Once upon a Time: My Life With Children's Books

In Once Upon a Time: My Life with Children's Books Sheila Egoff tells the story of her working life, from her early voracious reading, through all her significant contributions to libraries in Canada and to our national understanding of our own literature for children. She brings both a critical eye and a personal touch to this book, which reads as a memoir and as an account of important developments in Canadian writing and librarianship. In this time of cuts to budgets for books and for librarians, there is much here to reflect upon.

Sheila Egoff discovered the public library in her hometown of Galt, Ontario, at age eight, more than eighty years ago. Her love of books led to a life devoted to the promotion of children's literature and librarianship. Many of today's children's librarians credit Sheila with instilling in them a philosophy of librarianship that values literary quality and bringing books to each and every child.

Wendy Sutton, professor emerita, taught both elementary and secondary school before joining the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. She is now retired and serves as a language arts/children's literature consultant.