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Early childhood educator Munzer reading at local libraries

Attention parents, caregivers and educators! Mark Wednesday, Oct. 20th on your calendars.

Come meet and listen to educational toy creator and early childhood educator Susan Munzer at the Whistler Public Library From 7 to 9 p.m.

Ms. Munzer is the author of the book Learn to Play — Play to Learn and believes that if children play with the right toys in their early years, it will start them on the right path in life.

Born, raised and educated in Switzerland, Ms. Munzer got her degree as a Kindergarten teacher, and then immigrated to Canada with her husband. She quickly discovered that there was a scarcity of educational toys on the market and set about making her own. She has developed more than 100 wooden projects, all meticulously handmade and child-tested.

Learn to Play — Play to Learn

includes more than 200 colour photographs and patterns and begins with 11 different ways to tell one story. In Part 2 (of 9) of the book, Munzer presents 20 stories, each containing an emotional or moral value as well as instructions and illustrations for her creating "story baskets" which contain physical representations of elements in the story.

Parts 5-9 are filled with pictures, instructions and patterns for wooden puzzles, layered puzzles, science boxes, magnetic toys, all sorts of puppets and more.

Who could benefit from this presentation? Parents, early childhood educators, grandparents, home schooling parents, caregivers of small children, parent groups will find many helpful and practical ideas to stimulate children’s creativity.

"I would like this book to be a practical guide that can make a difference in your children's daily lives," she says. "I debated whether to go into toy production but I thought that the right way was to just share everything. If people make their own things they find their own creativity and more ideas keep growing in other people's lives."

Ms. Munzer will also be at the Squamish Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 19 th at 7 p.m. and at the Pemberton Public Library on Thursday, Oct. 21 st at 6:30 p.m. These readings are made possible with a grant from the Writers in Libraries program of the Public Library Services Branch, Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s Services.

For more information, call the library at 604-932-5564.

Bibliophiles take note — the Giller Prize Shortlist was announced last week. The prize was founded in 1994 by Montreal real-estate businessman Jack Rabinovich as a tribute to his late wife, Doris Giller. She had been prominent in the Canadian literary community as a reporter and editor at three major daily newspapers prior to her death in 1993. The prize goes to the best Canadian novel or short story collection published each year in English. Here are the contenders for this year’s prize:

All That Matters, by Wayson Choy

A Complicated Kindness, by Miriam Toews

The Tiger Claw, by Shauna Singh Baldwin

Galveston, by Paul Quarrington