All posts by Karen

About Karen

Karen (she/hers) is a Culinary Literacies Specialist at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre library. When not in the kitchen, she can be found knitting, reading, and repeating.  |  Meet the team

Minor Feelings

Book Cover of Minor Feelings by Cathy Park HongIt was uncanny. I don’t know if it was just that I happened to be stumbling on all these titles around the same time or that reading one revealed the roads to the others: Romance and the “Yellow Peril”: Race, Sex and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction by Gina Marchetti, Curry: Eating, Reading and Race by Naben Ruthnum, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, Know My Name by Chanel Miller. Somewhere between Minor Feelings and Know My Name, I had a conversation where I mentioned how I’d read a picture book at the library sometime around first or second grade that talked about the Chinese head tax (my memory produced the number $500, which, surprisingly, proved accurate, and if that doesn’t strike you as a large sum, think about inflation: using the Bank of Canada inflation calculator going back as far as they are able (1914) to now, that $500 would amount to $11,575 now) and the dangerous work Chinese labourers did for railroad construction. Someone asked what the Chinese head tax was, which got me thinking whether I’d learned anything about it in school, whether I’d encountered this information at all after that picture book, which I’ve not been able to find since; there’s a lot we don’t learn in Canadian history classes, isn’t there?

Shortly after that conversation, the shooting in Atlanta. Shortly before that, Half Baked Harvest’s inauthentic pho incident and why it matters (I’ve also discussed food and cultural appropriation before here, but Rebecca Du has presented the case very thoroughly, including information about what the issue is here, how Teagan could’ve handled it better, and what reparations might look like, as well as links to more resources, so I’d urge you to check out the article on Medium). “This is an American problem”, you might think: nope, Canada’s not immune.

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Storywalks on City of Vaughan Trails

If you’ve been to the Kortright Centre since 2018, you may have noticed the StoryWalk panels along the trail showing you one page of a story at a time as you make your way along the path. This year, VPL is excited to announce that, in partnership with the City of Vaughan’s Public Works Department, VPL is expanding the StoryWalk offerings across the city!

With the province under the current Stay-at-Home order since April 17, hitting the trails is a great way to exercise outdoors while still staying in line with the lockdown restrictions. And what better incentive to get outside and explore the trails spread throughout Vaughan than the joy of discovering stories as you walk these paths? As you walk along the trails, you’ll discover one page at a time, until you’ve read a whole book at the end! It’s a fun, educational activity for the entire family that also brings the library to families during these times when we can’t visit the library the way we used to be able to.

Image of Nature Backpacks in a rowWhile you’re out on the trails, why not check out our Nature Backpacks, which come with different themed activities, tools such as magnifying glasses or binoculars, books, and identification sheets, all in a backpack for easy carrying! And for the cyclists among us, don’t miss out on our Basic Bike Maintenance online program happening Thursday May 13 – just remember to register on Eventbrite!

The StoryWalks are being installed this week, and will officially be launched in early May to celebrate Canadian Children’s Book Week and Public Works Week all at once. Each of the five wards of the city will be getting a StoryWalk along a public trail, in addition to the one already at the Kortright Centre, so head to your local trail for some fresh air, outdoor exercise, and an engaging story that unfolds along the way! And of course, remember to use the hashtags #LoveVPL and #PlayVaughanLocal if you post any photos from your StoryWalks on social media!

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The Way of the Househusband and… Burnout

Book Cover of The Way of the Househusband Gokushufudou by Kousuke Oono Volume 1I don’t know who needs to hear this (everyone?), but The Way of the Househusband is getting an anime (Netflix) this year, so if you haven’t yet discovered this hilarious, wholesome and infinitely uplifting manga series, check it out before it comes out on Netflix – you won’t regret it: Cute puppers? Check. Incredible artwork that captures expressions that border on grotesquely realistic but remain firmly rooted in the manga style? Check. Non-sequiturs flying about based on puns and misunderstandings (because Tatsu is a former yakuza who looks the part)? Check, check, check! A surprising feminist icon highlighting how much invisible labour housewives take on, giving value to that labour and making sure everyone he encounters understands how much work being a house(wife/husband) is? CHECK.

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