Open Book: April 2025

Open book
In this issue

Letter from CELA’s Executive Director

Spring in the library world is the time for preparing for summer reading programs, meeting with colleagues at conferences and adding books which are perfect for summer reading.

At CELA, we’ve been doing all of this and more. We are attending library conferences across the country, and we were delighted to meet the folks at the International Dyslexia Association conference in Toronto.

And later this spring, Lindsay Tyler will be traveling to Dublin to present the findings from the audiobooks project to the EDR Lab Digital Publishing Summit 2025. Our Accessible Commercial Audiobook Project concluded at the end of March and our most recent blog highlights the project and links to the executive summary. We hope these recommendations will help publishers in their work to create accessible books.

As we gear up for a busy summer, we are pleased to welcome Nicole Amirault as our new Project Coordinator. Nicole will be helping us on a variety of projects including our smart speaker project.

Our team is busy adding lots of new books to our collection, including some requested titles from our patrons. Keep reading to learn about a few of them. And watch our upcoming newsletters for news about Summer Reading Clubs for kids and their featured titles which are available as accessible books from CELA.

Lastly, I want to thank all of you for your support and understanding as we transition our service away from CDs. We know this is not an easy change for some of our users and we want to reiterate that we are here to help. If this change affects you, please consider attending our webinars and Q and A sessions, or browsing through our many resources. You can find more about these on our CD Transition Resources page. Or reach out if you need additional support. The entire CELA team is dedicated to assisting you through this transition. We know how important reading is to our many users.

Laurie Davidson, Executive Director

Awards update

Cover of the book Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin.Congratulations to the authors nominated to the shortlist for the 2025 Crime Writers of Canada Awards. Winners will be announced on Friday, May 30, 2025.

The annual award highlights the best in mystery, crime, suspense fiction and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors. Nominated authors include Conor Kerr, Louise Penny and Tanya Talaga among many others. 

The BC and Yukon Book Prizes will also present their awards in May. Check out the varied books nominated for these awards. 

The Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour Writing has released its shortlist. Nominated authors include Drew Hayden Taylor and Emily Austin. Read some of our favourites in our collection. 

Accessible Audiobooks Project Report now available

Older man wears headphones while using a tablet.CELA has recently concluded our  Accessible Commercial Audiobooks Project, which was funded by Accessibility Standards Canada. Launched in April 2024, the goal for the project was to help the industry both understand the reading needs of people with print disabilities and find best practices that meet their commercial and accessibility goals.  

You can read more about this project on our blog where you will find links to our findings and recommendations as well as the Executive Summary.

Books in the news

Young people dancing at a fancy party.Literary readings conjure up images of an earnest author on stage, reading excerpts of their book and perhaps discussing their writing with a host or the audience. In the UK, reading parties are taking that model and shaking it up.  

This recent article in The Guardian outlines how the Soho Reading Series is making literary reading more fun. 
‘Funny, sexy and a bit weird’: inside the new wave of literary parties

Support for CD users

A DAISY player, tablet and phone.We are committed to supporting our users as we transition from CDs to other reading options. Please visit our CD Transition Resources page where you will find information about upcoming training sessions including our weekly Q and A sessions, as well as information guides and other resources.

All our training sessions can be accessed by phone or online. Reach out to our Contact Centre to register for phone access.

As you learn more about this shift, we want to reassure you of some important things.

  1. There are no changes to any other CELA services.
  2. We will continue to add audiobooks and audio magazines to our collection, and they can be read using a variety of devices or technologies.
  3. Our Direct to Player service will continue unchanged.

Libraries and democracy: A CBC special

CBC logo.The CBC program Ideas recently explored the topic of libraries and their role in supporting democracy and intellectual freedom. 

"Libraries exist to give everyone access to a wide variety of content, even when books may offend others. Librarians are increasingly having to persuade skeptics that all ideas belong on their shelves."

Libraries are fighting for their freedom — and our democracy

Reading for Truth and Reconciliation

Cover of the book Coexistence by Billy-Ray Belcourt.Coexistence by Billy-Ray Belcourt is a collection of intersecting stories about Indigenous love and loneliness from one of contemporary literature’s most boundless minds. Across the prairies and Canada’s west coast, on reserves and university campuses, at literary festivals and existential crossroads, the characters in Coexistence are searching for connection. 

They’re learning to live with and understand one another, to see beauty and terror side by side, and to accept that the past, present, and future can inhabit a single moment.

An aging mother confides in her son about an intimate friendship from her distant girlhood. A middling poet is haunted by the cliché his life has become. A chorus of anonymous gay men dispense unvarnished truths about their sex lives. A man freshly released from prison finds that life on the outside has sinister strictures of its own. A PhD student dog-sits for his parents at what was once a lodging for nuns operating a residential school—a house where the spectre of Catholicism comes to feel eerily literal.

Bearing the compression, crystalline sentences, and emotional potency that have characterized his earlier books, Coexistence is a testament to Belcourt’s mastery of and playfulness in any literary form. A vital addition to an already rich catalogue, this is a must-read collection and the work of an author at the height of his powers.

Reader favourite: Shetland Island Series by Ann Cleeves

Anne Cleeves, author of the Shetland Island Mystery seriesIt's a particularly happy day when we are able to complete a series we know our users have been waiting for. This month it is the Anne Cleeves' Shetland Island Mystery series. 

This series is set in the most northerly community in the UK. The islands are closer to Norway than to Edinburgh and in their bleak beauty they have much in common with Scandinavia. Her books feature Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez, who grew up in remote Fair Isle, and the mysteries are quiet, intense, and give an insight into the domestic and working lives of Shetland Islanders.

Read all the books in Anne Cleeves' Sheltland Island series.

Books for Mother's Day

Cover of the book Honey, Baby, Mine by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd.We have gathered a few recent additions to our collection which would be great reads in the lead up to Mother's Day. 

The list includes Honey, Baby, Mine,  One day I'll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman: A Mother's Story and Mama: A Queer Black Woman's story of a Family Lost and Found among others. 

Possible Canada Post service disruption

As of April 3, 2025 Canada Post has issued an update on negotiations with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). The current agreement between the two parties ends May 22. At this time, we do not have any additional information about the possibility of a service disruption. If there is an impending service interruption based on the decision of either Canada Post or the Union, CELA will update our users by email, through our website and social media.

For ongoing information about the situation please follow the Canada Post website.

Webinars for you

We host a series of webinars on Zoom to help users access CELA services, to stay up to date on new technologies and to learn more about accessible reading. Most of our webinars are recorded.

On the Webinars for you page, you will find upcoming webinars. On that same page you will find links to other CELA video resources available on our YouTube channel.

How to read CELA audiobooks and magazines: Transitioning from reading on CDs to other devices

Discover the many ways you can read CELA’s audiobooks and magazines using a variety of devices. This webinar is intended to support you as you transition off of CDs onto other players. In this one-hour webinar, you will learn: 

  • Which audiobook players work with CELA audiobooks and magazines 
  • How to start using Envoy Connect devices, the EasyReader app or Direct to Player on your Humanware Stratus DAISY player 
  • Where to buy players 
  • How we can further support you through this transition 

To register for the online Zoom webinar, please select your preferred date below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273. 

Tues May 6: 2:00-3:00pm EDT
Wed June 11: 2:00-3:00pm EDT
Tues July 8: 3:00-4:00pm EDT
Tues Aug 5: 2:00-3:00pm EDT
Wed Sept 17: 2:00-3:00pm EDT

Transitioning from CD to other audiobook device options Q&A

Were you receiving CELA CDs and need help transitioning to a new device? Are you helping someone make this transition?

Join our Peer Trainer, Ioana Gandrabur, who will answer your questions about finding the best alternative players and apps for reading CELA’s audio books and magazines. We welcome your questions about using the following devices and more:

  • Envoy Connect player
  • Humanware Victor Stratus players that have an internet connection
  • EasyReader app on your tablet or smartphone
  • Other device options

To register for one of the weekly Thursday sessions from 2:00-3:00pm ET select the link below, choose the date you prefer from the dropdown menu and complete the registration form. We look forward to meeting with you.

Thursday Q & A sessions: Audiobook device options

To register for one of the monthly Wednesday evening sessions from 6:30-7:30pm ET select the link below for your preferred date and complete the registration form. We look forward to meeting with you.

Wed June 18 6:30-7:30pm EDT
Wed July 23 6:30-7:30pm EDT
Wed Aug 20 6:30-7:30pm EDT
Wed Sept 17 6:30-7:30pm EDT

Cover of the book The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu."Utterly charming . . . I would read a hundred of these stories." —Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures.

Seven struggling customers are given the unique opportunity to take home a "blanket cat" . . . but only for three days, the time it’ll take to change their lives. A peculiar pet shop in Tokyo has been known to offer customers the unique opportunity to take home one of seven special cats, whose "magic" is never promised, but always received.

But there are rules: these cats must be returned after three days. They must eat only the food supplied by the owner, and they must travel to their new homes with a distinctive blanket. In The Blanket Cats, we meet seven customers, each of whom is hoping a temporary feline companion will help them escape a certain reality, including a couple struggling with infertility, a middle-aged woman on the run from the police, and two families in very different circumstances simply seeking joy. But like all their kind, the "blanket cats" are mysterious creatures with unknowable agendas, who delight in confounding expectations. And perhaps what their hosts are looking for isn't really what they need. Three days may not be enough to change a life. But it might just change how you see it.

Read The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu.

If you liked this, you can read more healing fiction in the CELA collection.

Top five books

Cover of the book Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson.Most popular with our readers last month:

  1. Death at the Sanatorium: A Mystery by Ragnar Jónasson, Police procedural fiction
  2. Blood Ties by Jo Nesbo, Mysteries and crime stories
  3. Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves, Mysteries and crime stories
  4. Jennie's Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood by Wayne Johnston, Journals and memoirs
  5. The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #19) by Louise Penny, Mysteries and crime stories

Cover of the book Escargot and the Search for Spring by Dashka Slater.Escargot and the Search for Spring features music and special effects. Listen along and enjoy the fun! A cute French snail sets off on a springtime adventure with an adorable bunny in this laugh-out-loud fourth audiobook in the bestselling Escargot series—the perfect gift for Easter or all year round.

Bonjour! After a long winter spent indoors, Escargot can't wait to look outside for the first signs of Spring. Will he find a new friend in the fluffy white bunny he meets along the way? From New York Times bestselling author Dashka Slater and former Pixar animator Sydney Hanson, Escargot and the Search for Spring is an irresistibly sweet and charming story about unlikely friendship, changing seasons, and springtime fun

Read Escargot and the Search for Spring by Dashka Slater.

Top five for kids

Cover of the book Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.Most popular with kids last month:

  1. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, War stories
  2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Fantasy
  3. The Barren Grounds (The Misewa Saga #1) by David A. Robertson, Fantasy
  4. Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett, Science fiction
  5. Joy the Summer Vacation Fairy (Rainbow Magic) by Daisy Meadows, Fables and fairy tales

Top five for teens

Cover of the book Love me or miss me by Dream Jordan.Most popular with teens last month:

  1. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins, Adventure stories
  2. The Originals by Cat Patrick, Romance
  3. Love Me or Miss Me by Dream Jordan, Family stories
  4. The Lost and the Found by Cat Clarke, Family stories
  5. Nigeria (The Evolution of Africa's Major Nations) by Ida Walker, History

Service tip: DAISY players and Wi-Fi

Did you know that you don’t need a computer to use CELA’s Direct to Player service?

All you need is Wi-Fi and an internet-enabled DAISY player. If you have Wi-Fi available in your home, you can set up Direct to Player service simply by contacting techsupport@celalibrary.ca

When you turn on your DAISY machine it automatically connects to your Wi-Fi and updates your player with any new books available on your CELA bookshelf. 

Using the Direct to Player service is fast and easy, and you’ll be able to get more books more quickly. Contact us to learn more.

Stay connected!

Logos of X, Facebook, and YouTube.Visit CELA's social media, including X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, YouTube and our blog, for more news about what's happening in the world of accessible literature.