CanLit for LittleCanadians: 2021 Forest of Reading® Winners and Honour Books announced

May 20, 2021

2021 Forest of Reading® Winners and Honour Books announced

It's the second year into the pandemic and again things at the Forest of Reading have had to be a little different. But kids have still been reading books nominated for the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading's readers' choice award programs and voting on their favourites. Again, rather than announcing the awards at the annual Festival of Trees, an enthusiastic but crowded event at Toronto's Harbourfront or at satellite celebrations around the province, this year's award ceremonies were held online, hosted by CBC Books on Curio.ca, an educational streaming platform (normally subscription based). Fortunately, these ceremonies, hosted by comic Ali Hassan, were posted for all to see. Judging by the faces of the authors and illustrators and young readers who spoke, the event was a resounding success, as always.

Here are this year's winners for each reading program. The ceremonies for all books were held on May 18, 19 and 20, and the screenshots of attending authors and illustrators were taken from these presentations. The presentations can be viewed at https://curio.ca/en/collection/forest-of-reading-2021-2822/ for the English-language awards and at https://curio.ca/fr/collection/la-foret-de-la-lecture-2021-2823/ for the French-language awards.

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Winner

Bad Dog
Written and illustrated by Mike Boldt
Doubleday Books for Young Readers

Honour Books:

Boxitects

Written and illustrated by Kim Smith
HarperCollins

Fast Friends
Written by Heather O'Connor
Illustrated by Claudia Dávila
Scholastic Canada

Winner

Peter & Ernesto: Sloths in the Night
Written and illustrated by Graham Annable

First Second

Honour Books:

Planet Hockey: First Star of the Game
Written by J. Torres

Illustrated by Tim Levins

Scholastic Canada

Terry Fox and Me
Written by Mary Beth Leatherdale

Illustrated by Milan Pavlović

Tundra

Winner

The Jigsaw Puzzle King
Written by Gina McMurchy-Barber
Dundurn

Honour Books:

Ember and the Ice Dragons
Written by Heather Fawcett
Published by HarperCollins

Music for Tigers
Written by Michelle Kadarusman

Pajama Press

Winner

Trending: How and Why Stuff Gets Popular

Written by Kira Vermond

Illustrated by Clayton Hanmer

Owlkids Books

Honour Books:

The Boreal Forest
Written by L. E. Carmichael
Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Kids Can Press

Science Comics: Crows, Genius Birds
Written and Illustrated by Kyla Vanderklugt

First Second

Winner

Bloom

Written by Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins Canada

Honour Books:

Broken Strings

Written by Eric Walters and Kathy Kacer

Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers

Sara and the Search for Normal
Written by Wesley King
Paula Wiseman Books

Winner

Hunted By the Sky

Written by Tanaz Bhathena

Penguin Random House Canada

Honour Books:

Charming as a Verb
Written by Ben Philippe
HarperCollins

Like a Love Story
Written by Abdi Nazemian
HarperCollins

Winner/Lauréat

Pas moi
Écrit et Illustré par Elise Gravel
Éditions Scholastic

Honour Books/Livres distingués:

Madame Grisemine et le petit chenapan
Écrit par Marie-Francine Hébert
Illustré par Mathieu Lampron
Éditions de la Bagnole