Trillium Book Awards Author Reading 2015

Ever Wonder What Our Children Think about Toronto? (I do, so I asked. Perhaps the mayor should take note)

Submitted by eruth on March 27, 2013 - 10:27pm
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QUESTION #1:
What's the best thing about your city, Toronto?

That there's not a lot of pollution. (Sara, age 6)

Toronto has more hardware stores than some other cities. (Matthew, age 4)

The multiculturalism and how it's a city where people from all over can come together. (Hanna, age 14)

Having a big park right near my house. (Violet, age 5)

One of my favorite things about living in Toronto is...Canada's Wonderland! Because there is lots of rides and games and it is really, really fun and I get to bring a friend. I always go on the last day of school. (Isa, age 8)

The parks and the island system. Nature. Harry's Run in High Park. The communities and farmers' markets and activities. (Isak, age 12)

I like going to my favorite pizza restaurant because I have very very yummy pizza there. (Nica, age 5)

Water slides! (Soraya, age 5)

QUESTION # 2:
If you could change one thing to make Toronto more fun what would that be?

Put more jungle gyms in. (Sara, age 6)

Instead of driving cars, we would all ride horses. And horses would be a lot cheaper than cars so everyone could have one. (Isa, age 8)

A new mayor. (Hanna, age 14)

Having more toys to play with everywhere. (Samira, age 4.5)

There could be water parks that would be open in the winter but they would be inside a glass building. (Matthew, age 4)

A hundred ferris wheels! (Annorah, age 3)

More chocolate and candy. (Caleb, age 4)

The traffic and transit down near the waterfront. (Isak, age 12)

The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.

Related item from our archives

Date
Sat July 21, 2012

A Moment Against Silence

View more items filed under “Toronto” in our Open Book Archives.
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Submitted by Sheniz J on July 21, 2012 - 2:37am

A Moment Against Silence

Writers are often selfish. It's part of what we do. We need to have privacy and silence to craft the perfect line or envision the perfect scene. We ignore dinner plans, phone calls, doctor's appointments and anything else that may get in the way of writing.

But sometimes, we look up. We walk the streets. We hear the spray of gunshots. We re-read the newspaper until we are sick with sadness or moved to tears.

Some of us write to escape the world.
Some of us write because we can't change it.
Some of us write because we want to change it.

And some of us write to write.

To write because there is nothing else we can do. There is no adequate response, no grand gesture, no display of grief that can possibly match the sorrow that makes our hearts burn.

Elizabeth Ruth

Elizabeth Ruth’s first novel, Ten Good Seconds of Silence, was a finalist for the Writers Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, the Amazon.ca Best First Novel Award and the City of Toronto Book Award and was named a top 10 book of the year by NOW Magazine, the Vancouver Sun and the London Free Press. Smoke, her second novel, was chosen for the One Book, One Community program and also named a top 10 book of the year by NOW Magazine. Her most recent novel, Matadora, will be published in April, 2013 by Cormorant Books.

Go to Elizabeth Ruth’s Author Page