Funny Pages Festival: 2025 (Halifax Public Library)

 

If you're fortunate enough to live in Halifax and environs, then be prepared to listen and read and laugh with some of Canada's funniest writers and illustrators of books for young people. Touted as "Canada's only festival celebrating books that crack kids up!", Funny Pages, the brain child of funny writer Vicki Grant, returns to Halifax Public Library this April. Two days of events for preschoolers to young people in Grade 6 are scheduled. Full details can be found at the Funny Pages website but here is some basic info about dates and times and scheduled presenters (with information about some of their books).

 

Time and Dates:

 

Little Funny Pages

For Preschoolers to Grade 3:    

Thursday, April 24, 2025
10 AM to 2 PM
Halifax Central Library

For Grades 3-6:     

Friday April 25, 2025

9:30 AM to 2:30PM

Halifax Central Library

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Scheduled Presenters:

 

 

Paul Gilligan

King of the Mole People

Rise of the Slugs

Pluto Rocket: New in Town

Pluto Rocket: Joe Pidge Flips a Lid

Anna Humphrey

Megabat

Megabat is a Fraidybat

Bee & Flea and the Puddle Problem

Bee & Flea and the Compost Caper

Fluffle Bunnies: Buns Gone Bad

Fluffle Bunnies: Big City Buns

 

 

 

Andy Tolson

How to Kidnap a Mermaid

How to Rescue a Unicorn (coming in 2025)

How to Wrestle an Octopus (coming in 2026)

 

Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Archie Celebrates Diwali

The Party Diaries: Awesome Orange Birthday

The Party Diaries: Starry Henna Night

The Party Diaries: Lucky Mermaid Sleepover

The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe

The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah

 

 

 

Leslie Gentile

Elvis, Me and the Lemonade Stand Summer

Elvis, Me and the Postcard Winter 

 

 

 

Michelle Robinson

How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth

She Rex

Lobster's Vacation

Do Not Mess with the Mermaids

 

 

 

Yolanda T. Marshall 

Big Birthday Wishes

Hot Cross Buns for Everyone! 

What's in the Cookie Tin?

C is for Carnival

 

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It's time to take humour seriously and let the professional share their funny pages with young readers. Head to the Funny Pages website for details and contact info.

The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah

Written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Acorn (Scholastic)

978-1-338-89504-9

64 pp.

Ages 5-7

October 2024

 

Our intrepid inside-the-body explorers from The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion and The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe are back to help another animal with a body ailment.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Sanjay and Viv, the children who can shrink down and go inside animals to help them feel better, discover that the cheetah has a leg cramp. Explaining it as a muscle that is stuck and will not relax, the two grab their gear and head out to meet Zora the cheetah. Zora explains how she'd been running when her leg started to hurt, and she had to stop. (This may be familiar to many young readers.) They carry her to their Care Lab and head inside Zora for a "little poke."

From The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Inside Zora, Sanjay and Viv pass through the fur, the skin and into the muscle, all appropriately depicted. The kids reach the muscle, described as made of bigger and smaller ropes and surrounded by a sleeve (connective tissue), and locate where the ropes are bunched up i.e., the cramp. With the help of a few nifty tools, they repair the muscle and head out. As a pain-free Zora returns to the wild, they advise her to rest, and stay hydrated.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

With a couple of information pages called "Fun Facts about Muscles," describing how muscles work in our bodies, including the use of terms like skeletal muscles, fibers and connective tissue, Mitali Banerjee Ruths informs while telling a sweet story about kids who help others. She's got a great blend of animals, kids, compassion and STEM to make the Inside Scouts a valuable and charming addition to Acorn's early reader books. And by focusing on an injury or ailment that any child might experience, some common and others less so, Mitali Banerjee Ruths's Inside Scouts will help kids understand and be comforted.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

The illustrations by New England's Francesca Mahaney have the right chemistry of biology and art. She keeps her shapes bold and distinct and surprisingly defined as necessary for a book that looks at the body structures. As a primer for health and the body, The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah shows the strong collaboration between Francesca Mahaney's art and the story of Mitali Banerjee Ruths, working like the body itself: distinct parts supporting and integrating.

 

I don't know if there will be more books in the series but, with plenty of injuries and body functions to delve into, the Inside Scouts would have heaps of helping to do. And by helping an assortment of animals, Sanjay and Viv are helping young children understand their own bodies and what can go wrong without taking them into circumstances like hospitals and doctors' offices which have the potential to cause anxiety. With these characters just trying to do good and using fabulous tech to do it, children get a playful but informative look at their own bodies.

 

 • • • • • • •

 

The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion (2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe (2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah (2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe (The Inside Scouts #2)

Written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Acorn (Scholastic)

978-1-338-89501-8

64 pp.

Ages 5–7

June 2024

 

Sanjay and Viv, the Inside Scouts who can shrink down and go inside animals to help them feel better, are on their second case with a giraffe who cannot eat because her tummy feels sick. So, to discover what is stuck in her gut, the two friends approach Sabeena the giraffe to see if they can help.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

After a few questions about when Sabeena started to feel ill–after eating her lunch of leaves–the two learn from an embarrassed Sabeena that, in addition to not wanting to eat, she can't poop. Thankful for the info, the Inside Scouts suit up and jump into her mouth to travel down the esophagus into her stomach. (For details about the digestive system, there is a "Fun Facts about the Gut" that describes the parts (including how to pronounce them) and its workings.)

From The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

But the stomach looks clear so the two raft down into the intestines with its walls with "pink fingers" where they find a ball of thorns, undoubtedly the cause of Sabeena's discomfort. With a blast tool and a net, they trap the offending mass, moving themselves back out with sticky grips until Sanjay and Viv are burped out of Sabeena. 

Inside Scouts go inside together.

When animals need help,

we help them get better! (p. 54)

From The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

When Mitali Banerjee Ruths, MD, introduced The Inside Scouts series earlier this year with The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, I was hooked. She based her story on two friends, both of colour, who worked with animals, health, and tech to do good. The stories are light, perfect for an early reader, but informative, drawing readers in with their rhyming superhero chants, their internal adventures, and wild tech. Coupled with Francesca Mahaney's digital art, the stories are colourful, a little whimsical–see Sabeena shyly "going" behind a bush once her gut is working again–and bold while never complicated.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

With Sanjay and Viv around to help explain personal health issues, young readers will never need to be embarrassed about asking questions to help them understand their bodies. With Book 3, The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah, set for a fall release, it looks like there will be more learning happening, inside and out.

 

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The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion (February 2024)
The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe (June 2024)
The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah (October 2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion (The Inside Scouts #1)

Written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Acorn (Scholastic)

978-1-338-89498-1

64 pp.

Ages 4–7

RL 1.0

February 2024 

 

Sanjay and Viv are the Inside Scouts, and they have the superpower to shrink super small and go inside animals to make them feel better. In this first book in this illustrated early reader (RL 1.0) series, the kids must help a lion who is not feeling his best.

Inside Scouts!

Always on call!

To fix big things,

we get super small! (p. 20)

 

From The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Ruslan  is a lion who wants to run and play with his cubs, but he is feeling far too tired to do so.  Using some very cool tech, the kids show Ruslan a leak in his heart. Gearing up, the two go in through his nose–though they must be careful not to tickle the sensitive lion–and follow a vein to the heart.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

The Inside Scouts show young readers how the heart is made up of four rooms, with doors called valves that allow movement of the blood. Though the story is appended with "Fun Facts about the Heart" that describes the pumping of the heart and uses terms like circulates, arteries, veins and chambers, the illustrations are done at such large scale that the anatomical features of the heart are not readily discernible so even the squeamishest of children will have no problems with the artwork. But they will have a sweet introduction to how our hearts work and how those with poorly-functioning ones might feel.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

Not only will the Inside Scouts help young children understand their bodies, but the series will also make them think about illness and how our behaviours may be impacted by health issues. Whether it's a lion that cannot play with his cubs because of a leaky heart, or a giraffe with an upset tummy or a cheetah with a leg cramp (Books 2 and 3 are out later this year), the Inside Scouts teach and encourage empathy for those who may be suffering.

From The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion, written by Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illustrated by Francesca Mahaney

The tale of the kindly lion with a big heart, albeit a leaky one, will delight young readers with its mixture of humour–such as the kids getting sneezed out of the lion's nose with slime–learning and story. Mitali Banerjee Ruths, who also writes The Party Diaries series for the Branches early chapter book imprint of Scholastic, has written a text that is perfect for the earliest readers but challenges them with more sophisticated words in the "Fun Facts about the Heart" section. There is also an activity (Draw Your Own "I Am Kind" Badge) and encouragement to write a story about being kind. With artwork by Filipino-American Francesca Mahaney, who has done a fabulous job of illustrating what could have been a perplexing topic for young children, The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion becomes an accessible but bold adventure of colour, shape, and story, and one that will be a hit with readers, teachers and parents.

 

• • • • • • •

The Inside Scouts Help the Kind Lion (February 2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Brave Giraffe (June 2024)

The Inside Scouts Help the Strong Cheetah (October 2024)