In this issue
- Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
- Awards update
- Reading in the news
- CD transition
- Reading for Truth and Reconciliation
- Update on Canada Post strike
- Remembrance Day Reading
- Author Tim Cook dies
- Webinars for you
- What do you think of What's new?
- Featured title for adults: A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land
- Top five books
- Featured title for kids: A sick history of medicine: A warts-and-all book full of fun facts and disgusting discoveries
- Top five for kids
- Top five for teens
- Service tip
- Holiday hours
- Stay connected!
Letter from CELA’s Executive Director
As our libraries and users know, CELA’s primary goal is to provide accessible reading materials to those who need them. That work, which begins with selecting titles and winds its way through layers of production and distribution, supporting libraries and users along the way, keeps our team plenty busy. Sometimes this work allows also us to participate in projects which support the broader equitable reading landscape.
Recently we’ve part of creating an Accessibility Guide for Canadian Copyright laws to help individuals and organizations understand the exceptions in the Copyright Act of Canada, and use those exceptions to create accessible versions of reading materials for people with print disabilities. If you’d like to learn more, we have a webpage available and there are links to the full report.
At times, our work also requires us to pause and evaluate what we’ve accomplished and where we are heading. We’re in the early stages of doing just that by launching a new strategic planning process that will begin in 2026. We will be sharing more about how the process will unfold and what ways our libraries and users will be able to contribute in the coming months.
While all this work is exciting, we’re always grateful to be able to celebrate books and stories that we can share with our users. Please check out our Awards page to learn about the award nominees available in our collection. A special congratulations to the selected books from the First Nations Community Reads program which is supported and organized by the Ontario First Nation Public Library Community and the Ontario Library Service along with their partners.
As we wrap up Dyslexia Awareness Week and Library Month, we want to take a moment to thank all the folks who advocate for accessible reading materials and to the libraries who play a crucial role in supporting accessibility and equitable reading.
Happy reading!
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director
Awards update
Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators who have received awards or nominations this month. Watch our Awards page for updated lists and winner announcements!
Stella Shepard's book The Baby Train was chosen as the First Nations Community Reads selected title for adults. Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley's book Boozhoo! / Hello! was selected as the children's book this year.
Maggie Helwig won the Toronto Book Award for her nonfiction work Encampment. We have it in audio and braille.
The Canadian Children's Book Awards were announced this month. Congratulations to all the winners.
The Governor General's Award for Literature has announced its list. We have a number of nominated titles and more on the way. You can find up to date lists on our Awards page.
The Evergreen Award has announced its 10 nominees. We have many of the titles in our collection now and more will be added soon. Good luck to all the authors.
Canadian author Omar El Akkad's debut nonfiction work One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This has made the shortlist for U.S. National Book Award. It is available in braille and audio in our collection.
Many of the Writer's Trust Awards will announce the winners in November including:
- 2025 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
- Hilary Weston Prize shortlist
- Dayne Olgivie Prize shortlist
The Giller Prize shortlist has been released. Check out accessible versions in our collection.
Reading in the news
Self magazine recently ran an article entitled 'Book Compatibility’ Is the New Love Language. While we know this might be better as a Valentine's story, we did think the article brought up some interesting points about compatability in reading.
The article states that "At its core, the connection reading sparks is deeply personal. 'The way a book impacts you may be completely different from the way it impacts someone else,' celaMaura Cheeks, author and founder of Liz’s Book Bar, a social book bar in New York City, tells SELF. “Which is why when two people love the same novel, they’re both acknowledging that they’re connecting over something more personal and profound that happened in their psyche.”
Interested in reading some Romance? Check out our Browse By Category option to find lots of romantic titles.
CD transition
If you are learning new ways of reading CELA titles or looking for help to find and select books, we have lots of support and resources for you, including guides and tutorials which can be found on the CD Transition Resources page on our website.
Upcoming webinars include:
How to read CELA audiobooks and magazines: Transitioning from reading on CDs to other devices Tues Dec 2 7:00-8:00pm EST
Please note that as of the end of October, the Envoy Connect device is out of stock at Smartlife. They are expected to be restocked in mid to late December.
If you need additional support, please reach out to our Contact Centre by phone or email. The Contact Centre can book a one on one appointment to assist you in configuring your device for Direct to Player options.
Reading for Truth and Reconciliation
New to our collection!
21 things you need to know about indigenous self-government: A conversation about dismantling the Indian Act by Bob Joseph
Bob Joseph's 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of Canadians by shining a light on the Indian Act and the problems associated with it.
In that book, readers learned that the Consolidated Indian Act of 1876 has controlled the lives of Indigenous Peoples in Canada for generations, and despite its objective to assimilate Indians into the economic and political mainstream, it has had the opposite effect: segregation. They live under different laws and on different lands.
People came away from that book with questions such as "Can we get rid of the Indian Act?" and "What would that look like? Would self-government work?" These are timely questions, given that 2026 will mark 150 years since the Consolidated Indian Act of 1876. The short answer to these questions is, yes, we can dismantle the Act, and there are current examples of self-government arrangements that are working.
Update on Canada Post Strike
As the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have switched to a rotating strike, CELA has returned to sending embossed physical braille, printbraille picture books and reloaded Envoy Connect devices by mail. It is now safe to return any printbraille books you are finished reading to CELA.
We will continue to monitor the negotiations and update our users if necessary.
Remembrance Day Reading
We have gathered some titles that would be appropriate for reading in November in honour of Remembrance Day.
You can use our Browse by Category option to find more books related to war and military history.
The killing season: The autumn of 1914, Ypres, and the afternoon that cost Germany a war by Robert Cowley
Agents of influence: A British campaign, a Canadian spy, and the secret plot to bring America into World War II by Henry Hemming
Atrocity on the atlantic: Attack on a hospital ship during the great war by Nate Hendley
The First World War: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Michael Howard
World War II: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Gerhard L. Weinberg
Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 by David A. Borys.
Till We Meet Again: A Canadian in the First World War by Brandon Marriott.
Author Tim Cook dies
Author, and chief historian at the Canadian War Museum, Tim Cook passed away on in late October.
Regarded as one of Canada's foremost experts in military history, Cook published more than 19 books and won numerous awards.
His most recent book The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War was published in 2024.
Other popular titles include The Fight for History: 75 Years of Forgetting, Remembering, and Remaking Canada's Second World War and Vimy: The Battle and the Legend
Read more of Tim Cook's work in our collection.
Our condolences to his family, friends and fans.
Webinars for you
We host a series of webinars on Zoom to help users access CELA services, to stay up to date on new technologies and to learn more about accessible reading. Most of our webinars are recorded.
On the Webinars for you page, you will find upcoming webinars. On that same page you will find links to other CELA video resources available on our YouTube channel.
Ask Us! Come chat with CELA staff and have your questions answered
This hour long interactive conversation gives CELA users an opportunity to ask questions related to using CELA’s library services. We encourage you to bring your questions and learn from CELA staff, as well as to share experiences with other CELA patrons in the audience. This Q&A aims to support how you access the books, magazines and newspapers in CELA’s multiple format collections for people with print disabilities.
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Starting with CELA: finding and getting books and magazines
Have you recently registered for CELA or would you like a refresher on how to find and read books and magazines? Or are you a designate who assists a CELA user with a print disability manage their library service? We’re pleased to share how you can use the 1.5 million titles available to you in this 60-minute webinar.
- What CELA offers: books & more!
- What kind of devices do you need to listen to CELA's books and magazines
- Discover how to access a book or magazine using CELA's site: log in, search and choose a book
- Find tutorials and videos for more help
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Tuesday Nov 25 2:00-3:00pm EST
How to read CELA audiobooks and magazines: Transitioning from reading on CDs to other devices
Discover the many ways you can read CELA’s audiobooks and magazines using a variety of devices. This webinar is intended to support you as you transition off of CDs onto other players. In this one-hour webinar, you will learn:
- Which audiobook players work with CELA audiobooks and magazines
- How to start using Envoy Connect devices, the EasyReader app or Direct to Player on your Humanware Stratus DAISY player
- Where to buy players
- How we can further support you through this transition
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the date below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
Getting Started with Accessible Reading Canada: Listen to CELA Audiobooks with Alexa
Join us for a live webinar introducing Accessible Reading Canada, a new way for CELA patrons to enjoy CELA audiobooks using Alexa-enabled smart speakers. This 60-minute session will walk you through how to use voice commands to search, browse, and listen to audiobooks from your CELA Direct to Player Bookshelf using the Accessible Reading Canada Alexa skill.
This webinar will cover:
- What Alexa-enabled smart speakers are and how they work
- How to set up and use the Accessible Reading Canada skill
- How to use voice commands for browsing and reading
- Where to find help guides and additional support
After the presentation, there will be a Q&A session to ask additional questions. This session will be recorded.
To register for the online Zoom webinar please select the link below and fill in the registration form. To attend by phone, please call the Contact Centre at 1-855-655-2273.
What do you think of What's New?
CELA offers the What’s New newsletter in audio format as a way of informing our users about new audiobook titles in our collection. It includes a comprehensive list of audiobooks added to the CELA collection over the previous two months and includes a summary of each book.
It also features CELA announcements, updates on awards and a Top 5 list of our users’ favourite downloads.
What’s New is published every two months. It is placed on bookshelves of users who subscribe and was also distributed by CD up to July 2025.
Our goal is to make sure our communications, like the What’s New newsletter, are working for our users. If you receive our What's New newsletter, please help us by filling out the following short survey about your experience with What’s New and your newsletter reading preferences. The survey contains 10 questions and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.
If you need assistance with this survey, please call our Contact Centre. The deadline for the survey is November 21.
Featured title for adults: A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land
The sweeping, epic story of the mysterious land that came to be called "Canada" like it’s never been told before.Every map tells a story. And every map has a purpose--it invites us to go somewhere we've never been. It’s an account of what we know, but also a trace of what we long for. Ten Maps conjures the world as it appeared to those who were called upon to map it. What would the new world look like to wandering Vikings, who thought they had drifted into a land of mythical creatures, or Samuel de Champlain, who had no idea of the vastness of the landmass just beyond the treeline?
Adam Shoalts, one of Canada’s foremost explorers, tells the stories behind these centuries old maps, and how they came to shape what became "Canada." It’s a story that will surprise readers, and reveal the Canada we never knew was hidden. It brings to life the characters and the bloody disputes that forged our history, by showing us what the world looked like before it entered the history books. Combining storytelling, cartography, geography, archaeology and of course history, this book shows us Canada in a way we've never seen it before.
Winner of the 2018 Louise de Kiriline Lawrence Award for Nonfiction. Longlisted for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize. Shortlisted for the 2018 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction.
Read A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land by Adam Shoalts.
Top five books
Most popular with our readers last month:
- Shadow Play by Sara Driscoll, Women sleuths
- The housemaid is watching by Freida McFadden, Suspense and thrillers
- The secret of secrets by Dan Brown, Adventure stories
- The marigold cottages murder collective by Jo Nichols, Mysteries and crime stories
- JFK: public, private, secret by J. Randy Taraborrelli, Biography
Featured title for kids: A sick history of medicine: A warts-and-all book full of fun facts and disgusting discoveries
A Sick History of Medicine: A Warts-And-All Book Full of Fun Facts and Disgusting Discoveries features music and special effects. Listen along and enjoy the fun! Warning: Not for the faint-hearted. This revolting history of medicine through the ages by Jelena Poleksic is full of blood, guts, and gore! If you don't like going to the doctor, spare a thought for your ancestors. Got a headache? We can drill into your skull!
Need to buy medicine? Can we recommend a dose of ground-up Egyptian mummy? Want to fight off diseases? Try smelling a stinky cesspit. It's well-known that, to make advances in science, you have to make a few mistakes along the way. In this hilarious history book, kids will be whisked around the world-from ancient Rome to imperial China-to meet the medical innovators who pushed the boundaries of what was possible, with sometimes disastrous effects. They'll learn about the use of leeches, maggot therapy (as gross as it sounds), dancing plagues, public dissections, grave robbers, electric eel treatments, exploding teeth, and much more! Written by a doctor, everything in this audiobook has been scrupulously researched and listeners will learn about the development of some of our greatest inventions, from vaccines to X-rays. Kids will want to return to this audiobook again and again. The vile sequel to the equally revolting A Stinky History of Toilets!
Top five for kids
Most popular with kids last month:
- The Barren Grounds (The Misewa Saga #1) by David A. Robertson, Indigenous peoples fiction
- Fatty legs: a true story by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, Canadian non-fiction
- Megabat by Anna Humphrey, Animal stories
- Tales of a fourth grade nothing by Judy Blume and Roy Doty, Humourous fiction
- My robot buddy by Alfred Slote, Science fiction
Top five for teens
Most popular with teens last month:
- Red Rising (Red Rising #1) by Pierce Brown, Science fiction
- In the shadow of blackbirds: a novel by Cat Winters, Ghosts and horror stories
- Middletown by Sarah Moon, LGBTQ+ fiction
- The hate u give by Angie Thomas, Multi-cultural fiction
- For Young Women Only: What You Need to Know About How Guys Think by Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa A. Rice, Inspirational and family life
Service tip
You can turn on notifications to receive emails when ZIP or Direct to Player books you’ve requested on CELA’s website become available. You can also update your email address and change your password. You can make these changes on the Communication preferences page in My Account.
The instructions on how to update your email address, change your password and turn on notifications are on the My Account help page.
Holiday hours
CELA's 
Contact Centre will be closed Tuesday, November 11 to honour Remembrance Day. Full services will return on Wednesday, November 12.
Stay connected!
Visit CELA's social media, including X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, YouTube and our blog, for more news about what's happening in the world of accessible literature.