CLA Book of the Year for Children Awards: A History in Book Trailers

Since 1947, the Canadian Library Association (CLA) has awarded the Book of the Year for Children Award (BOYCA) to an outstanding book, published in Canada in the previous year, which appeals to children up to and including age 12. (A complete list of award winners by year is available at the CLA website here.)

On Friday, March 1, 2013, the short lists of books nominated for each of the CLA's book awards, including the Book of the Year for Children Award, were announced and I've posted them on the CanLit for LittleCanadians: Awards site. 

Until the winners are announced in mid-April, I'd like to encourage readers of youngCanLit to look back at some of the most recent winners of BOYCA to refresh their reading with some classics. And to that end, I would like present an impressive collection of book trailers of these recent BOYCA winners, as created by the graduate students at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS) for Professor Judith Saltman's Library Services to Children class at the University of British Columbia. Just as these past winners exemplify a full range of genres and themes, so too do these creative book trailers.  Except for the first BOYCA winner, I can only provide links to their YouTube book trailers.  Please explore and enjoy!

1998 Winner

Silverwing

by Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins

222 pp.

Ages 8-12

1997 

Book Trailer by Kaitlyn Sparks and Ashley Pettet

Uploaded by Kaitlyn1909 on November 22, 2012 to YouTube

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2002 Winner

Orphan at My Door: The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope, Guelph, Ontario, 1897

by Jean Little

Scholastic Canada

221 pp.

Ages 10-13

2001

 

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipZoAcn0LtE

Book Trailer by Monica Spreitzer and Larissa Image

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2005 Winner

Last Chance Bay

by Anne Laurel Carter

Penguin Canada

169 pp.

Ages 10-13

2004 

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILp-IGApYfg
Book Trailer by Layla Naquin and Julia McKnight

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2006 Winner

The Crazy Man

by Pamela Porter

Groundwood Books

214 pp.

Ages 8-12

2005 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm2UQS-_CVg
Book Trailer by Kate Longley and David Waddell

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2007 Winner

Johnny Kellock Died Today

by Hadley Dyer

HarperCollins

152 pp.

Ages 9-12

2006 

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mE8a4rfsIE

Book Trailer by Sabrina Wong and Helen Brown

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2008 Winner

Elijah of Buxton

by Christopher Paul Curtis

Scholastic Canada

288 pp.

Ages 9-12

2007

  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4vfJmm3XY0

 Book Trailer by Kayla Cormier and Chelsea DiFrancesco

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2009 Winner

The Shepherd's Granddaughter

by Anne Laurel Carter

Groundwood Books

222 pp.

Ages 11+

2008 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErSl4iWeltU 

Book Trailer by Lindsey Krabbenhoft and Michal Sitbon

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2010 Winner

Watching Jimmy

by Nancy Hartry

Tundra Books

144 pp.

Ages 10-14

2009 

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKTxrfb6ZPs

Book Trailer

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2011 Winner

Half Brother

by Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins Canada

377 pp.

Ages 12+

2010 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FENzLp1hNs

Book Trailer by Laura Hebert and Megan Melashewsky

_____________________________________________________

2012 Winner

The Whole Truth

by Kit Pearson

HarperCollins Canada

261 pp.

Ages 9+

2011

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkZKp0LSQJk

Book Trailer by Elizabeth Bell and Mariya Tokhtarova

 ___________________________________________________

Many thanks 

to Professor Judith Saltman and her students for allowing me to share these, and 

to Kay Weisman and Ellen Wu of CLASC for liaising with them.

Brief Interview with...me!

Please may I brag?

I was recently interviewed by Kay Weisman, a moderator (with Ellen Fu) for the blog of the Canadian Library Association's network, Canadian Libraries Are Serving Children (CLASC).  CLASC is an online hub where children's services librarians and staff may connect and share resources and ideas relating to books, programs, and all things related to children's literature. 

Kay and I had been fellow committee members for the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award (BOYCA) for several years, finally meeting at the CLA conference in Edmonton in 2010. (You have no idea how often librarians and teacher-librarians never meet, communicating so much online.) That was the year that Nancy Hartry's book Watching Jimmy (Tundra, 2009) won the Book of the Year for Children's Award.  

If you haven't had a chance to read this book, please do so, to see why it won BOYCA and was a finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People (2010), the 2010 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and the Golden Oak Award (2010).



The interview was originally posted on the CLASC blog at  https://claclasc.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/clasc-profile-helen-kubiw/.  However, since the Canadian Library Association disbanded in January 2016, the CLASC blog has been removed.

I have posted the interview below:

Helen Kubiw—a self-described Canadian, teacher, librarian, reader, reviewer, selection committee member, writers' festival volunteer, enthusiastic promoter of great literature—is a teacher librarian in Guelph, Ontario and creator of CANLIT FOR LITTLECANADIANS http://canlitforlittlecanadians.blogspot.com/, a delightful blog promoting Canadian literature for youth. We caught up with her recently during a rare quiet moment.



CLASC: Helen, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us. First of all, what prompted you to start your new blog this fall and how do you find the time to post so often—and so thoughtfully?

Although I’ve always been a reader, it wasn’t until recently that I found that sharing my reading with others was equally fulfilling.  I’d be on a book buying trip at S&B Books or at a board-organized take-away show and I would find myself saying over and over again, “You’ve got to read this one” or “I think this is even better than Twilight and it’s Canadian” or “The newest Arthur Slade is out now.”  Through my participation on selection committees for the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading and on the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award, as well as keeping up with reviews in Quill & Quire and CM: Canadian Review of Materials and other blogs, I was well aware of the wealth of Canadian literature for young people.  But many other readers, teacher-librarians, children, teens, and parents, were not, making them more vulnerable to the books that received the most hype: large displays at bookstores, movie tie-ins, TV spin-offs, advertising, and the plethora of reviews of such.  CANLIT FOR LITTLECANADIANS is my way of sharing my reading with others, in the hopes that they will do the same, and bring kidsCanlit the hype it truly deserves.

I have to admit that another reason that I started this blog is to pursue my interest in Canadian children’s literature but along a different avenue.  My recent experiences as a teacher-librarian have not been fulfilling.  I love being a teacher-librarian but most of my time is scheduled for teaching other subjects or providing planning time for teachers.  Feeling that my skills as a teacher-librarian are undervalued and consequently underused by administration, I’m using my blog to pursue other career choices.  So, if you know anyone who is looking for a promoter of great Canadian children’s lit who reads and reviews constantly, be sure to pass along my name.



CLASC: Your site has wonderful content—author and publisher Links, book trailers, and book awards for Canadian young people. Who you see as your web audience? Parents? Professionals? Kids? Have you ever used the site as a resource with your students?

I really hope that any reader of books for young people – teachers, teacher-librarians, parents, students, grandparents, publishers, authors, reviewers world-wide – would take the time to regularly peruse CANLIT FOR LITTLECANADIANS to direct their reading choices and become accustomed to always searching out Canadian titles first.  Becoming familiar with the authors and the publishers who are responsible for these wonderful books is key to recognizing their value and encouraging followers.  Of course, I have included a direct link on my school library website to CANLIT FOR LITTLECANADIANS.  If I can’t be there personally to tell them about the books, then I’ll let the blog speak for me.



CLASC: What forgotten gem or unsung story are you promoting this season?

I would have a hard time picking only one book that I believe fits that bill but three books published in 2011 that I think are still coming into their own are:
True Blue by Deborah Ellis from Pajama Press; The Tiffin by Mahtab Narsimhan from Dancing Cat Books; and Little Jane Silver by Adira Rotstein from Dundurn.  I will also be promoting Making Bombs for Hitler from Marsha Skrypuch (Scholastic Canada) but that’s not scheduled for release until February, 2012.