Rocky Mountain Book Award 2012 Winner Announced!

For the past month, readers in Grades 4-7 have voted for their favourite book from twenty fiction and non-fiction nominees and the results tallied and announced yesterday. 

The Winner of the 2012 Rocky Mountain Book Award Gold Medal is...

Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom 

by Susin Nielsen 

Tundra Books

978-0-88776-977-1

229 pp.

Ages 10-14

2010 

--> After Violet's TV-director dad leaves Vancouver and reshapes his life into that of a rich LA bigshot with a beautiful actress-wife and perfect twin daughters, he doesn't see the wreckage he has left behind: Violet's younger sister begins bed-wetting; Violet's mother, a stylist, starts dating loser after loser; and Violet is seething with such anger that it compels her to make abominable and hilarious decisions, including looking to match her mom up with George Clooney, the actor.

First two runners-up are:

Burn  

by Alma Fullerton

Dancing Cat Books/Cormorant

978-1-897151-95-2

255 pp.

Ages 10-13

2010

Tower of Treasure: Three Thieves 

by Scott Chantler

Kids Can Press

978-1-55453-414-2

978-1-55453-415-9

112 pp.

Ages 9-12

2010 

Congratulations to the winners and all nominated titles.

Rocky Mountain Book Award

Currently, students in grades 4 through 7 are voting for their favourite book from a short list of twenty-titles for the Rocky Mountain Book Award, Alberta's readers' choice program for young people. The twenty nominees, which must have been published in the last two years in Canada, include both fiction and non-fiction titles which "portray a broad range of family, social, and cultural backgrounds." (Retrieved from http://rmba.lethsd.ab.ca/FAQ.html on March 27, 2012)

The shortlist for this book award is announced in November, with voting taking place from mid-March to mid-April.  The winner is announced at the end of April.

The 2012  nominees are listed here (fiction on the right, nonfiction on the left), with the announcement of the winning title coming on April 23, 2012. 

At the Edge: Daring Acts in Desperate Times
by Larry Verstraete  

Animals That Changed the World
by Keltie Thomas

Arctic Thunder

by Robert Feagan

Brussels Sprouts & Unicorns

by Robert Chaplin

Burn

by Alma Fullerton 

Case Closed: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science
by Susan Hughes

The Cat's Pajamas

by Wallace Edwards

Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom

by Susin Nielsen

Fatty Legs: A True Story
by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Follow the Elephant

by Beryl Young

The Good Garden

by Katie Smith Milway

Magic Up Your Sleeve: Amazing Illusions, Tricks, and Science Facts You’ll Never Believe

by Helaine Becker

The Mealworm Diaries

by Anna Kerz

No Moon

by Irene N. Watts

Plain Kate

by Erin Bow

Prisoner of Dieppe: World War II, Alistair Morrison, 

Occupied France, 1942

by Hugh Brewster 

Robert Munsch
by Frank B. Edwards 

The Sea Wolves: Living in the Great Bear Rainforest
by Ian McAllister and Nicholas Read 

Tower of Treasure

by Scott Chantler

Who Wants Pizza?

by Jan Thornhill

                                                                              •  •  •  •  •           

I know that book award fatigue may be setting in for readers of CanLit for LittleCanadians.  However, for the readers who are voting, and the juries that are selecting, as well as the authors, illustrators and publishers, each award is a very big thing.  It is an honour to have a book nominated, just as it is a privilege for readers to critically evaluate each book, knowing that their choices make a significant contribution to the lives of others.  

Enjoy your award programs, everyone!

-->