8 libraries, 8 books, 1 winner!
Join your Library for our annual Simcoe Reads event! A champion from each community has chosen a book they think everyone in Simcoe County should read right now. Our competitors are Barrie, Bradford, Essa, Innisfil, New Tecumseth, and Ramara Public Libraries!
Our local champion, Jennifer Ellis, has chosen Jann Arden’s moving novel, The Bittlemores.
Simcoe Reads Debate
Thursday, October 23, 6:30PM
At the Gibson Centre for Community, Arts and Culture
After a summer of reading terrific books, interacting with the authors and your community’s champion, please plan to join us for the final event: a conversation between the 8 champions representing Barrie Public Library, Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library, Essa Public Library, Innisfil ideaLab & Library, Midland Public Library, New Tecumseth Public Library, and Ramara Public Library. This in-person event will be at the Gibson Centre for Community, Arts and Culture (Honda Hall), 63 Tupper St W, Alliston, ON L9R 1E4 on Thursday, October 23, at 6:30 pm. Audience voting will happen the night of the event to determine the number one book to be read in Simcoe County. Click here to register!
Watch the livestream of the debate on October 23 at 6:30pm by clicking here!
Join in the social media discussion by using #SimcoeReads2025.
More about Jann Arden and The Bittlemores:
Jann Arden is a singer, songwriter, actor, author and social media star. The celebrated multi-platinum, award-winning artist was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2021. She continues to record and tour, and in 2022 released her fifteenth album, Descendant. She has written four books, including a memoir of her early life and path to music, Falling Backwards, and her two #1 bestsellers, Feeding My Mother and If I Knew Then. She is the star of her own hit TV sitcom, Jann, which debuted in 2019 and recently aired its third season. She is also the host of The Jann Arden Podcast, where she and her guests explore what makes humans authentically themselves, and she starred in the hit TV sitcom Jann, inspired by her own life.
On mean Harp Bittlemore’s blighted farm, hidden away in the Backhills, nothing has gone right for a very long time. Crops don’t grow, the pigs and chickens stay skinny and the three aged dairy cows, Berle, Crilla and Dally, are so desperate they are plotting an escape. The one thing holding them back is the thought of abandoning young Willa, the single bright point in their life since her older sister, Margaret, ran away. But Willa Bittlemore, just turning 14, is planning her own rebellion. Something doesn’t add up in the story she’s been told about her missing sister, and she’s beginning to question if her horrible parents are even her parents at all. Just as things are really coming to a head, a bright young police officer starts investigating a cold case involving a baby stolen from a little rural hospital 28 years earlier, and Willa and the cows find out exactly how far the Bittlemores will go to protect a festering secret.
Written with Jann’s trademark outrageous humour and full of her down-to-earth wisdom, The Bittlemores is a rural fairytale, a coming-of-age story and a prairie mystery all-in-one, saturated with her observations of the world she grew up in and her deep connection to the animals we exploit. This marvel of a first novel digs into how people come to be so cruel, but it also glories in the miracle of human kindness.
More about Jennifer:
Jennifer Ellis is the Executive Director of Gateway Centre for Learning, located in Midland. For over 20 years Jennifer has actively promoted awareness of literacy issues and provided learning opportunities for adults in North Simcoe who may not qualify for other educational programs. She is a member of Laubach Literacy Ontario, Community Literacy Ontario and Simcoe Muskoka Skillforce. In support of the literacy basic skills programs and services, she oversees Bookmark Used Books store. Jennifer lives in Penetanguishene, where she enjoys walking the waterfront trail with her dog Miko. She also enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, and yoga. She has two children who have learned to fly but visit often.
To get all the Simcoe Reads updates and find out about the other libraries’ picks, visit simcoereads.ca