DIARY OF A FLY pays respect to the tiny ones, even if they are a little icky

Click to Play BookShort

www.movingstories.tv - Childrens books are books for which I have a huge respect, but more experience consuming as a young reader than critiquing as a member of the adult reading posse.  So Ill quote Susan Moorhead of the  New Rochelle Public Library in New York, writing a starred review in the School Library Journal  when she reports, Fans of Diary of a Spider and Diary of a Worm will be thrilled with the latest mix of whimsy and scientific fact in DIARY OF A FLY (all titles published by HarperCollins), written by New York Times bestselling author Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Harry Bliss.

BookShorts' Coal Lumper Holiday Party Rocks

Click to Play BookShort

Guest Posting by IRENE DUMA of BitterTonic.com ... BookShorts celebrates the season with all their naughty friends. Let's see who's on the list.

I see the Porkbelly Futures. That's their second time on the list. Good work Paul, Marty, Chaz, Stu and Rebecca. Oh, and Teddy Leonard too.

The Gents are naughty. That's Bruce Pirrie, Bob Bainborough, Mark Baram and Doug Morency. Patrick McKenna, the 5th Gent, was being nice in Hamilton and so couldn't come out this evening.

And so is Marty Adams - cast member of the much hoopla'd current Second City show "Facebook of Revelations." Which we might add was directed by the aforementioned naughty Mr. Pirrie.

Oh - she calls herself a pilgrim, but party MC Sue Kenney is very, very naughty. Judith Keenan was there of course. Naughty. With bells on.

And then there was me, the evening's host, Irene Duma. 100% pure angel.

Thanks to our guests - yup - mostly naughty.

And big sloppy thank yous to: The Gladstone Hotel, our hosts for the second of five years of history-making holidays; Come As You Are available for toys year round at 701 Queen Street West, and Inniskillin Wines who graciously provided most excellent spirits.

Meisner, de Groot now Associates

Click to Play BookShort

www.bookshorts.com ... It's a power duo if ever there was one - Susan Meisner, Debby de Groot -- look out press here they come! And by all accounts it was welcomed by all at their joint Holiday Party and announcement Monday December 10. The two firms intend to join forces as of January 2, operating out of the Meisner offices on King Street East in Toronto.

Biased though we are (BookShorts is and continues to be a client) we did our own video survey of guests at the fete -- what a hoot to turn the cameras on the gals usually *behind* the scenes!  With many thanks to the guests of Susas and Debby, and apologies to all professional camera people everywhere. More video enthusiasm to come when their new website launches - watch for it!

SEAN CULLEN at IFOA on kids, curiosity, writing, and Hamish X

www.bookshorts.com/blog ... I caught a television interview with Sean Cullen, the talented artist of comedy, television and stage. It must have been shot some years ago. In that interview he quietly aspired to realize his dream of becoming an author. With the success of Cullen's HAMISH X series of books for young readers, he has obviously reached his goal. Hamish X and the Hollow Mountain, the second work, was the focus of this IFOA Kids reading during the last International Festival of Authors. Sean's observation of the TV biz versus book-biz may even give you pause before your next boob-tube armchair tirade!

With thanks to Harbourfront IFOA, Sean Cullen, and the students of York Woods Public School and MacLaughlin College. For more bookish event coverage, visit bookshorts.com/blog. (c) 2007 BookShorts Literacy Program.

Donald Ziraldo, Karl Kaiser launch ICEWINE Extreme Winemaking

Click to Play BookShort

www.movingstories.tv ... It's finally here, in time for the holidays, and if you are anything like Master Donald Ziraldo, you'll be giving your world-wide globe-trotting fabulous friends and family the quintessential Canadian gift - Icewine!  The book of course.  That's what Order-of-Canada Donald and his award-winning partner Karl Kaiser are undoubtedly planning, and we'd do well to follow suit. It's a book all beautiful, informative and useful too, showcasing art, science and glorious recipes that honour the beverage these two entreprenuers brought from Germany to put Canada, literally, on the wine-making map of the world.  Am I gushing?  You bet.  I wanna make a movie with a mogul ;)

ICEWINE: Extreme Winemaking is now in stores, published by Key Porter / H.B. Fenn and Company.  This video has been assembled courtesy of the gracious guests attending the launch event, held November 21 at Chapters Indigo Young Eglington Centre, with contributions from Jamie Kennedy Kitchens, Artisan Cheese Marketing, Inniskillin Wines, and Key Porter.

Watch for the interview version of our coverage, coming soon!

Governor General Lit Award to Smardz Frost, I'VE GOT A HOME IN GLORYLAND

www.bookshorts.com -- Now a Governor General Literary Award winner, I've Got a Home in Glory Land by author Karolyn Smardz Frost is the epic story and first entirely original biography of a fugitive slave couple since the 19th century.
BookShorts attended the event celebrating its publication at St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto in the Spring of 2007. Author / Teacher / Activist AUSTIN CLARKE provided clear insight for the significant contribution Smardz Frost has made to history.

The book is the fascinating and absorbing story of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, two fugitive slaves from Kentucky who made a daring daylight escape from slavery in 1831. It is both a devastating portrait of the conditions and the politics of slavery and an inspiring account of two intrepid fugitive slaves whose flight to freedom changed US and Canadian history.

(c) BookShorts MovingStories.TV; Book Published by Thomas Allen Publishers and available now at ChaptersIndigo.ca