Children's Fiction Diversity & Multicultural
Today I Am
10 Stories of Belonging
- Publisher
- Scholastic Canada Ltd
- Initial publish date
- Aug 2024
- Category
- Diversity & Multicultural, Short Stories, General
- Recommended Age
- 10 to 14
- Recommended Grade
- 5 to 9
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781443192354
- Publish Date
- Aug 2024
- List Price
- $16.99
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781443192361
- Publish Date
- Aug 2024
- List Price
- $16.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Ten stories of belonging from ten outstanding BIPOC authors from across Canada.
In this collection of short fiction, ten outstanding authors explore the theme of home — home as a place, a concept, as a way of thinking about the body — through prose, verse and graphic storytelling.
In “In a Flash” by Marty Chan, three kids come across a camera that traps the people it photographs. But can they figure out how to get out?
When a lady from church comes to visit bringing “gifts,” Hunter sees his home on the rez in a new light in “Home Fires” by Michael Hutchinson.
In “The Secret Cousin” by Chad Lucas, Lonnie is spending Thanksgiving with his mother’s family, who he hardly knows. Lonnie navigates the tension and discomfort of being one of two Black people in the house. But he finds new friendship in his cousin Ethan.
These stories and more, compiled and edited by Jael Richardson, acclaimed author and Artistic Director of the Festival of Literary Diversity, bring together perspectives on belonging from BIPOC authors from across the country.
About the authors
JAEL RICHARDSON is the artistic director of the FOLD literary festival, the books columnist on CBC Radio’s q and an outspoken advocate on issues of diversity. She is the author of The Stone Thrower: A Daughter’s Lesson, a Father’s Life, a memoir based on her relationship with her father, CFL quarterback Chuck Ealey. The memoir received a CBC Bookie Award, an Arts Acclaim Award and a My People Award. A children’s edition was published by Groundwood Books. Her essay “Conception” is part of Room magazine’s first Women of Colour edition, and excerpts from her first play, my upside down black face, appear in the anthology T-Dot Griots: An Anthology of Toronto’s Black Storytellers. Jael Richardson received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph. She lives in Brampton, Ontario.
Jael Richardson's profile page
Raised in Morinvilleâ”a small town north of Edmonton, Albertaâ”Marty Chan is a playwright, radio writer, television story editor, and young adult author. Marty graduated from the University of Alberta in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree (English major/drama minor). He fell into improv comedy when he joined Edmonton Theatresports, but his paralyzing stage fright resulted in ”penguin arm“ acting, forcing him to abandon performing and take up writing. His signature play, Mom, Dad, I’m Living With A White Girl, has been produced across Canada, published three times, and broadcast as a radio drama. The stage play won an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Best New Work and the Adams Chinese Theatre Award at Harvard University. In October 2004, the play had a successful Off Broadway run in New York. Marty was a regular contributor to CBC Radio Edmonton from 1994 to 2000. His weekly commentary series, ”The Dim Sum Diaries,“ recounted his misadventures as the only Chinese kid in a small prairie town. These weekly commentaries were adapted into a half-hour television program (The Orange Seed Myth) which won a Gold Medal for Best Television Pilot at the Charleston World Film and Television Festival, and earned Marty a Gemini nomination for best writing in a children’s program. In 2004, Thistledown Press launched Marty’s first young adult novel, The Mystery of the Frozen Brains, which has become a hit with young readers across Canada. Resource Links magazine rated listed it as one of the Best Books of 2004 for grades 3 to 6. Marty was the first playwright in residence at the Citadel Theatre. He also served as the chair of the Edmonton Arts Council and taught playwriting at the U of A. He received an Arts Achievement Award and a Performance Award from the City of Edmonton. He also earned a Horizon Award from the university for his contributions to theatre. Currently, Marty resides in Edmonton with his wife Michelle and their two cats, Buddy and Max.
ROSENA FUNG is an award-winning illustrator and comic artist from Toronto, Ontario. Her debut graphic novel, Living With Viola, received several starred reviews and was included on best of the year lists from the New York Public Library, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, the Bank Street College of Education, and more. Living With Viola was also nominated for the Silver Birch Award, the Jean Little First-Novel Award, the Garden State Teen Book Award, the Panda Book Awards, and the Black-Eyed Susan Book Award. Besides creating graphic novels, Rosena's favorite things are reading, cats, and eating snacks.
MICHAEL HUTCHINSON is a citizen of the Misipawistik Cree Nation in the Treaty 5 territory, north of Winnipeg. He is the author of the Mighty Muskrats Mysteries series. He has spent much of his career telling the stories of Indigenous peoples and advocating for First Nation families and communities across Canada. Currently he is the Communications Manager for the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre. Michael’s greatest accomplishments are his two lovely daughters.
Michael Hutchinson's profile page
Chad Lucas has been in love with words since he attempted his first novel on a typewriter in the sixth grade. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, communications advisor, freelance writer, part-time journalism instructor, and parenting columnist. His debut novel, Thanks a Lot, Universe, was called “tenderhearted and bold” in a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. A proud descendant of the historic African Nova Scotian community of Lucasville, he lives with his family near Halifax, Nova Scotia. He enjoys coaching basketball and is rarely far from a cup of tea.
Angela Misri is an author and journalist of Indian descent. She was born in London, U.K., and briefly lived in Buenos Aires before moving to Canada in 1982. Angela is the author of the Portia Adams Adventures series and several essays on Sherlock Holmes. In 2019, she published Pickles vs. the Zombies, her first book about animals in a zombie apocalypse, to widespread acclaim. She earned her BA in English Literature from the University of Calgary and her MA in Journalism from the University of Western Ontario. As a former CBC Radio digital manager and the Digital Director at The Walrus, Angela is never offline (although she prefers to write long form in notebooks). Angela plays MMORPGs, speaks several web languages, and owns too many comic books. She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Mahtab Narsimhan is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including Silver Birch Award winner The Third Eye. Her novel, The Tiffin (Dancing Cat Books, 2011), was nominated for numerous awards in Canada and was recently published in the United Kingdom and Taiwan. Mission Mumbai is her publishing debut in the United States. Mahtab is a native of Mumbai, India, and lives in Toronto, Canada. Visit her online at www.mahtabnarsimhan.com.
Mahtab Narsimhan's profile page
DANNY RAMADAN is an award-winning Syrian-Canadian author, activist, and public speaker. His work as an activist has helped provide a safe passage to dozens of Syrian LGBTQ+ refugees to Canada. He is the author of two novels for adults, The Clothesline Swing and The Foghorn Echoes, and a forthcoming memoir, Crooked Teeth. Danny lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Mattel is a global learning, development, and play company with a portfolio of iconic consumer brands, including American Girl, Barbie, Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, and Thomas & Friends. Liselle Sambury is a Trinidadian-Canadian author who grew up in Toronto, Ontario, and her brand of writing can be described as “messy Black girls in fantasy situations.” She is the author of the YA novel Blood Like Magic and its sequel, Blood Like Fate. In her free time, she shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to helping demystify the sometimes complicated business of being an author.
Liselle Sambury's profile page
Brandon Wint is an Ontario-born poet and spoken word artist who uses poetry to attend to the joys, devastations, and inequities associated with this era of human and ecological history. Increasingly, his work on the page and in performance casts a tender but robust attention toward the movements and impacts of colonial, capitalist logic, and how they might be undone. In this way, Brandon Wint is devoted to a poetics of world-making, world-altering, and world-breaking.
For Brandon, the written and spoken word is a tool for examining and enacting his sense of justice, and imagining less violent futures for himself and the world he has inherited. For more than a decade, Brandon has been a sought-after, touring performer, and has presented his work in the United States, Australia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Jamaica. His poems and essays have been published in national anthologies, including The Great Black North: Contemporary African-Canadian Poetry (Frontenac House, 2013) and Black Writers Matter (University of Regina Press, 2019). Divine Animal is his debut book of poetry.
