Check out this step by step guide created by Ms. Trainer, the librarian at South Colchester Academy, to help you access the available books in the SYNC program using the Sora app. Please take advantage of this free program and keep on reading!

SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for teens 13+ sponsored by AudioFile magazine.  It begins on April 30th this year and runs through July 29th.  Two thematically paired audiobooks are available to participants throughout the 13 weeks of the program for free. 

A list of all the audiobook pairings offered can be found on the website link in the SYNC ad.

Mental Health Resources: Nova Scotia

Everyone needs help sometimes.  Please see the list of free resources compiled by The Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia.

Pressreader access through local Public Library

Keep up to date on the latest world news!  Did you know the Pictou Antigonish Library has access to Pressreader?   PressReader is the leading digital newspaper and magazine provider for premium content. With your public library card you can explore titles such as The Chronicle Herald, The News, The National Post, The Guardian, Washington Post, Vogue, Forbes, and much more from all over the world.

Don't have a PARL library card?  You can sign up for free on the PARL website or contact them via email here on their online form.  Sign up today for free and happy reading! 

Read Alikes for The Unwanted by Don Brown

Illegal by Eoin Colfer

From Amazon.com

Ebo is alone. His brother, Kwame, has disappeared, and Ebo knows it

can only be to attempt the hazardous journey to Europe, and a better life―the same journey their sister set out on months ago. But Ebo refuses to be left behind in Ghana. He sets out after Kwame and joins him on the quest to reach Europe. Ebo's epic journey takes him across the Sahara Desert to the dangerous streets of Tripoli, and finally out to the merciless sea. But with every step he holds on to his hope for a new life, and a reunion with his family.

A poignant tale perfect for learning about immigration and current global issues.

Refugee by Alan Gratz

From Amazon.com 

JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world . . . ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America . . .MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe . . .

All three kids go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers -- from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end. This action-packed novel tackles topics both timely and timeless: courage, survival, and the quest for home.

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

From Amazon.com

A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in thisgripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love.

George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future.In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard.

They Called Us Enemy is Takei's first hand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys

and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's

faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.

What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins co-writers Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.

Amercian YA Author and Poet Jason Reynolds is this year's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Last year Reynold's  Long Way Down, written in verse, was one of our CCRCE Teen Reader's Choice Award Top Ten titles. Some of his other works include All American Boys and The Boy in the Black Suit.  Because of the global Covid-19 Pandemic Reynolds can not take his planned tour on the road so he is hosting an online series of videos called Write. Right. Rite. Each video contains some unique ideas and prompts to help young people be creative and get writing!  Check out Reynolds video series Write. Right. Rite. today for some inspiration. You can find out more about Jason Reynolds and his books at https://www.jasonwritesbooks.com/books.

Did you know April is Poetry Month?  Why not celebrate Poetry Month with some Book Spine Poetry!  It is easy to do and all you need are a few books you might have on a bookshelf at home!

What is book spine poetry you may ask?

Book Spine Poetry is a free verse poem composed by:

• using the titles written on the spines of physical books
• and stacking the books on top of one another!

Book spine poems don't follow any structure or rhyme but invite inspiring authors and poets to create a poem based on books they love.

Here are some examples from the Saskatchewan Library Association for a contest they held last year: