CanLit for LittleCanadians: book awards

Showing posts with label book awards. Show all posts

October 21, 2026

2026 Lane Anderson Award: Shortlists announced

The Lane Anderson Award, an award created and funded by the Fitzhenry Family Foundation, just announced the shortlists in its two categories, Young Reader and Adult Reader. These awards honour the very best in science writing in Canada today. Each of the winners will be awarded $10,000 at a ceremony to be held in Toronto in January, 2027.

Young reader shortlist:

The Buzz on Wild Bees: The Little-Known Pollinators that Keep Our Planet Humming
Written by Kira Vermond

Illustrated by June Steube

Owlkids Books

The Gland Factory: A Tour of Your Body’s Goops, Juices, and Hormones
Written by Rachel Poliquin

Illustrated by Clayton Hanmer

Greystone Kids

The Story and Science of Hope
Written by Andrea Curtis

Illustrated by Ana Suárez

Groundwood Books

• • • • • • •

(While we don't promote adult books on CanLit for LittleCanadians, I thought you might be interested to see the Adult shortlist. Here it is:

The Lobster Trap: The Global Fight for a Seafood on the Brink
Written by Greg Mercer

Penguin Random House Canada / McClelland & Stewart

Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist
Written by Sarah Boon

University of Alberta Press

The Mind Mappers: Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain
Written by Eric Andrew-Gee

Penguin Random House Canada

• • • • • • •

For more information about the Fitzhenry Family Foundation and the Lane Anderson Award, please visit their website at www.laneandersonaward.ca.

October 16, 2026

2027 Forest of Reading® nominees: Yellow Cedar, Red Maple, White Pine

Here is the second grouping of nominated titles from the 2027 Forest of Reading® book awards of the Ontario Library Association:

Yellow Cedar: non-fiction for Grades 4 to 8
Red Maple: fiction for Grades 7 and 8
White Pine: fiction for Grades 9 to 12

YELLOW CEDAR

Bat Planet: The Mysterious Life of the Creatures of the Night
Written by Neil Griffin

Orca Book Publishers

Built Like a Bug: How Insects Inspire Everyday Inventions
Written by Anjali Joshi
Illustrated by Kathleen Ng

Annick Press

Reviewed here

The Buzz on Wild Bees: The Little-Known Pollinators that Keep Our Planet Humming
Written by Kira Vermond
Illustrated by June Steube

Owlkids Books

The Cedar Mother (Mothers of Xsan, Book 8)
Written by Brett D. Huson (Hetxw’ms Gyetxw)
Illustrated by Natasha Donovan

HighWater Press

Reviewed here

Cracking the Code: The Human Quest to Uncover Secrets
Written by Rachel Kehoe
Illustrated by Meegan Lim

Orca Book Publishers

The Dream of an Education: How Phymean Noun Built a School

Written by Susan Hughes
Illustrated by Tida Kheav

Orca Book Publishers

Left-Handed: Getting a Grip on Handedness
Written by Maria Birmingham
Illustrated by Catherine Chan

Owlkids Books

Reviewed here

Soccerology: Unbelievable Facts and Stories About the Beautiful Game
Written and illustrated by Kevin Sylvester

Annick Press

Reviewed here

The Sustainable School: A Journey Through Time and Energy
Written by Erica Fyvie
Illustrated by Scot Ritchie

Kids Can Press

Reviewed here

What Is A Sculpture?
Written by Diane Borsato
Illustrated by Laura Carlin

Tundra Books

RED MAPLE™

Absolutely No Body Parts
Written by Valerie Sherrard

DCB Young Readers

Among Ghosts
Written by Rachel Hartman
Penguin Teen Canada

The Book of Jupiter

Written by Robin Stevenson

Kids Can Press

Written by Deborah Ellis

Groundwood Books

Reviewed here

The Inbetweens
Written and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks

First Second Books

Lydia Cooper Is a Lie
Written by Meaghan McIsaac

Aladdin Books

Sam

Written by Eric Walters

DCB Young Readers

Reviewed here

Skygull Calamity

Written by Bronwyn Fairchild

Annick Press

Something's Up with Arlo

Written by Matteo L. Cerilli

HarperCollins

The Vanished Ones

Written by Chad Lucas

Amulet Books

WHITE PINE™

Best of All Worlds
Written by Kenneth Oppel
Penguin Teen Canada

The Free Verse Society
Written by Delali Adjoa
Peachtree Teen

He's So Possessed with Me
Written by Corey Liu
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Our Little Secret
Written by Edward Kay and Mikhael Klassen-Kay
DCB Young Readers

Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions
Written by Ahmad Saber
Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

The Rebel Girls of Rome
Written by Jordyn Taylor
HarperCollins

Small Ceremonies
Written by Kyle Edwards
McClelland & Stewart

This Place Kills Me
Written by Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated by Nicole Goux
Abrams

Thornbird
Written by E. Kennedy
Delacorte Press

The Vacation Shift
Written by Lily Chu
Quill Tree Books

•••••••••••••••••••

Nominees for the other programs can be linked to from below:

2027 Forest of Reading® nominees: Blue Spruce, Silver Birch Express, Silver Birch Fiction

Here is the first grouping of 2027 nominees from the nine Forest of Reading® awards of the Ontario Library Association:

Blue Spruce: picture books for JK to Grade 2
Silver Birch Express: fiction and non-fiction for Grades 3 and 4
Silver Birch Fiction: fiction for Grades 3 to 6

BLUE SPRUCE™

Call Me Gray
Written by Andrew Larsen and Bells Larsen
Illustrated by Talullah Fontaine
Kids Can Press
Reviewed here

Camping Is a Terrible Idea
Written by Kirsten Pendreigh
Illustrated by Tiffany Everett
Sleeping Bear Press

Dear Classroom 1B
Written by Lynn Leitch
Illustrated by Christine Battuz
North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

Fly in the Chai
Written by Zenia Wadhwani
Illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat
Tundra Books

Love, Panda
Written by Elaine Su
Illustrated by Charlene Chua
Scholastic Canada
Reviewed here

My Neighborhood
Written by Delano Brown
Illustrated by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu
Random House Studio

One Can
Written by Lana Button and Eric Walters
Illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant
Groundwood Books
Reviewed her

Rez Kid
Written by Andrea Landry
Illustrated by Isabella Fassler
Kids Can Press
Reviewed here

Sarabeth’s Garage
Written by Melanie Florence
Illustrated by Nadia Alam
Tundra Books
Reviewed here

This Is How We Talk: A Celebration of Disability and Connection
Written by Jessica Slice and Caroline Cupp
Illustrated by Kayla Harren
Dial Books

SILVER BIRCH EXPRESS

Bompa’s Intertidal Adventure
Written by David Suzuki and Sarika Cullis-Suzuki with Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Illustrated by Qin Yeng

Greystone Kids

Charlie the Matachewan Moose
Written by Shawna Lee Corbould
Illustrated by Jessica Somers

Strong Nations

The Curious Life of Cecilia Payne: Discovering the Stuff of Stars
Written by Laura Alary
Illustrated by Yas Imamura
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

Diary of a Dino Ghost: Unlikely Friends
Written and illustrated by Monica Arnaldo
Scholastic Canada

Fiddlehead Forest
Written and illustrated by Jana Curll
Greystone Kids

The Great Puptective: The Big Mousetake (The Great Puptective, Book 3)
Written and illustrated by Alina Tysoe
Simon and Schuster

Salma Keeps Her Word
Written by Danny Ramadan
Illustrated by Anna Bron
Annick Press

Star Sailor, the Story of Words
Written by Sara Cassidy
Illustrated by Julie McLaughlin
Orca Book Publishers
Reviewed here

This Book Stinks
Written by Danielle St. Ong and Jeff Szpirglas
Illustrated by Alyssa Waterbury
Orca Book Publishers

This Skirt Won’t Work! How Women Athletes Changed Their Clothes and Changed the Game
Written by Jennifer Cooper
Illustrated by Eva Byrne
Sourcebooks Explore

SILVER BIRCH FICTION

Beast Ballerz (Beast Ballerz, Book 1)
Written by Wesley King
Illustrated by Steve Wolfhard

Tundra Books

The Bloodstone Thief
Written by Sabina Khan
Scholastic Canada

Briarwood
Written by Natalie Hyde
DCB Young Readers
Reviewed here

The Ghosts of Bitterfly Bay
Written by Mary Averling
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Hitting the Target
Written by Lorna Schultz Nicholson
Scholastic Canada

Kaboom!: Blast Off
Written by Jay Odjick
Illustrated by KC Oster
Scholastic Canada
Reviewed here

My Sister the Werebeast
Written and illustrated by Alina Tysoe
First Second Books

Remember Me, Daphne
Written by Celia Krampien
Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Time Surfers
Written by Kevin Sylvester
HarperCollins

Touching Grass
Written by Kristy Jackson
Illustrated by Rhael McGregor
HarperCollins Canada

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Nominees for the other programs can be linked from below: