What is the Raptors 905 Reading Challenge? The Raptors 905 Reading Challenge is a reading program that gives books to kids. It is celebrating its fifth year. The program started with DeMar DeRozan who partnered with First Book Canada to support 10 schools to read 10 books over the course of 10 weeks! It is now being supported by the Compugen Green4Good Program, Bank of Montreal, and Raptors 905. This… Read More

Jennifer Mook-Sang was born with a book in her hand in Guyana, South America. Reading is her passion. When she started reading picture books to her two boys, she realized that writing a book for kids would be the best thing anyone could do. After trying to write a story… Read More

Gurdeep Dhaliwal is the Strategic Alliances Manager at First Book Canada. When you first started, what was that like? I completed the Creative Book Publishing Program at Humber College, and through that the opportunity to apply for an internship with First Book Canada came up. From there, I was hired on as a Strategic Alliance Coordinator. It was just… Read More

In October, First Book Canada sent out a request to all members who had participated in a program this year to send in photos of receiving or distributing the books. We were overwhelmed by the response and received so many photos that it was difficult to fit them into the… Read More

As this year draws to an end, First Book Canada is taking a look back at some of our top ten moments of 2018! We’ve had the opportunity to provide books to kids from coast to coast to coast with the help of our dedicated members, partners, and volunteers. We’d like… Read More

Tom Best is the Executive Director of First Book Canada. When Tom started, there were only about 125 registered members. He’s seen it grow from this concentrated number to a steadily growing network of over 9,000 members. Can you start with telling me a bit about your day to day?  The nice thing is that… Read More

Remember the first book that you felt was speaking directly to you? The first book that made you feel seen? Or the first book that helped you through a difficult experience? Maybe you got all that from one book or from multiple books, over the course of your childhood. Imagine… Read More

This post is created in collaboration with the Government of Canada. November 18-24 is Education Savings Week! This is a great opportunity to talk about saving early for a child’s education after high school. Whether it’s an apprenticeship program, trade school, college or university, post-secondary education can… Read More

On the morning of October 1, 2018, I participated in a very memorable cross-country exchange that took place between me and an audience assembled at the Brampton Public Library in Ontario.  From my home office in Vancouver, sitting at the same desk where I wrote every page of my three books, Below, Above, and Beyond, I had the very distinct privilege of being the first author to partake in First Book Canada’s inaugural digital reading celebration.  And what fun it proved to be! The event was the launch of… Read More

Kevin Sylvester is an author and illustrator of more than 20 books. He’s a part-time broadcaster with the CBC, plays a lot of hockey, and watches a lot of baseball. Kevin Sylvester has been a longtime supporter of First Book Canada and we are so glad he took the time… Read More