Happy 2024! This past year saw a lot of great work for the LawMatters program, including another successful grant year. We wanted to start off 2024 by talking about our most popular books and subject areas that you purchased with your grants last year. Seeing these trends shows us what is most important to you and your communities!
2023 saw a continued high level of interest in our Law Books for Kids List, first introduced in 2022. This list features titles created for kids to promote a greater understanding of legal topics and help them learn more about the history and evolution of law, activism, social justice, and their rights. It’s no surprise then that our top subject area in 2023 was books aimed at children and youth!
The following five titles were purchased the most from our Kids List:
Better Connected: How girls are using social media for good: this book for 9- to 12-year-olds focuses on the positive aspects of social media use by girls, providing an inspiring look at the types of activism girls can and do engage in online. Including profiles of changemakers and tools on how to get started, it discusses the types of activism girls are already involved in, including environmental activism, gun control, immigration policy, and education access.
Hello, Sweet Baby: An adoption story: this book for 4- to 7-year-olds tells the story of a young family of tomatoes who make the difficult decision to give their baby up for adoption.
- Being You: A first conversation about gender: this board book begins the conversation about gender with clear and concrete language, helping children understand what they see in the world and increasing self-awareness, self-esteem, and recognition of discrimination and prejudice.
- Fresh Air, Clean Air: Our right to a healthy environment: this book for 9- to 12-year-olds explores the connections between the environment and our health and discusses why the right to live in a healthy environment should be protected as a human right.
- Get Out and Vote! How you can shape the future: this book for 9- to 12-year-olds explores the past and present of voting, showing how voting affects the lives of everyone. It includes discussion on the many aspects of voting, including what election day can look like, why some don’t vote, voter suppression, accessible ballots, and more.
After Children & Youth, our top subject areas were:
Indigenous legal topics
Civil legal topics
Criminal legal topics
Rights & Social Justice topics
In these areas, the top five books purchased titles overall were:
- Building a Better World: An introduction to the labour movement in Canada: this book offers a comprehensive introduction to Canada’s labour movement. It explores why unions are formed and their historical development, along with their potential for democratic involvement. It also discusses some of the challenges facing labour movements today due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the strategies being used to overcome them.
- Realizing a Good Life: Men’s pathways out of drugs and crime: in this book, the author turns to Indigenous knowledge to define ‘realizing a good life’: one with wholeness, balance, connection, harmony, and healing. Using this framework, the book shares the stories of 23 men, most of whom are Indigenous, overcoming systemic barriers and forging connections to realize a good life.
- Cybersecurity in Canada: Operations, investigations, and protection: this book offers a comprehensive overview of the many facets of cybersecurity. It discusses the common types of attacks and vulnerabilities, tools and techniques used to manage cybersecurity in organizations, and what the future may hold for cybersecurity.
Indictment: The criminal justice system on trial: this book critiques the criminal justice system from a trauma-informed perspective, sharing the stories of survivors, those who have committed offences, and others on the frontlines.
Every Cyclist’s Guide to Canadian Law: this book provides a comprehensive overview of what Canadian law has to say about bicycles, discussing topics like the rules of the road, purchasing and using bikes, what to do if your bike is stolen, and more.
In the coming months, we’ll be working to update the Law Books for Libraries and Law Books for Kids lists. You can expect to hear more about this year’s grant offerings in the spring!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with us at lawmatters@courthouselibrary.ca.