By Jeffrey Canton
I’ve been part of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s community for 38 years now and am deeply grateful to the CCBC for playing such a vital role in my work as a writer and reviewer, as an educator and, most importantly, as a reader. Carol McDougall brought me into the CCBC fold when she was the librarian there from 1988 to 1992—first at the College Street location and then at 35 Spadina Road. I was trying to start my career as a book reviewer, and Carol suggested that I do some reviews for Canadian Children’s Book News. They didn’t pay, but reviewers were given a byline credit and it gave me a chance to explore Canadian children’s books in a new way. I still remember that the very first book I ever reviewed was Brian Doyle’s Easy Avenue! I contributed to Book News regularly until 1992 (though that would change when I joined the staff myself). I can say with absolute conviction that I wouldn’t be the person I am today were it not for the Centre and the chances it offered me to connect deeply with Canadian-authored and illustrated books, their creators and publishers. So here’s to the next 50 years!
In 1994, I joined the staff of the CCBC as Program Coordinator, and what a wild ride it was juggling Canadian Children’s Book Week, Canadian Children’s Book News, Our Choice (now Best Books for Kids & Teens), and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. There were also many other exciting new endeavours that the CCBC created, hosted and organized over the five years I worked at that marvellous house at 35 Spadina. One of my very first projects was working with the late Loris Lesynski, Gillian O’Reilly and Charlotte Teeple on the launch of Writing Stories, Making Pictures—a truly ground-breaking project comprised of Q&A interviews with Canadian authors and illustrators. It’s a book I still use in my work, as I do its sequel, The Storymakers, from 1999!
I had the great pleasure of meeting with so many extraordinary authors and illustrators, contributing a regular column to Canadian Children’s Book News called Book Bits, working with the National Film Board of Canada as a consultant to the animated shorts based on Canadian children’s books that they produced, starting a series of reading guides to YA novels for educators, working with the Centre’s Regional Coordinators, having the privilege of helping to welcome so many extraordinary books into the world and working closely with Canadian publishers from coast to coast. And as a reader, it was truly a treasure trove into which I could dive deeply and discover wonderful stories. It’s where I found the books of Kevin Major and Janet Lunn, Claire Mackay and Jean Little, Kit Pearson and Sarah Ellis—and made lifelong friends with writers like Linda Granfield, Sheree Fitch, Barbara Reid, Sharon Jennings and the late Brian Doyle.
One of the saddest moments for me in the life of the CCBC was the loss of the house at 35 Spadina. It was the heart of the CCBC and with that lovely front room, which was the site of some wonderful book launches and special events, where you’d find the CCBC’s library collection of almost every book published for children and young people, and where I had the chance to truly explore Canadian children’s literature in all its glory and meet with some of the extraordinary creators. And will I ever forget the glorious artworks that I saw working in that space—art that was sometimes exhibited at the Centre or, even more spectacularly, donated to the Centre for the art auctions that Charlotte Teeple created! It was a true hub for the community and created a unique space where that community could gather and celebrate creativity perhaps most memorably in the annual party that Stoddart Publishing threw at the Centre every June during the Canadian Booksellers Association’s annual convention. Having a space like 35 Spadina was vital to the health and well-being of the community, and I think we lost something when the CCBC had to leave that special space.
In the years since I left, I’ve continued to be a part of the CCBC as a member of several of the juries for the array of book prizes that the Centre now administers, which celebrate Canadian books, authors, illustrators and publishers, and, of course, to attend the yearly gala celebrating those awards.
I didn’t know about the CCBC before 1988, when the Centre was 12 years old, but already it had helped to change the face of the books we produce for young readers in this country, particularly in supporting the creation of a landscape of diversity in books for young readers that was uniquely Canadian. Don’t let anyone tell you that Canadian children’s publishing wasn’t diverse—the books that Tundra Books, Annick Press, Groundwood Books, Women’s Press and some of the oldest Indigenous presses in Canada, like Pemmican Publications and Theytus Books (founded in 1980), produced, changed the face of children’s literature in Canada. I may have joined the party after it had already started, but I am grateful to have played a small part in the history of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s 50 years.
Jeffrey Canton is a writer, reviewer and storyteller who lives and works in Toronto. He’s the Children’s Books columnist for The Globe and Mail.