All posts by Lizzie

About Lizzie

Lizzie is a librarian who embraces all the stereotypes that come with the title. She has 5 cats. She wears cardigans. She drinks LOTS of tea. She also does cosplay, speaks French and German, and is learning Klingon. Kaplah!  |  Meet the team

Frenchify Your Summer Reading!

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Ok ya’ll. Let’s get down to business. The weather is finally good and it’s time to go outside.  And read.  Wait what?

You heard me.  Or read me. Or whatever.

I do most of my reading between May and October. When the weather is bad, you can generally find me inside playing video games, but once the weather is nice, I need to be outside absorbing the rays. Don’t judge, I was born on a tropical island, so I maintain that I was meant for more sun than this… despite my very obviously northern-European heritage and Canadian-born parents…

A photograph of a woman dressed as Elsa from Disney's Frozen.
(Literally me.)

But what better to way just enjoy the fact that we can finally just be outside than to sit on a lounge chair, and read. Let the words on the page soak in like the sun’s rays. Or the words in your earbuds if you’re listening to an audiobook (very wise – I gave myself RIDICULOUS tan lines reading Harry Potter 4 at a soccer tournament in 2000).

And what if, stay with me now, you did some of your summertime reading in French?

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Vive la Francophonie!

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French flag

Every March, we celebrate Francophonie Month. Here in Canada, 22% of the population speaks French as their first official language, over 10 million Canadians speak enough French to carry on a conversation, and we all learn at least some French at school (well, we have French classes in school, how much we learn in those classes is a different question). Even so, French is a minority language in most of Canada, and the modernized Official Languages Act (2023) includes commitments for the Government of Canada to protect and promote the French language, including in Quebec.[1]

For our part, Vaughan Public Libraries reaffirms the place of French language collections and services as essential and core library services. French is one of Canada’s official languages and Ontario is the home of the largest number of francophones outside Québec in the country. Within its borders, the City of Vaughan has over a dozen French Immersion schools, three French language schools, and two francophone school boards.  

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Bilingual Family Adventures: Money Matters

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It’s a Family Adventure!

Please join us Sunday, March 1 at Civic Centre Resource Library for this special, Bilingual Family Adventure!  Practice your budgeting skills, investigate ancient forms of currency, and earn Ollie Bucks to “spend” on special treats!

Image of a coin going into a piggy bank, with more coins scattered around.

The Fair is a great time to come check out the Money in 10 Questions: Kids’ Edition exhibit from the Bank of Canada Museum.

To create the exhibit, the Museum asked kids across the country to send in their questions about money. They received over 800 questions from kids and classrooms.  

Advertisement for the Bank of Canada Museum's Exhibit: Money in 10 Questions: Kids' Edition.

10 of these questions were chosen to feature in the exhibition. These are actual questions from kids, in their original wording.  The questions chosen were those that the Museum felt were most helpful for children’s understanding of money, the economy, the financial system and how to manage their own money.[1] 

The exhibit is fully bilingual and interactive: a great way to explore Canada’s money as a family: how it works, and why we use it!

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