Children's Fiction Orphans & Foster Homes
Today Is the Day
- Publisher
- Tundra
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2015
- Category
- Orphans & Foster Homes, Africa, Birthdays
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781770496484
- Publish Date
- Oct 2015
- List Price
- $19.99
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 6 to 9
- Grade: 1 to 4
Description
Mutanu is excited. As she goes about her chores, she thinks about the day to come and what surprises it might bring. For today is no ordinary day at the orphanage she lives in. Every year, the orphanage honors its newest arrivals by creating a birthday day especially for them. From that moment forward, the orphans have a day that they know is theirs--a day to celebrate, a day to enjoy, a day to remember. And today is the day!
Based on real children in an orphanage in Kenya, this lovely story shows how something as simple as a birthday, something most of us take for granted, can mean so much in another part of the world.
About the authors
Eric Walters is the author of many acclaimed and bestselling novels for children and young adults. His novels have won numerous awards, including the Silver Birch, Blue Heron, Red Maple, Snow Willow, Ruth Schwartz, and Tiny Torgi, and have received honours from the Canadian Library Association Book Awards and UNESCO's international award for Literature in Service of Tolerance.
Eric lives in Mississauga with his wife, Anita, and three children, Christina, Nicholas, and Julia. When not writing or touring across the country speaking to school groups, Eric spends time playing or watching soccer and basketball, or playing the saxophone.
To find out more about Eric and his novels, or to arrange for him to speak at your school, visit his website at www.ericwalters.net.
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Née en 1943, près de New York, EUGÉNIE FERNANDES puise son admiration pour les animaux et la nature dans les souvenirs de son enfance. Son inspiration, elle la doit en grande partie à son père, illustrateur de bandes dessinées, avec qui elle passait de longues heures dans son studio. En 1965, elle obtient son diplôme de l'école des Arts Visuels de New York et commence alors sa carrière en tant qu'illustratrice. Eugenie a écrit ou illustré plus de 80 livres dont Grosse journée, petite souris! et Caféolait s'en va-t-en ville. Elle vit aujourd'hui dans le sud de l'Ontario et travaille depuis sa maison dans son studio surplombant un lac et la forêt environnante.
EUGENIE FERNANDES loved exploring the outdoors and making her own little books when she was young. As an adult she has combined these interests by creating books such as Ribbon Rescue, The Tree that Grew to the Moon, Waves in the Bathtub, One More Pet, and Grandpa Dan's Toboggan Ride.
Eugenie is part of a very artistic family. Her father was a comic book illustrator, her husband, Henry Fernandes, is a picture book illustrator who collaborated with her on the book Ordinary Amos and the Amazing Fish, and her two children are also artists. Eugenie lives near Peterborough, Ontario, where she works in a studio that is surrounded by water and woods.
Awards
- Nominated, Rainforest of Reading Award
- Short-listed, Shining Willow Award
- Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards
Editorial Reviews
“A different sort of birthday celebration is at the bighearted center of this picture book .... Both deeply important and purely joyful.” - Kirkus Reviews
“Together, Walters and Fernandes have become quite the dynamic duo in developing an effective series showcasing the inspiring, courageous stories of resilient, caring children who live in The Creation of Hope’s Rolling Hills residence in the rural community of Kikima in Kenya’s Mbooni District ...." - Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
“Good reading skills will be required of young picture book readers in order to appreciate the paragraphs of detail about the birthday celebration. The drawings are fun and lovely enhancements of the overall events presented in a winning fictional account of a real situation.” - Midwest Book Review
