Effectively, it’s a guide (and results) for parents to use films as a jumping off point for kindergarten education, each week a new film with activities and learning sheets designed around the film’s themes and content.
It was designed with the Ontario Curriculum in mind and to supplement our daughter’s 1 day a week of online school. It could easily be scaled up to be a full home school, or down to simply add some extras for parents who keep their kids home.
What she did over 10 months is spectacular, both as a tool for other parents, and as a journey with Dragon.
Please check out the blog and consider nominating it for the Aurora Awards in the category of Best Fan Related Work. Dragon is included as an author because her writing is included on the blog as part of the results. Nominations are open until March 26th.
What are the Aurora Awards?
The Aurora Awards are awards “for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy works and activities.” They are administered by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.
It’s a fan voted award in the vein of the Hugo’s, but with way more awesome people.
You’ll have to join the CSFFA for a pittance of $10 before you can nominate anyone. Once you’ve paid, you can nominate 5 works in each category. You can nominate works from now until May 18th.
The extra bonus of joining the CSFFA is you’ll get a voters package that includes most of the works that make the ballot. That’s 8-10 novels plus a bunch of other awesome stuff.
Samantha’s Sandwich Stand by Sonia Saikaley and illustrated by Nathan Caro Frechette (children’s picture book)
Samantha is bored. It is summer and her friends are on vacation. When she sees a lemonade stand, she wants to open one but her father convinces her to sell something different: her mother’s homemade Lebanese cream cheese and cucumber pita sandwiches. But can she convince others that her sandwich treat is just as refreshing and delicious as lemonade? When her friends return from their holidays and offer to help her, along with a very hungry eagle, will customers finally come and buy her sandwiches? Samantha’s Sandwich Stand is an inspiring story about believing in yourself, accepting help from others when something doesn’t succeed at first, and celebrating each other’s differences.
Coffee Shop Between The ‘Verses by Éric Desmarais (YA)
Jackie sometimes likes to have conversations with the characters, and as he reads five novellas in the small Ontario town of Baker…
In The Ridiculous Adventures of Felix Felicitous, the grumpy Felix is thrown into an adventure through time, despite his protestations.
In Only Human, Rachel has accidentally signed up for the University of Monsters.
In Wargrave Island, Inspector Riko Dulac has to find out who’s killing all her former high school classmates before there’s no one left.
In Database of the Ageless Kings, Sophia rebuilds an alien ship, only to find the galactic prince still inside.
In Devices of Desire, follow Artemis, Diana, and Ezekiel as they navigate secret identities, demons, and love in the kingdom of Cillian.
Are the characters Jackie is talking with real? Is he just talking to himself? Or is something else going on?
Beyond the Stone by Jamieson Wolf (queer paranormal romance)
After a schism renders the world unrecognizable, Magic comes out into the open.
Bane is a Supernatural who works for the Clocktower, the organization that is supposed to protect mortals from themselves. Jackson is able to teleport long distances and is also a clairvoyant, something that no mortal should be able to do. That’s the least of their troubles, however. Sparks fly when they meet, even if relationships between mortals and Supernaturals are frowned upon.
When they learn that the Clocktower is keeping mortals and Supernaturals prisoner, Bane knows that they will have to go against the Clocktower in order to break them free… but will they break themselves in the process?
Dissatisfied Me: A Love Story by Bruce D. Gordon (humour)
Rick “Dickie” Duncan is turning fifty. Meh.
On the eve of this mid-century milestone, he finds himself alone in his mother’s Ottawa basement, surrounded by gaudy decor and a carpet that hasn’t been raked in years. Grabbing some brews and frozen hotdogs, Rick rummages through the clutter that’s made up his dissatisfied life.
From the death of Santa to the last days of Scottish Rot, Rick meanders through the decades, mapping his existence amid the pop culture of the ’70s to the present day.
Marking key moments of his unsated misadventures and real-life dating disasters, Rick reminds himself that his journey is a love story. Sort of.
Artificial Divide, edited by Robert Kingett and Randy Lacey
Step into a world of rogue screen readers, Braille in fantasy worlds, a friend meeting an acquaintance after several years, and more.
This #OwnVoices anthology features fiction by Blind and visually impaired authors showing readers how they thrive, hurt, get revenge, outsmart bullies, or go on epic adventures. Artificial Divide is an own-voices story collection that captures the many layers of Blindness and, for once, puts visually impaired protagonists in the driver’s seat, letting us glimpse their lives.
When we think about it, we’re not really divided.
With stories by: Eunice Cooper-Matchett – Anita Haas – Rebecca Blaevoet – Tessa Soderberg – Laurie Alice Eakes – Melissa Yuan-Innes – Jamieson Wolf – Ben Fulton – Felix Imonti – Niki White – M. Leona Godin – Ann Chiappetta – Lawrence Gunther – Heather Meares – Fabiyas M V – Jameyanne Fuller
Shifting Trust by Madona Skaff-Koren
Tyler Demir left the RCMP after an undercover operation he was in charge of turned deadly. Refusing to make life and death decisions anymore, he now works as assistant head of security for a military funded Canadian nano-tech company. But when one of their scientists is kidnapped, the military send Tyler to England to retrieve him.
Not sure who to trust, Tyler uses contacts from his undercover days to get the scientist to safety. At every step, he sees the rescue crumble around him and again he has blood on his hands.
How the hell did he manage to go from a stress-free job, where lives didn’t depend on his split-second decisions, to this?
As you know, The Travelling TARDIS has been nominated for an Aurora Award. (4th year in a row)
Voting for the Aurora’s is now open and will close on Saturday, September 4, 2021. Please vote for the Travelling TARDIS.
Voter’s Package
The majority of nominated works are available in the voter’s package now. Simply make an account, pay $10, and you’ll have access to a wonderful library of Canadian Science fiction and fantasy.
The Travelling TARDIS isn’t part of the package because you can access it for free on this site.
The Travelling TARDIS
The Travelling TARDIS moves, with the power of timey-yarney crochet, through time and space visiting and taking pictures with cosplayers, landmarks, celebrities, and cute babies.
Thank you to everyone who nominated and especially to everyone who reads and enjoys our content.
On the surface, this seems like a straight adaptation of the book, but there are a lot of small subtle changes to adapt it to a 2002 audience. Mostly we see it in the way that the main character views the world. Instead of the naive, wide-eyed boy of the book, we get a sullen bad boy wannabe. Both are rutted in a childhood ignorance that mirrors when they were written.
The rest of the changes are just as clever and make the whole movie work in a way that seems improbable, but is quite lovely.
I find it interesting that in the book, we discover that the dad was killed to hide the treasure and that Silver knew him, but that story line is completely dropped in this version. Again, probably a sign of the times, in that an audience for the book would be shocked at a dad who just left instead of dying at sea, while more modern audiences wouldn’t blink an eye.
Score: 1
Characters
The protagonist is just the right level of innocent, sullen, and clever to make him likeable. The rest of the characters range from cartoony to downright terrifying. It’s impressive that the movie can have such a range without it feeling jarring.
Score: 1
Dialogue
The blend of pirate/sea talk, modern dialogue, and science fiction speak is fantastic. It’s at the perfect level to be understandable to anyone yet still have little nods to the original and science fiction movies.
Score: 1
Visuals and music
The blending of animation techniques works so well that despite the early 3D animation this is still absolutely stunning. From the textures to the starscapes, everything looks amazing. The 3D is used extremely well for shots that just would be impossible in traditional animation.
The music is a nice mix of early 2000’s, epic science fiction, and pirate movie.
Score: 1
Fun
I enjoyed the movie and always love the nuances of the characters. My 2 year repeated the title and ‘cook’ for the first half. Not sure why, but he still watched. My four year old loved it.
Score: 1
Overall
The movie has all the buckle and swash you’d want with just a nice pinch of science fiction cleverness. Definitely one of the most underrated Disney movies.
If you enjoy pirates in space, this is the movie for you.
Final Score: 5 Stars out of 5*
*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.
The Aurora Awards are awards “for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy works and activities.” They are administered by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.
It’s a fan voted award in the vein of the Hugo’s, but with way more awesome people.
You’ll have to join the CSFFA for a pittance of $10 before you can nominate anyone. Once you’ve paid, you can nominate 5 works in each category. You can nominate works from now until May 18th.
The extra bonus of joining the CSFFA is you’ll get a voters package that includes most of the works that make the ballot. That’s 8-10 novels plus a bunch of other awesome stuff.
Effectively it’s a guide (and results) for parents to use films as a jumping off point for kindergarten education, each week a new film with activities and learning sheets designed around the film’s themes and content.
It was designed with the Ontario Curriculum in mind and to supplement our daughters 1 day a week of online school. It could easily be scaled up to be a full home school, or down to simply add some extras for parents who keep their kids home.
What she’s done over the past 8 months is spectacular both as a tool for other parents and as a journey with Dragon.
Please check out the blog and consider nominating it for the Aurora Awards in the category of Best Fan Related Work. Nominations are open until April 24th.
What are the Aurora Awards?
The Aurora Awards are awards “for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy works and activities.” They are administered by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.
It’s a fan voted award in the vein of the Hugo’s, but with way more awesome people.
You’ll have to join the CSFFA for a pittance of $10 before you can nominate anyone. Once you’ve paid, you can nominate 5 works in each category. You can nominate works from now until May 18th.
The extra bonus of joining the CSFFA is you’ll get a voters package that includes most of the works that make the ballot. That’s 8-10 novels plus a bunch of other awesome stuff.
*Disclaimer* I have watched these films as a marathon every year since 2007. They’re basically part of my holiday ritual and I’m completely not objective.
Story
The story is an interpretation of one of the greatest influences on modern Western fantasy. It’s hard to judge the story critically when it is so foundational.
That being said, I think there’s some seriously problematic connotations about people of colour and women.
Score: 0.5
Characters
The movies are filled with fantastic characters. As much as I hate Frodo and the archetypal everyman character, the movies made each character unique and memorable.
Score: 1
Dialogue
Infinitely quotable to the nerds among us. The movie doesn’t deviate too much from the wonderful dialogue of the books and when it does, improves it.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
For a nearly 20 year old movie the visuals hold up spectacularly (we watched the 4K version and it was worth it.) New Zealand is gorgeous, the practical effects hold up better than some more recent movies, and the CGI looks pretty good. There are some lighting issues and world interaction issues with the CGI.
The music… holy shit the music. The layering and themes… gah, it’s so beautiful.
Score: 1
Fun
The 12 hours were a little hard on the kids, but the adults were as enthralled as ever. I’m constantly amazed at how the movie keeps people’s attention and sparks conversation.
Score: 1
Overall
These movies are a staple of our holiday season; I’ve probably seen them two dozen times since they released and I still find new things every year. Upgrading to the 4K was more than worth it for the colour and sound correction that was done.
They are some of my favourite movies and I admit that I am nowhere near objective.
Éric will be participating in the Author Q&A on November 29 at 2pm.
Check below for more details!
Join us for the Read Québec festival!
As a Québec publisher, we’re very proud to be taking part in the FREE Read Québec festival which will be taking place entirely online this week from November 25th to November 29th, and we’ve got some special events in store for you!
On November 25th at 7 PM, join Renaissance author Nathan Caro Fréchette and other Québec authors for the Rapid Fire Reading series, where all authors will only have two minutes to read their excerpts, then will have two minutes to compose a collective text, all live! Check out the Read Québec website or the Facebook event to find out how to register.
On November 28th at 1 PM, join multiple Renaissance authors for some great readings, streaming on YouTube! Join the Facebook event to find out more or join us directly on YouTube!
On November 29th at 2 PM, join your favorite Renaissance authors for a Q&A session where YOU get to ask all the questions! Want to know what your favorite author has been up to during the pandemic, or when their next book is coming out, or do you just want to chat with them? This laid-back, casual session is exactly what you need! Join the Facebook event to find out more, or join us on Zoom when the time comes!
This feels like a modern fairy tale. A YA adventure story set in modern day. The story is cleverly simple and avoids so many of the traditional pitfalls. No forced love story, no double crossing from one of the kids, no parents that disbelieve. It’s about helping preserve magic and finding yourself along the way.
There are a few political issues but nothing truly problematic as far as I can tell.
Score: 1
Characters
Each of the characters, except the goons and the snakes, have a journey and growth. It’s sort of a mini found family that only exists in adventures (mundane ones like trips etc or magical one).
I like the twist with the bad guys and goon Dave is the best.
Score: 1
Dialogue
The movie has plenty of funny lines but the ones that are most memorable are the ones tied to emotions. The little conversations and moments that show both character and move the story forward.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
From the little details like the various wood grains to the big nature shots, this movie is truly stunning. Absolutely beautiful. The animation quality isn’t quite up to Disney/Pixar levels but they created some fantastic visuals.
The music is utterly fantastic. The humming and violin are suitably epic and magical.
The scene at the Leshan Giant Buddha is so beautiful and reflects Yi’s emotional journey perfectly.
Score: 1
Fun
The action always has a reason and everything is strung together in a surprising and coherent way. The movie made me smile and almost cry multiple times.
Score: 1
Overall
This is an adventure story with likeable characters that are trying to help a magical creature. It’s exactly my style of story. The few calmer moments weren’t lulls but one on one conversations that moved the emotional plot forward.
Final Score: 5 Stars*
*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.
