Where would we be without teachers? These incredible gifters of knowledge have, at various times, been our nurturers, cheerleaders, nurses, entertainers, counsellors, confidants and of course our guides through the mysteries of the world. There aren’t nearly enough ways to say ‘thank you’ to the teachers of the world. Simply put, they taught us the joys of learning, and we continue on that path to this day. Here are a few books from fantastically knowledgeable BC publishers that we hope might just teach you something new.
Linguistics 105
Language and literacy are fundamental skills, both for our ability to communicate, and to enable our cultures, values and ideas to continue on in future generations.
Meg & Greg: The Bake Sale by Elspeth Rae, Rowena Rae, illustrated by Elisa Gutierrez (Orca Book Publishers) helps young learners parse out the tricky phonetics of the English language with an engaging and easy to follow narrative about Meg and Greg’s hilarious misadventure in attempting to pull off a bake sale.
This Is What I’ve Been Told – Mii Yi Gaa-Bi Wiindmaagooyaan by Juliana Armstrong (Medicine Wheel Education) explores the connection between language and culture and the vital links language provides to the past and future. Featuring gorgeous illustrations to accompany Anishnaabemowin vocabulary and its cultural connections, this is a fantastic book for any early exploration into Anishnaabemowin and the Ojibway culture and history.
Ecology 101
Preserving the beauty and diversity of the world for future generations is at the forefront of many educators’ minds these days. Fostering a keen connection to the animals and the land can not only instill a desire to maintain and preserve all that we still have, but can also encourage empathy and compassion for other creatures as well as each other.
In the latest colourful board book by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd, A is for Anemone (Harbour Publishing) introduces young children to the stunning landscapes and majestic creatures that populate the West Coast, all while teaching them their ABCs.
Peter Wohlleben‘s Do You Know Where The Animals Live? (Greystone Books) takes it up a step for older children with a handbook of interesting facts about the animals of the world and the places they live—from birds and caterpillars in their own backyard, to grizzly bears in chilly Alaska, to puffer fish in the waters of Australia.
Biology 203
Bodies are crazy, fascinating things. Just exploring all the systems that go into nourishing, circulating, protecting and moving our own bodies could take years, without even starting to account for all the creatures with eight legs, three hearts or blue blood!
It Takes Guts: How Your Body Turns Food Into Fuel (and Poop) by Dr. Jennifer Gardy (Greystone Books) demystifies and destigmatizes the crucial job of our digestive system. Just how critical is it? It is the first system to form in our bodies. Delving into everything from the connection between digestion and the immune system to the millions of bacteria that keep the whole thing running smoothly, this is a great book for curious young minds interested in the processes of their bodies.
Caring for Critters: One Year at a Wildlife Rescue Centre by Nicholas Read (Heritage House Publishing) on the other hand, looks at the care and intervention necessary for wild animals that live at the intersections of human habitation. Documenting a year spent at Critter Care, a wildlife rehabilitation facility in Langley, Caring for Critters is an examination of bodies, both belonging to individual furred and feathered creatures, and those larger, connected relationships of bodies that can both harm and heal.
Physical Geography 204
Rocks and trees, rivers and streams and everything in between. If ever there was an easy subject to flex a curious mind, it’s the study of the world as it exists right outside our doors.
Colin Harris is on a mission: get children outside and running, exploring, engaging with the natural world around them Take Me Outside: Running Across the Canadian Landscape that Shapes Us (RMB | Rocky Mountain Books) is Harris’s story of spending nine months running from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Victoria, British Columbia, visiting over 80 schools along the way to engage with 20,000 students about the importance of spending time outside learning, playing, and exploring in the Canadian landscape.
Not to forget the dangers of the outdoors, Outside by Sean McCammon (New Star Books) tells the fictional story of a teacher hiding from a tragic past after a class field trip ends in disaster. David Woods finds himself teaching in Kyoto Japan following the accident, coping with the past, and finding new friendships and adventures in an entirely new landscape.
Sociology 312
Sociology is the study of power, resistance and relationships within our social world. It might not seem like it at first, but everything we do and interact with has been theorized in some way within the discipline of sociology. Take human rights for example. What do you do when one person’s rights come into conflict with another’s?
Making the Case: 2SLGBTQ+ Rights and Religion in Schools by Donn Short, Bruce MacDougall and Paul T. Clarke (UBC Press) explores exactly this scenario in trying to mediate between the right of religious freedom and the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ students in schools. Can schools prevent same sex couples from attending dances on religious grounds, and whose rights should the Charter protect when there is conflict?
Similarly, with/holding by Chantal Gibson (Caitlin Press & Dagger Editions) dives head first, fearlessly into the social reproduction of damaging images of Blackness within our daily media diet. Gibson’s latest poetry collection disrupts the fetishizing algorithms that continue to reproduce Black pain, promote anti-Black racism, and reinforce white supremacy. It boldly confronts the legacies of anti-Black racism from the past and calls out the ways in which they still exist in this neo-colonial present.