Lesson Plans: Adventures in rhyme with a boy of nine

When my older daughter announced in the spring that I would be “doing English” remotely with my grandchildren every weekday, I thought she was joking. It wasn’t that I minimized her problem: schools had closed in the U.K. at the end of March, and she and her husband had to work from home in a London apartment they share with their three children.

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Fresh Prince: Steven Price’s novel take on a classic

Let me put my cards on the table: The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, is one of my all-time favourite books. Years ago, I read The Last Leopard, David Gilmour’s biography of Lampedusa, and the details of his uneventful life remain vivid in my memory. Now comes Steven Price’s new novel, Lampedusa, shortlisted for this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize. As I began reading it, I realized chances were strong that I was either Price’s ideal reader or very much the opposite.

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Wisdom of the Ages: 10 Questions with Author Katherine Ashenburg

Katherine Ashenburg, 73, says her attention spans lasts about 10 years. She spent a decade as an academic, specializing in Dickens before becoming a CBC Radio producer for another decade, producing documentaries. After that, she was the Globe and Mail’s arts and books editor. Ashenburg has written five books including Going to Town, The Mourner’s Dance: What We Do When People Die and The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History, a history of personal hygiene.

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The WAR Series: Writers as Readers, with Katherine Ashenburg

Reprinted from Open Book. Katherine Ashenburg’s All the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean (Annick Press) gets pretty filthy, but it’s still appropriate (and irresistible) for its middle grade audience, because this dirt is the literal, outrageous, and fun kind for every kid who ever made mud pies, got gritty in the sandbox, or begged to stay …

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The Long Goodbye

Photo of room with packing boxes, furniture, and framed photo of couple

When the end of life comes later in life, the consequences are often unexpected—and often painful.

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