The Forest of Reading is a Canadian reading program by the Ontario Library Association -- the largest recreational reading program in Canada. Most participants hear about it through their libraries. Across the country, kids register in the Forest of Reading program to read books nominated for awards and then vote for their favourites.
This year, Sci/Why's own L.E. Carmichael has a book nominated for the Yellow Cedar Award! Her book is The Boreal Forest, a science book you can read about on her website at this link. You can also click on this link to see a number of resources she has shared about the book here on Sci/Why, including fun videos, lesson plans, activities and projects, and links to traditional indigenous knowledge websites.
L.E. Carmichael talks all about the Yellow Cedar Award and her book's fellow nominees at this link to her website. Many of the nominees this year are books on science topics. If you're looking for some great ideas for science reading, that's a great place to start! And the other nominees are interesting, too. If you're looking for books that are more age-appropriate, the Forest of Reading program has nominees for ten awards at this link.
I hear it's a long weekend? I'm not sure how to tell, really, since we will all (hopefully) be doing exactly what we've been doing for the last couple of weeks: preventing the spread of potentially deadly viruses by eating too much while watching Netflix in our jammies.
Jammies are a long-standing Easter tradition in the Carmichael family, because the Grandparents Carmichael used to give my brother and me a new pair of PJs with our baskets of chocolate and kids' books every year. And it occurred to me that once you and your kids recover from your chocolate comas, and have finished reading your shiny new copies of The Boreal Forest, you might find yourselves in need of more fun and educational things you can do at home. And thus I present:
The Great Big Boreal Forest Resource List
First - it's a video of me reading from the book!
Thank you to my publisher, Kids Can Press, for permission to keep this video available online until the end of the school year. May it bring the outdoors inside to you.
Note:
Worldwide, hundreds of Indigenous peoples live in the boreal biome. I’ve included resources for those peoples featured in my book, but I encourage you to learn about the Nations nearest you!
Canada Gwich’in Social & Cultural Institute – a repository of Traditional Knowledge, including audio recordings of Gwich’in words and information on Gwich’in medicine plants
For teenagers that want to learn more, or for adults who want more knowledge to help support their children's learning - here are some of the adult-level books I consulted while researching The Boreal Forest. Check your local library for ebook options, or see what you can find online!
Bannick, Paul (2008) The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters with North America’s Most Iconic Birds. Seattle, WA: The Mountaineers Books.
Bondrup-Nielsen, Soren (2009) A Sound Like Water Dripping: In Search of the Boreal Owl. Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press.
Chang, Mingteh (2013) Forest Hydrology: An Introduction to Water and Forests. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Crawford, R.M.M. (2013) Tundra-Taiga Biology: Human, Plant, and Animal Survival in the Arctic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gawthrop, Daniel (1999) Vanishing Halo: Saving the Boreal Forest. Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books.
Lynch, Wayne. (2001) The Great Northern Kingdom: Life in the Boreal Forest. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside.
Do you know of additional boreal resources? Drop them in the comments for others to explore!
