Family Literacy Day on January 27 was the occasion for a lot of reading in Saskatchewan! The Saskatchewan chapter of CANSCAIP held a series of author readings, both in-person and online, over three days.

In-person readings took place in Regina, Moose Jaw, and Prince Albert. Robin Alison Lohans was one of the authors who read in Regina.

Six authors, including Robins Linda Aksomitis and Sharon Plumb, took turns giving virtual presentations to as many as 55 schools at once in Saskatchewan’s largest-ever virtual event. The schools connected to the authors’ home computers via E-Live, an online classroom donated for the event by Credenda Virtual High School and College. Credenda also set up a website to publicize the event (no longer available).

School classrooms (and sometimes several classes together) could see and hear the authors during the presentations. The authors couldn’t see or hear the students, but schools could type comments and questions into a chat box for everyone to see. The authors took time to answer questions during their one-hour presentations.

Some of the questions posed by students:

• Is it hard to write a book?
• How old were you when you started to write?
• Is the appaloosa horse your favourite animal?
• If you could live in one of your books, which one would it be?
• Where do you get the ideas for your stories?

Funding for the event was provided by the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

In all, over 7000 students from 435 classrooms in 120 schools took part in the Family Literacy Day celebrations. Keep reading, everyone!