Festival of Trees May 15, 2012

Going to the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading's Festival of Trees tomorrow at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre?  Consider yourself fortunate as the day's activities are stellar.  Attendees are encouraged to get maps, schedules of workshops and other events, author signing schedules, etc. at the OLA Festival of Trees link.

Here's just a capsule of who and what will be at the Festival tomorrow, according to the Reading Programs:

BLUE SPRUCE

BLUE SPRUCE ACTIVITIES

• Blue Spruce Awards Ceremony

• letter-writing and postcard-making with Sarah Tsiang

• story-telling with Heather Mcleod

• tent for Blue Spruce Activities only, including face-painting, in Brigantine Tent 

• 10 Years of Blue Spruce Illustrator Exhibit

RED MAPLE

RED MAPLE ACTIVITIES

• Red Maple Awards Ceremony

• Q & A with Sharon E. McKay (Thunder Over Kandahar)

• Workshop with Jill Maclean (Home Truths)

• Q & A with Susin Nielsen (Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom)

• ALOUD A Celebration for Young Readers with Eric Walters (Fly Boy, The Taming) and Teresa Toten (The Taming)

• "The Mother of All Adventure Stories" Workshop with Patrick Bowman (Torn from Troy)

• QR Scavenger Hunt (for Smartphone users)

WHITE PINE

WHITE PINE ACTIVITIES

• White Pine Fiction Awards Ceremony

• White Pine Non-Fiction Awards Ceremony

• Workshop with Don Aker (The Fifth Rule) and Lesley Anne Cowan (Something Wicked)

• "Judging a Book by Its Cover" Workshop with Kelley Armstrong (The Gathering) and "Titillating Titles" Workshop with Gail Sidonie Sobat (Chance to Dance for You)

• "Stick to your Vision" Workshop with Wes "Maestro" Williams (Stick to Your Vision)

• Workshop with Don Calame (Beat the Band) and Drew Hayden Taylor (Motorcycles and Sweetgrass)

• "The Story of Me" Workshop with Kate Scowen (I.D.: Stuff that Happens to Define Us) and "Modern-Day Illustrator" Workshop with Peter Mitchell (I.D.: Stuff that Happens to Define Us)

• "Visual Storytelling" Workshop with Scott Chantler (Two Generals)

• QR Scavenger Hunt (for Smartphone users)

ACTIVITIES FOR EVERYONE
• musical entertainment from the band DONE WITH DOLLS
• Forest® Bookstore (S&B Books Ltd.)
• Forest of Reading® 2012 Illustrator Exhibit
• magician, circus performers, games for book prizes, etc.
• button-making station
• graffiti sheets for authors/illustrators
• PAWSWAY
• book-making workshops
• Kajama boat tours
• TVOntario tent
• canoeing on the pond
• games to win prizes

See you tomorrow!

B.C. Book Prizes' winners announced!

Last night, the winners of this year's BC Book Prizes were announced at the 28th Annual Lieutenant Governor's BC Book Prizes Gala in Vancouver.

Congratulations to all winners and nominated titles!

The prize winners in the Children's literature categories are as follows:

 Sheila A. Egoff 

 Children’s Literature Prize 

Supported by the BC Library Association
Judges: Rob Bittner, Sylvia Olsen, Cathleen With

Winner:

Blood Red Road
by Moira Young
DoubleDay Canada

 Reviewed here on December 27, 2011

 Christie Harris Illustrated 

 Children’s Literature Prize 

Supported by Ampersand Inc.
Judges: Julie Flett, Dionne Risler, Judith Saltman

Winner:

When I Was Small
by Sara O'Leary
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
Simply Read Books

Reviewed here on April 4, 2012

The Paper House

by Lois Peterson
Orca Book Publishers
978-1-4598-0051-9
108 pp.
Ages 8-11
2012

Safiyah's ten years of life have been fraught with many hardships and tragedies.  She and her grandmother, Cucu, live in slums of Kibera outside of Nairobi, Kenya.  Her parents have both passed, her mother from AIDS, and now Cucu is ill and coughing up blood.  Fearful of losing the only family she has, and far away from her birth place, where the failure of the crops forced them to Kibera, Safiyah is determined to make improvements to their hut by repairing the holes that let the smoke and cold night air in.  In her daily scavenges of the dump, where she usually excavates those items which she can sell, Safiyah gathers old magazines with their glossy pictures of beautiful women, glamourous homes, fancy cars, and unfamiliar lives, hoping to use the paper to chink the cracks.

After repairing the walls, Safiyah selects magazine pictures to decorate the outside of the hut, using the scissors and paste shared from her friend Pendo's school.  The magazines are coveted by others, including young Chidi who tries to steal the magazines from her in the dump.  Fortunately for Safiyah, the infamous red-hair-dyed gang leader, Blade, comes to her rescue several times, while ensuring his cousin Chidi attends school regularly.  Although Cucu is vehement that Safiyah stay away from Blade a.k.a. Rasul, Safiyah reveals to him her fears for her grandmother's health.

This innocent admission to Rasul and her engagement with Pendo in the decoration of the house walls bring Safiyah to reognizing the efforts she must make in order to enrich her life with others.  As Cucu has reminded her, "Words are easy. Friendship is hard."  By embracing the help of others, without demeaning their efforts, Safiyah gets medical help for her grandmother and creates a work of art on the walls of their hut that brings even more blessings.

Safiyah's story of The Paper House demonstrates that, though the lives of children may be different, everyone has a way to connect with others and can benefit from these connections.  Safiyah learns that not everyone is as poor as they are but this is a lesson she needs to understand to elicit assistance.  Furthermore, although Rasul's family is obviously far wealthier than Safiyah's, the loss of Rasul's sister and the necessity for Chidi to become part of a new family indicate that anyone can experience tragedies and hardships.  With The Paper House, Safiyah makes her own luck, achieving a dream she believed impossible to attain, while endeavouring to improve the lives of others.

While I was not always sympathetic to Safiyah's reactions when she was upset (e.g., chastisizing Pendo for pasting the pictures on wrong when her friend only wanted to help), I cannot imagine the breadth of disappointment, fear, and unhappiness which pervades her responses.  Lois Peterson provides Safiyah with the demeanour of a child who must endure life, not embrace it, and so Saffy's less-than-considerate attitude may be more authentic even if less desirable.

The Paper House is a perfect read for sharing the lives of children in different parts of the world and providing a foundation of empathy upon which the supporting walls of understanding and caring can be built.

Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Awards 2013 Nominees announced

The Manitoba School Library Association marked the International Year of Literacy, 1990, with the implementation of a literacy program aimed at promoting literacy for children of ages 10 to 14 years of age.

The Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Awards (MYRCA) program presents 15 to 18 Canadian novels written in English for the targeted young readers.  Those young people who have read or heard a minimum of 3 nominated titles vote for their favourite title in April.  The winning title and honour books are announced in May and celebrated at an awards ceremony in October.

This week's press release which announced the winners for 2012 also announced the shortlist of nominated titles for the 2013 MYRCA.  Congratulations to the authors and publishers of these eighteen nominees:

Against All Odds 
by Natale Ghent
HarperCollins
227 pp.
Ages 8-12

The Bedmas Conspiracy 

by Deborah Sherman

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

172 pp.

Ages 8-11

Blood Red Road 
by Moira Young
Doubleday
459 pp.
Ages 14+ 

Box of Shocks

by Chris McMahen
Orca
160 pp.
Ages 9-12

The Case of the Missing Deed
by Ellen Schwartz
Tundra
189 pp.
Ages 8-12

Dragon Seer's Gift 

by Janet McNaughton
HarperCollins
282 pp.
Ages 10+ 

The Dragon Turn: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His 5th Case
by Shane Peacock
Tundra
220 pp.
Ages 10-14

Encore Edie 

by Annabel Lyon
Puffin Canada
163 pp.
Ages 9-12

End of Days
by Eric Walters
Doubleday
316 pp.
Ages 10-15

Fly Boy

by Eric Walters
Puffin Canada
192 pp.
Ages 8-12

Ice Storm (Disaster Strikes #6)
by Penny Draper
Coteau Books
198 pp.
Ages 9-13

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

by Jonathan Auxier
Puffin Canada
381 pp.
Ages 10-13

This Dark Endeavour: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein
by Kenneth Oppel
HarperCollins
298 pp.
Ages 12+

The Tiffin

by Mahtab Narsimhan
Dancing Cat Books
190 pp.
Ages 9-12

Timber Wolf
by Caroline Pignat
Red Deer Press
206 pp.
Ages 11-14

True Blue

by Deborah Ellis
Pajama Press
229 pp.
Ages 11-14

Undergrounders
by David Skuy
Scholastic Canada
194 pp.
Ages 11-14

Witchlanders

by Lena Coakley
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
416 pp.
Ages 12+ 

Manitoba Young Readers' Choice 2012 Award winners announced!

This week the Manitoba School Library Association announced the winners of the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Awards (MYRCA) for 2012. 


The 2012 winning title, as voted by young Manitoba readers of ages 10 to 14, is

Dear George Clooney, 

Please Marry My Mom

by Susin Nielsen

Tundra Books

2010

Also 

Winner of the 2012 Rocky Mountain Book Award Gold Medal

Winner of the 2011 Snow Willow Award

          *          *          *          

Congratulations to the readers' two Honour Books:

Half Brother

by Kenneth Oppel

HarperTrophy 

 

Stolen Child

           by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

                                              Scholastic Canada

 

  CONGRATULATIONS

 to all Nominees and Winners 

and young readers in this literacy program 

Crystal Kite Awards: 2012 Winners announced around the globe

The Crystal Kite Awards are given by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) each year to recognize great books from 15 regional SCBWI divisions around the world. THE SCBWI Crystal Kite Awards are chosen by other children’s book writers and illustrators, making them the only peer-awarded recognition in children's publishing world-wide.

 

This year's winner in the Americas category 

is 

Witchlanders

by Lena Coakley

Witchlanders

by Lena Coakley

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

978-1442420045

416 pp.

Ages 12+

2011

Another award-winning book I want to read! Ah, so many books, so little time.

Crush. Candy. Corpse.

Written by Sylvia McNicoll
Lorimer
978-1-4594-00627
219 pp.
Ages 12+
2012

Community service hours are a chore for many high school students. These hours, usually about 40, are spent volunteering in hospitals, seniors' homes, schools, food banks, etc., learning compassion and building a sense of community while developing the volunteerism we generally accept as civilized. Even those kids who are determined that it will be a miserable experience must complete, even begrudgingly, those forty hours if they intend to graduate from high school.

Sonja Ehret, sixteen, endearingly nicknamed Sunny by her grandmother, is assigned to help out at Paradise Manor, with those long-term care residents suffering with Alzheimer's. Sunny is a pretty good kid. She may look a little wild with her pink streaked hair, and she does sneak around behind her parents' backs with Donovan, 19, for whom shoplifting seems to be a vocation. And she sometimes blurts things out without thinking, like on her first day at Paradise Manor, when she is already late because her bus takes a detour because of a busted sewer line. When she mentions a smell at Paradise Manor, she makes a justifiable connection that it must be the result of a sewer line break too. Unfortunately, the bitter receptionist, Mrs. Johnson, never forgets Sunny's offensive faux pas regarding the smell which is actually the result of a resident soiling himself. After that, Mrs. Johnson sees all Sunny's actions as mistakes or flaws, even those which Sunny chooses to do because of her compassion for the residents.

In Sunny's journal, a requirement for her volunteering credit, she may sound whiny in her earlier entries about her time and activities at Paradise Manor. But soon enough, Sunny is speaking a little German (picked up from her grandmother before she passed) to encourage a lonely resident, Johann, to eat. Of course, those who already scorn Sunny see her feeding Johann too quickly or too much at a time or putting him in jeopardy of choking. This is especially unfortunate for Sunny when Helen Demers, the grandmother of fellow teen volunteer Cole, dies from choking on hard candies that she isn't supposed to eat because she is a diabetic. And Sunny is charged with manslaughter because of her death.

Mrs. Johnson insists that Sunny's Crush on Cole, who always gives his grandmother an unauthorized caramel Candy at the end of his visit, compelled her to help Helen Demers (i.e., the story's Corpse) in an effort to help Cole discharge his promise to end his grandmother's life when the Alzheimer's has progressed too far. Since Sunny returns to help out at Paradise Manor after she has completed her 40 hours of service, the fact that she is even implicated in Helen's death seems far-fetched, except when her actions, short journal entries and stray comments (out of context) are brought into evidence.

My banal synopsis of Crush. Candy. Corpse. does not do justice to Sylvia McNicoll's captivating story of Sunny's transforming relationships with Cole and the residents at Paradise Manor. I was lured into Sunny' story as she, the narrator, presents her actions and recollections in an honest manner. But it is most disheartening to realize that her story also demonstrates how snapshots of our actions can be used to represent unfairly the totality of our behaviour. For example, regardless of Sunny's motivations and the encouragement she receives from Cole, his mother goes ballistic after Sunny gives Helen Demers pink highlights. Instead of acknowledging her mother-in-law's wish for the highlights or Cole's suggestion that Sunny get the money from his grandmother, Cole's mom focuses on the humiliation she believes Sunny intended rather than the pleasure Sunny aspired to provide by honouring Helen's request.

Sylvia McNicoll gets Sunny's voice perfect, introducing the narrator as a teen who can make questionable decisions (as we all do when inexperienced) but who has the capacity to see beyond her initial assessments and amend her own actions and beliefs accordingly. I would be proud to have Crush. Candy. Corpse.'s Sunny as my granddaughter or caregiver to a family member knowing that she would bring the foibles of youth with the insight and compassion of a humanitarian and I would cheer for her throughout her trial and beyond. Sunshine like Sunny should not be eclipsed.