In this issue
- Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
- Awards Update
- The Festival of Literary Diversity
- Canada Reads Winner Announced
- Reading in the News: Tips from professional bookworms
- Books or Movies First?
- Happy Birthday to Sir David Attenborough
- Reading for Truth and Reconciliation
- Webinars for you
- Featured title for adults: Wild People Quiet
- Top five books
- Top five for kids
- Featured title for teens: Fathom Fall
- Top five for teens
- Service tip: Reporting Damaged Books
- Holiday hours in May
- Stay connected!
Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
One of our goals at CELA is to provide books to people with print disabilities so that everyone can participate in our national conversations, like the ones surrounding this month’s Canada Reads, One eRead Canada, Hackmatack and the Forest of Reading. We are delighted to see so much participation by our users in these programs and we appreciate their support of accessible reading materials.
The aspect of choice, and inclusion, has been a key theme in our strategic planning discussions. We’ve recently completed the next phase of the process with staff and our Board taking part in important conversations based on the feedback we received from everyone who took part in our survey and focus groups. We are looking forward to sharing the completed plan with our users later this summer.
As the season of conferences wraps up, we are so pleased to have been able to attend library conferences like BCLA as well as conferences for the learning disabilities community including ASET and IDA. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet and chat with folks who use and promote our services. One of our final conferences, the Marigold Library System conference will give us the opportunity to present the TD Summer Reading Club Accessibility Award to a library which did outstanding work in creating welcoming and inclusive programming for their reading club last year. It’s always an honour to be able to recognize the hard work and dedication of our member libraries.
If you are interested in learning more about what we are doing, come follow us on Instagram. We’re featuring lots of books, along with information about CELA’s services. And we would love it if you would share and help us spread the word!
Happy reading!
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director
Awards update
Congratulations to Canadian poet Karen Solie who won the $239K Windham-Campbell Prize.
Read her work in the CELA collection.
The BC and Yukon Book prize has named their shortlisted titles. The winners will be announce in September.
And the Crime Writers of Canada announced their selections for their Awards of Excellence. The list includes some of the usual suspects including Louise Penny for The Black Wolf, The Tiger and the Cosmonaut by Eddy Boudel Tan, Jen Sookfong Lee for The Hunger We Pass Down. The Awards of Excellence encompass eight categories so there is something for everyone.
The Festival of Literary Diversity
The Festival of Literary Diversity (The FOLD) is currently underway with in-person and virtual events from April 26 to May 3.
Designed specifically to amply voices which may not always get the attention they deserve, including people with disabilities, The FOLD includes both in-person and online programming. Check out the schedule and the many books from featured authors or presentations available in accessible formats.
Canada Reads Winner Announced
Congratulations to Loghan Paylor, whose book The Cure for Drowning won the 2026 Canada Reads Battle of the Books contest. If you loved this book we have two suggestions for others you may like:
- The Riveter: A novel by Jack Wang A cross-cultural love story set against the dramatic backdrop of the allied invasion of Europe in WWII.
- Learned by Heart: A novel by Emma Donoghue - A heartbreakingly gorgeous novel based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply and dangerously in love at boarding school in the nineteenth century.
If you missed this year's debates, you can listen to them through the CBC Canada Reads podcasts, on Apple podcasts or on Spotify. And if the debates inspired you, here is the shortlist of this year's contenders.
Reading in the News: Tips from professional bookworms
Whether it's a lack of time or a dwindling attention span, or a bit of both, you may not be reading as much as you like. The Globe and Mail recently interviewed some avid readers and professional bookworms who shared how they make time to read in a world filled with so much distraction.
Books or Movies First?
Some popular books are headed to the big or small screen in the coming months.
Whether you are a purist who must read the book first, or a film fan happy to read the book later, we've got the books behind the upcoming adaptations. Get the popcorn ready!
If you are quick, you may still be able to catch the adaptation of Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary in the theatres.
Margaret Atwood's The Testaments is already airing as a 10 episode series on Hulu, which can be accessed on Disney+.
Canada's own Carley Fortune will see two of her books make the leap to the screen. Every Summer After renamed Every Year After will debut this summer on Amazon Prime and This Summer Will Be Different is currently in development.
Verity by Colleen Hoover will be adapted for the big screen and feature Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett.
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry debuted in January as a film on Netflix with Emily Bader and Tom Blyth starring as Poppy and Alex.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is scheduled to debut on Netflix in early May with Sally Fields in the lead role.
Happy Birthday to Sir David Attenborough
Sir David Attenborough, renowned nature historian, author and broadcaster turns 100 on May 8, 2026. His long career as a champion of the natural world has been documented in his many books. His advice to us: "See the world. Then make it better." is the central theme of his culminating work, A life on our planet: My witness statement and vision for the future.
We wish Sir David Attenborough a very happy birthday.
Reading for Truth and Reconciliation
This month's pick is Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead
by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
Acclaimed Nishnaabeg writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson takes a revolutionary look at that most elemental force, water, and suggests a powerful path for the future. For many years, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson has found refuge in skiing—in all kinds of weather across different forms of terrain, often following the trail beside a beloved creek near her home.
Recently, as she skimmed along this path and meditated on our world's uncertainty—including environmental devastation, the rise of authoritarianism, and the effects of ongoing social injustice—her mind turned to the ice beside her, and the snow beneath her feet. And she asked herself what might it mean to truly listen to water? To know not only the land on which we live, but the water that surrounds and inhabits us? To coexist with and alongside water?
So begins this renowned writer's quest to discover, understand, and trace the historical and cultural interactions of Indigenous peoples with water in all its forms. On her journey, she reflects on the teachings, traditions, stories, and creative work of others in her community—particularly those of her longtime friend Doug Williams, an Elder whose presence suffuses these pages; reads deeply the words of thinkers from other communities whose writing expands her own; and begins to shape a "Theory of Water" that reimagines relationships among all beings and life-forces.
In this essential and inventive work, Simpson artfully weaves Nishnaabeg stories with her own thought and lived experience—and offers a vision of water as a catalyst for transformation, today and into our shared future.
Available in audio and braille.
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.
Accessing CELA using a Victor Stratus DAISY Player
Do you own a Humanware Victor Reader Stratus 4M or the new Stratus 2? Were you receiving books on CD and want to continue using the Stratus for CELA content? Are you considering getting the Stratus to access reading materials from CELA? Join us for this hour-long webinar about how this versatile device lets you read CELA’s books and magazines in audio and e-text formats. This webinar is for new Victor Stratus users or those interested in learning new ways of using this player. By attending this webinar, you will learn about:
- General features of the Victor Stratus, and what’s new with the latest model
- Configuring the device for use with CELA
- How to navigate and manage your Direct to Player bookshelf
- Reading a title and playback options
- How to find help in using the Victor Stratus with CELA
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Tuesday May 12 2:00-3:00pm EDT
Getting Started with Accessible Reading Canada: Listen to CELA Audiobooks with Alexa
Join us for a live webinar introducing Accessible Reading Canada, a new way for CELA patrons to enjoy CELA audiobooks using Alexa-enabled smart speakers. This 60-minute session will walk you through how to use voice commands to search, browse, and listen to audiobooks from your CELA Direct to Player Bookshelf using the Accessible Reading Canada Alexa skill.
This webinar will cover:
- What Alexa-enabled smart speakers are and how they work
- How to set up and use the Accessible Reading Canada skill
- How to use voice commands for browsing and reading
- Where to find help guides and additional support
After the presentation, there will be a Q&A session to ask additional questions. This session will be recorded.
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Featured title for adults: Wild People Quiet
Torduvalle, Saskatchewan, 1946. Florence has created a beautiful life for herself. Her home is immaculate; she is a model employee at Pratt's Insurance, where she works as a secretary. Her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde—never once does she allow her brown roots to show. She dyes them every other Saturday night, without fail. But one morning, everything changes.
Florence notices a new group of men at the local diner, Métis workers from out of town, hired on for the season at a nearby farm. And one of them has a connection to the past that Florence has spent her entire life outrunning. He has one simple request for her. Suddenly, Florence is thrown back into memories of her life before. Suddenly, the line between who she once was and who she has chosen to be feels very thin. And when Florence learns of the government's plans for the Métis community on the fringes of town, she will be faced with a choice—one that will shatter her carefully constructed life forever. This extraordinary novel asks us what we will do for our community, for our families, for our friends, even at our own expense. It examines the harrowing effects of choosing to live as someone else—and the radiant peace that comes from finally living one's truth. Gripping, wrenching, and utterly immersive, Wild People Quiet is a stunning achievement by a remarkable literary talent.
Read Wild People Quiet by Tara Gereaux in our collection.
Top five books
Most popular with our readers last month:
- Liberty Street by Heather Marshall, Historical fiction
- The Correspondent: a novel by Virginia Evans, Suspense and thrillers
- Judge Stone: a novel by James Patterson, Mysteries and crime stories
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, Science fiction
- Tom Lake: a novel by Ann Patchett, Family stories
Top five for kids
Most popular with kids last month:
- The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Fantasy
- Chuck Yeager: the man who broke the sound barrier by Nancy S. Levinson, Science and technology
- Dinosaurs Before Dark: Magic Treehouse by Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca, Adventure Stories
- Vampire Breath (Goosebumps #49) by R.L. Stine, Ghost and horror stories
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 by Marvel, Movie and television tie-ins
Featured title for teens: Fathom Fall
On Fathom Fall's leaderboard, player Wyatt "Doctor Doctor" Docherty ranks at number three. In real life, he's seen only as the privileged kid of head engineers at Hydrexo, the company that supplies 75% of North America's water. He has easy access while others must line up to pay exorbitant prices at public water taps, and he feels totally useless. To prove he's more than a spoiled Water Baby, Wyatt wants to win the upcoming Fathom Fall competition and finally make a name for himself.
But when he starts seeing Bluddites – the water-guzzling monsters from the game – in real life , Wyatt suspects that the tournament is about more than just prize money. Wyatt wants to win , but as the tournament approaches, he starts to worry: Why won't anyone tell them what's really going on? Why would the game – the military, even – be training kids to hunt monsters for them? And how far is he willing to go to prove himself? Set in a near-future, water-scarce Toronto, Fathom Fall is a high-octane speculative thrill ride that questions the ethics of new technology and how it defines our very reality.
Read Fathom Fall by Matteo L. Cerilli in our collection.
Top five for teens
Most popular with teens last month:
- Afterglow by Karsten Knight, Fantasy
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Science fiction
- Blood Work by Michael Connelly, Mysteries and crime stories
- Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Romance
- The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom by Corrie Ten Boom and John Sherrill, Journals and memoirs
Service tip: Reporting Damaged Books
We work hard to keep our collection in good shape, but once in a while there is a problem with a book, such as an error in the audio recording. You can let us know about these kinds of problems by using the new “Damaged Book Report” form.
Information about the book is now automatically completed for you. This change is designed to make reporting issues quicker and more convenient.
You’ll also find detailed instructions and helpful tips on resolving common problems before submitting a report.
To learn more and access the form, visit our Damaged Book Report information page.
Holiday hours in May
CELA and the Contact Centre will be closed on Monday, May 18 for Victoria Day. We will reopen with regular hours on Tuesday, May 19.
Stay connected!
Visit CELA's social media, including Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, YouTube and our blog, for more news about what's happening in the world of accessible literature.