2023 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award: Finalists announced

On January 31, 2024, IBBY Canada (the Canadian section of IBBY, International Board on Books for Young People) announced the finalists for the 2023 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award. The award, established in a bequest from illustrator Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver in 1985, honours a Canadian illustrator of a picture book published in Canada in English or French during the previous calendar year.

Congratulations to the finalists for the 2023 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award:

 

Do You Remember?
Illustrations and text by Sydney Smith 

Groundwood Books

Reviewed here

Mnoomin maan’gowing / The Gift of Mnoomin 

Illustrations by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley

Text by Brittany Luby

Anishinaabemowin translation by Mary Ann Corbiere 

Groundwood Books

Once, a Bird 
Illustrations by Nathalie Dion

Storyline by Rina Singh 

Orca Book Publishers

Reviewed here

The Only Way to Make Bread 
Illustrations by Sarah Gonzales

Text by Cristina Quintero 

Tundra

Skating Wild on an Inland Sea
Illustrations by Todd Stewart

Text by Jean E. Pendziwol 

Groundwood Books

The Song That Called Them Home
Illustrated by Maya McKibbin

Text by David A. Robertson 

Tundra

Reviewed here

A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis
Illustrations by Lauren Soloy

Text by Kathy Stinson 

Greystone Kids

Le village dans la mer
Illustrations and text by Félix Girard 

Éditions de l’Isatis

Waking Ben Doldrums
Illustrations by Byron Eggenschwiler

Text by Heather Smith 

Orca Book Publishers

We Love You as Much as the Fox Loves Its Tail 
Illustrations by Tamara Campeau

Text by Masiana Kelly 

Inhabit Media

Reviewed here

 

 

 

The winner will be announced at the IBBY Canada annual meeting on March 30, 2024.

 

The Ultimate Silver Birch book award: Hana's Suitcase

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Ontario Library Association's first award reading program, Silver Birch, readers were asked to vote for their favourite Silver Birch book of all time.  With 20 years of fiction and non-fiction titles from which to choose, thousands of readers made their selections.  In April, the votes were tallied and the winner of the Ultimate Silver Birch Book was announced.

The winner of the Ultimate Silver Birch Book is

Hana's Suitcase

by Karen Levine

Second Story Press

978-1-896764-55-9

120 pp.

Ages 9-12

2002

Hana's Suitcase, which won the Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award in 2003, follows the search for the origins of an old brown suitcase, picture here.  This suitcase belonged to a young girl, Hana Brady, a Czechoslovakian Jewish girl whose parents were taken by the Gestapo during World War II, and was then separated from her older brother, George, when transported to a concentration camp.

Helen Kubiw, Karen Levine and George Brady

This past Thursday, as Co-Chair of the Forest of Reading, I had the privilege of presenting the Ultimate Silver Birch Book award to author Karen Levine who accepted the award with George Brady, Hana's brother.  In attendance were Mr. Brady's wife and daughter, as well as publisher Margie Wolfe, and other guests, including young readers awaiting the announcement of this year's Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award winners.  Karen Levine and George Brady graciously accepted the award, and spoke briefly about the story and impact of Hana's Suitcase.

Karen Levine with Margie Wolfe

The story of Hana's Suitcase has won more awards than any other children's book in Canada (note the numerous award logos on the vertical banner in the photo to the right) and, not surprisingly, was honoured with the Ultimate Silver Birch Book recognition.  With this most recent recognition, Hana's Suitcase will be read by a new generation of young readers, many who waited patiently for Karen Levine's autograph on Thursday. 

Congratulations to 
Hana's Suitcase

 on being named the 
Ultimate Silver Birch Book

Launch of the inaugural TD Canadian Children's Literature Fan Choice Award

TD and CBC Books 

present 

the TD Canadian Children's Literature Fan Choice Award

Starting today, young readers will have a chance to go online and pick their favourite book

from the 5 finalists for the 2013 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award

The book with the most votes will win and be awarded the 

TD Canadian Children's Literature Fan Choice Award

and

one lucky entrant will win a trip to Toronto 

to present the award at the gala ceremony on October 22.

See details at CBC Books (www.cbc.ca/books/kids).

Here are this year's 5 finalists:

Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely Through a Never-Ending War
Written by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
Ages 11+

One Year in Coal Harbour
Written by Polly Horvath

Groundwood Books
Ages 9-13

The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen
Written by Susin Nielsen
Tundra Books
Ages 11+

The Stamp Collector
Written by Jennifer Lanthier

Illustrated by François Thisdale

Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Ages 8+

Virginia Wolf
Written by Kyo Maclear
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Kids Can Press
Ages 5-10

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
As an aside, I hope this experiment in a fan choice award works somehow.  Having been part of both juried award selections and readers' choice award selections, I suspect that different titles may be selected from the same short-list of finalists.  Although both award winners will be honest and worthy selections, I have to wonder how not being the fan choice might diminish the thrill of winning the juried award. 

Moreover, although juries can look at a wide variety of books, here ranging for readers from ages 5 to 13+, young readers will be limited as to the books they can and will read.  An eight-year-old is unlikely to select The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen because he or she would not have read it.  And a 12-year-old may too easily dismiss Virginia Wolf and The Stamp Collector as picture books, the realm of the youngest readers.  And how will Deborah Ellis' complex and heart-stopping Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely Through a Never-Ending War fare amongst die-hard fiction readers?

Mixing picture books, middle-grade fiction and non-fiction in a single list for adult jurors is not an issue but for young readers it is.  This is why popular readers' choice book awards like Ontario's Silver Birch,  BC's Red Cedar Book Award and the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award compile lists of nominees according to age of readership and genre.  I suspect that, for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Fan Choice Award, readers and titles are at a disadvantage, making the ultimate selection less accurate and more subjective.

That said, young readers are still privileged to choose one of these fine titles for this new award and any title chosen from this complex list will be a worthy recipient of the award.  Good luck to all nominees.