Welcome to Parkland Regional Library

Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Freedom to read can never be taken for granted. Even in Canada, a free country by world standards, books and magazines are banned at the border. Books are removed from the shelves in Canadian libraries, schools and bookstores every day. Free speech on the Internet is under attack. Few of these stories make headlines, but they affect the right of Canadians to decide for themselves what they choose to read.

There's a list of ways to get involved on the Freedom to Read website such as holding photo contests, hosting events, and setting up displays.

The 2010 Canada Reads books were announced on December 1. Canada Reads celebrates five Canadian books for three months online, on the air and at public events. It all leads up to a week-long show hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. In this annual title fight, five celebrity panelists defend their favourite work of Canadian fiction. One by one, books are voted off the list, until one panelist triumphs with the book for Canada to read this year. The winning title will be announced nationally on Friday, March 12, 2010.

This year the panelists and books are:

• Perdita Felicien defends Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
• Simi Sara defends Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
• Roland Pemberton (Cadence Weapon) defends Generation X by Douglas Coupland
• Dr. Samantha Nutt defends The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
• Michel Vézina defends Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner, translated by Lazer Lederhendler

Find out more at http://www.cbc.ca/canadareads.

The first phase of selection in the Alberta Readers' Choice Awards is now complete. Nominations from libraries around Alberta have chosen the top ten Albertan books. During phase two a panel of jurors will narrow the field down to the top five finalists. The final phase will start in February, when a public vote will decide which of the finalists will win the award. Find out more at their website.

The ten finalists are:

• The Frog Lake Reader by Myrna Kostash
• Crossing the Swell by Tori Holmes
• In Bed with the Word: Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics by Daniel Coleman
• 100 Years of Anne with an "e": The Centennial Study of Anne of Green Gables edited by Holly Blackford
• The Forgotten Explorer: Samuel Prescott Fay's 1914 Expedition to the Northern Rockies by Samuel Fay
• The Weekender Effect : Hyperdevelopment in Mountain Towns by Robert Sandford
• Fishing for Bacon by Michael Davie
• Bomb Canada and Other Unkind Remarks in the American Media by Chantal Allan
• Fifth World Drum by Anna Marie Sewell
• Buying Cigarettes for the Dog by Stuart Ross

Congratulations to Linden MacIntyre for winning the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize! More details at the Giller Award Site.

 The Bishop’s Man
9780307357069
Random House Canada

The 2009 Governor General Award winners were announced on November 17. Congratulations to the winners:

• Fiction: Kate Pullinger for The Mistress of Nothing
• Non-fiction: M.G. Vassanji for A Place Within: Rediscovering India
• Poetry: David Zieroth for The Fly in Autumn
• Drama: Kevin Loring for Where the Blood Mixes
• Children's Literature - text: Caroline Pignat for Greener Grass: The Famine Years
• Children's Literature - illustration: Jirina Marton for Bella's Tree
• Translation - French to English: Susan Ouriou for Pieces of Me

Find out more at the award website.