I love Paris in the springtime...

...even if it is cold.

Spring break 2013 saw Victoria, Vicki and me in Paris (and Yorkshire and London). Seven years ago, they invited us to the "Salon du Livre", the largest book fair in the French world. We were so well received that they invited us back...and back...and back... This was our seventh consecutive year and we are already anticipating next year.

We left a few days early as Victoria's spring break had kicked in. We spent these days with cousin Garry, the Duke of Yorkshire. Garry and his boys guided us through and around their Dales and quaint villages (I don't think we missed a single pub). Yorkshire is experiencing record breaking cold. Their lambs are dying in the fields. We witnessed this hardship yet we loved being there.

Then, over to our regular hotel in the Quartier Latin...and a week in Paris. My French publisher is Winnipeg's Les Edition des Plaines, amazing people who know every in and out of the industry and make sure that my books are highlighted at every turn.

Our new release Dreamcatcher and the Seven Deceivers will be coming out in French as well as in Chinese and Spanish. We are slated to travel to China's book fair in the summer of 2014. I'd like to say it gets better but it really doesn't get any better nor are people any nicer than my publisher Joanne and my senior editor Hugette shown here.

The calm before the storm

I was home for Valentine's Day. Vicki and I were able to get into Brasserie l'Ecole (Victoria's most charming French bistro) for steak et frites!

The next morning (the 15th), I spoke to CUPE in Langford. What a perfect audience! CUPE members were ready to relax, laugh, and hear stories about the potential for their own families and for the families of those they serve. As Grapes would say, I just love those people.

Now to get my head together... January and February have been very full months. I don't think I have had this kind of year since Chris and I began our journey 13 years ago.

Today, I'm back to planning and packing...Slave Lake, Rocky Mountain House, Standoff, Edmonton and Enoch...and then Paris for our annual trip to the Paris Book Festival. This tour will last over a month with a couple short stops at home so that I can see my dad.

Thank you to all of you who have hosted me and helped me achieve my dream of giving students the tool they need to succeed and thrive. Showing here is my good friend Dr.Phyllis Cardinal with whom I have been blessed to work on several important educational initiatives. Without committed professionals like Dr. Cardinal, I couldn't do what I do.

Miigwetch all of you.

Group hug from Victoria, B.C...

Winter from coast to coast...

We prairie people are well aware of how cold it gets on the prairie in the winter. Yet we choose to live in that cold for what the weather offers and for what it shelters us from. We are only too happy to suffer through -45 degree January's to avoid Vancouver's bridges and Toronto's 401, 407, 404, 427...Don Valley Parkway... So when, last week, I found myself on Toronto's motorways in -20 degree weather, I wondered...

Thank you trustee Jerry Chadwick for allowing me to access so many of your aboriginal parents, staff and students. Thank you for letting me tell some your many minorities that the world is accessible to them.

I don't mind if our students choose not to read but it troubles me to no end to think that they were never shown or told that through reading, they can achieve their goals and access their dreams.

2012/2013 will have been my busiest year ever. Things are happening in our big country. Idle No More is waking Canada to the reality that we can be...no, that we have to be better than we have been. We are Canadians and if we are told the truth, we will do better than we have done. If we've done wrong, it is usually because of poor communication, either intentional or not.

I am traveling to cities, towns and reserves from coast to coast to coast and I am seeing change.

Whoever wrote Don't sweat the Small Things and They are all Small Things hasn't lived in the world I have lived in. It is the little things in life that matters. God is in the detail. Life is about little things and they are happening.

To be a part of these historical times is an honour and a responsibility I do not take lightly. When Education Today writer John Schofield offered to help me spread the good word, I was more than grateful. I was honoured and I was humbled.



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2013

Idle No More, Chief Spence forces Harper to meet with her, Metis and Non-status Natives are now said to be "Indians"...As 2013 unfolds, things are happening in Canada. If I have learned from the previous decade, it is to expect the unexpected.

Social Media matters. Global changes are happening in a way that wasn't thought possible a decade ago.

As I fly out for Northern Alberta, I wonder. Will northern schools finally get access to books, libraries and perhaps even librarians? Will Aboriginal students become the readers it will take for them to graduate on par with their non-Aboriginal counterparts? Will government recognize the needs and the dreams of all children?

There is much to hope for and it is all possible.

2013 will be an interesting year.

Christmas starts early for me...

It's December and I'm done my fall tour...

I have been on the road for three full months. My calendar shows what has likely been the busiest fall since I began touring twelve years ago. I've been everywhere but home. However, I'm now home for a month, home to catch up on my writing and home to make time for family and loved ones.

I wanted to post one picture that best describes the past few months and I think this is it. Canada has become a wonderful tapestry of colours and cultures. We are a stronger and better country than we once were. We are brighter and more caring...more tolerant and more interesting.



I have spent the past three months talking to parents, educators, trustees and the public at large. However, the greatest influence I've had has been on students. Primary children have heard me say that stories are better for them than television. They have heard me say that the best stories come from... 1. their Grandparents 2. their teachers and 3. from the library. Intermediate and Secondary students have heard me say that reading is a humanity and not a science...that anyone can become a reader and through reading, access anything their heart desires. All it takes is one book.

I'm home to write that one book...the one that might open the door to one person. That is my task over the next few weeks...that and to sit with my old dad as he prepares to go meet mom who died a year ago tomorrow, December 10th.

Geoff Edwards is the sound producer in each of my books. I am blessed to have him in my life.

Almost December and...

It's almost December and I'm still on the road.

I have traveled tens of thousands of miles in the last month alone. Treaty 7. Treaty 8. Cree8 Success, Conferences focusing on Aboriginal issues, literacy, reading...parenting... I've been back and forth from coast to coast to coast. It's almost Christmas and I have but two more weeks on the road then home.

I love my work...it's the travel that can be harsh. You'd think that being Canadians, a little snow wouldn't set us back and put us off track but does. A simple snow fall can (and often does) shut Calgary's airport down and the rippling effect of that is crazy. My flights have been cancelled, delayed, re-routed and almost always late. Travel...that's the hard part of touring.

The best part? ...This is it right here.. and in the picture shown here, my good friend Jason Jones from Red Gut in Ontario...Jason and the Junior Ojibway class. This is why I do what I do... This is what keeps me out there...