Saturday, August 16, 2008

All About Ama

This week I was at the international conference for librarians in
Quebec City. I met librarians from all over the world, and gave out quite a few Mayareads bookmarks. So we may get visitors from some other countries, which I am very excited about. Welcome to all of you librarians visiting.

Ivan from Singapore has already stopped in (See post below). He coordinates library services for teens for the entire country, I believe. Singapore has such an impressive library system. Their presentations were inspiring, and I got a great die-cut model of Molly the Mobile Library. You put it together and have a little cardboard bookmobile.

All About Ama, by Kathy Knowles, is a book I picked up at one of the sessions for Maya and her cousin, Addy. Kathy is an author in Manitoba who writes books for children in Africa. But you may purchase the books also, knowing that your contribution goes toward the production of more books.

Ama is a beautiful little girl who names and points to many body parts, from her head to her toes. She finishes by proclaiming, "That is all of me!" For those with children like Addy who are learning their body parts, this is a perfect book, with clear and simple photographs and a precise text.

Kathy has a lot of great books available. Here is her website:

http://www.osuchildrenslibraryfund.ca/

The conference was fascinating, but I experienced two problems. One is that I missed Patty and Maya greatly. I don't know if everyone wondered why I kept opening my cell phone but not making a phone call, but it was my only source of pictures of my two best girls.

The second is that, while America + better still = Canada, in the words of Pedro the Lion, "Canada's not what she used to be." What she is now is expensive. Be warned if you are planning a trip anytime soon. Our greens don't stretch as far as they used to.