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National Librarian's Message
Roch Carrier
© Paul Couvrette
Couvrette Studio, Ottawa.
A pied piper and his rainbow-coloured costume, a melody and 100 children following in his footsteps—the legend began on June 26, 1284. In a small town in Germany known as Hamelin, 130 children disappeared without leaving any trace. Imagine! Musical notes powerful enough to lead them outside their village, and even outside of time. The mystery of music. The mystery of the legend.
Read Up On It: books on music, gathered here, to draw children outside the walls of school, of home and also of time, following the trails of the imagination. The magic of words. |
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Read Up On It offers you another opportunity to read and appreciate a wide range of Canadian books intended for children and young adults. Its purpose is to promote Canadian authors, illustrators and their works and thus encourage a passion for reading.
The Read Up On It program would not be available without the help of a number of partners and sponsors: the National Literacy Secretariat, the Canada Post Corporation, the Canadian Library Association and ASTED. We have also received help and support from other organizations such as the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Canadian Children's Book Centre, Communication-Jeunesse, Access Network, Télé-Québec, TFO and YTV. We wish to express our deepest appreciation to them.
In her interview, artist Michèle Lemieux tells us: "I wanted to restore the essence of this story, by conserving the ambiguity and mystery surrounding the pied piper…" (translation). The Read Up On It program aims at restoring what is essential in each of the chosen books, in other words bringing children where their own steps would not be able to take them.
Roch Carrier
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