There are many literary awards for children's literature in Canada; therefore, a significant amount of space was devoted to award-winning books. The exhibition provided the perfect opportunity for us to promote these literary awards as well as their winners.

Many visitors had the pleasure of viewing the books selected for this year’s theme, nature and the environment, and of discovering the diversity and quality of children's literature in Canada.

« Simplement merveilleux ! Tous ces livres ça donne le goût de rêver… »

Montreal

« Les illustrations sont magnifiques, j’adore l’affiche de cette année… »

Hull

" I thought the exhibits were extremely colorful [sic] and attractive…"

British Columbia

"A great reminder why I love this industry!"

Scholastic Canada

"Very beautiful display, I will bring my children to see those books! …"

Ottawa

The exhibition The Nature of Words: A Stroll among Books, organized and prepared by Daniel St-Hilaire and Kevin Joynt of the Canadian Literature Research Service, took place during the months of September and October 2001.

To browse through this year’s Read Up On It and those of previous years, visit the Library’s Web site at www.nlc-bnc.ca/read-up-on-it.