Get Kids Reading with these Alumni Authors!
On Family Literacy Day, three alum authors outline their recent books that will inspire, inform, and entertain children
January 26, 2024
On Family Literacy Day (January 27), it’s important to recognize that taking time every day to read with children is crucial for their development. To celebrate the annual event and inspire kids to get reading, here are three Trent alumni authors whose books will inform and entertain the children in your life.
Danièle Cybulskie ’02 (Catharine Parr Traill College)
After discovering a passion for Medieval history as an undergraduate student at Trent University, Danièle Cybulskie has gone on to become an award-winning writer, podcaster, and professional speaker who has been making the Middle Ages fun, entertaining, and accessible to all ages. Especially popular with the pre-teen/teenager audience is A Five-Minute Medievalists’ Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, which outlines tips from the Middle Ages to survive a post-apocalyptical world without electricity. She outlines, for example, tips on building and defending a shelter, growing food, and surviving disease. Danièle has travelled to elementary schools to read excerpts from the book and answer children’s questions about life in the Middle Ages. The book is self-published and was released in 2018.
Dr. Annalice Hayes (nee Hill) ’07 (Otonabee College)
After graduating from Trent’s Education program, Dr. Annalice Hayes has been working with children across the world and will soon be publishing her first children’s book With This Note, which tackles the difficult topic of personal safety and consent for children. The mother-of-two has more than a decade of experience as a school counsellor in Mexico and Qatar and is also trained in child-protection laws. With This Note offers an age-appropriate way for children to understand they have autonomy over their bodies and empowers them to listen to their gut feelings when things don’t feel quite right.
With colourful pages, beautiful illustrations, and rhymed storytelling, the book provides children with the tools to remove themselves from unsafe and uncomfortable situations. With This Note is published by Little Start Books and will be released on February 20, 2024.
Dr. Bill Waiser ’71 C.M. (Champlain College)
Dr. Bill Waiser, who received a 2022 Trent University Distinguished Alumni Award, is an award-winning historian and author who recently published his first children’s book Gordie’s Skate. Set in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression, the story focuses on hockey legend Gordie Howe and his first experience with skating. With charming illustrations capturing life in the 1930s, the book tells the story of Gordie using an old pair of hockey skates, that were several sizes too large, to fall in love with the sport. Gordie and his friends would play for hours with little or no equipment and the inspirational story shows how people came to depend on one another to endure hard times. The book is published by Thistledown Press and was released in 2023.
Did you know that Trent Library & Archives carries books and other publications by alumni authors and that, as alum, you still have access to all of the Library resources in Peterborough and Durham? Learn more about this and all the other perks and benefits of being Trent alumni.