2019 CCBC Canadian Children's Book Awards: French-language Winners announced

Tonight, the winners of French-language Canadian Children's Book Centre Book Awards were announced at a gala in Montreal at L’Astral.  (The English-language awards were presented on October 15 in Toronto and are posted here.)

Le Prix TD de littérature pour l'enfance et la jeunesse canadienne: Winner

Anatole qui ne séchait jamais

Written by Stéphanie Boulay

Illustrated by Agathe Bray-Bourret

Éditions Fonfon

80 pp.

Ages 10+

2018

Le Choix du Public Littérature Jeunesse: Winner

Anatole qui ne séchait jamais

Written by Stéphanie Boulay

Illustrated by Agathe Bray-Bourret

Éditions Fonfon

80 pp.

Ages 10+

2018

Prix Harry Black de l'album jeunesse: Winner

Mémé à la plage

Written by Rhéa Dufresne

Illustrated by Aurélie Grand

Éditions Les 400 coups

32 pp.

Ages 5+

2018


Toutes nos félicitations!

Larkin on the Shore

Written by Jean Mills

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-577-6

310 pp.

Ages 13+

October 2019

"...her words have stayed with me, just like Jonah's. Words do that. Words spoken and words in books. Words you write. They start to breathe and live and just take over. And right now, I've been taken over by the words of other people–people talking–and I can't find myself or my own words." (pg. 221)

After she is traumatized by something that happened with a boy, Jonah, and ejected from a moving car, sixteen-year-old Larkin Day is sent from her home in Toronto to stay with her grandmother Granne in Tuttle Harbour, Nova Scotia for the summer.  Larkin had managed to finish her Grade 10 exams but the gossip and social media about what happened have left her feeling isolated and unsafe and contemplating the relief of suicide. Her dad decides his mother, a retired principal, would be the best bet for his daughter while he heads to Vancouver to deal with Larkin's mom, a woman addicted to painkillers and bouncing between the unsafe streets and rehab. 

But for Larkin, Granne and Tuttle Harbour are unfamiliar and she must learn to assess every person she meets for sincerity and safety. That includes neighbour Will Greenfield who is helping his dad Billy renovate an old house for Granne into the Tuttle Harbour Café and Reading Room. As Larkin helps Granne with the book donations for the reading room, she deals with her anxiety which tempers her interactions with others, even with nice-guy Will. But when Will takes her to a local campfire with his peers, Larkin meets the gregarious Casey Henwood, his girlfriend Beth and others, and overdoes the drink when "...it tastes so good and goes down easily." (pg. 70). Could she be putting herself in harm's way?

When a fire destroys the back of the café, Casey and Beth and others are quick to point fingers at Will's dad, a recovering alcoholic, who'd apparently once burned down a shed he was building at the Henwood's farm. Hearing the gossip about Billy as well as about Will from Beth, and reflecting on the talk that went on about her after she was injured, Larkin is perplexed about whom to believe or to trust. What's worse is the news coming from her dad about her mother's health situation.  Walking out into the water until the darkness envelopes her or trying to swim out to Prince Edward Island, knowing she'd never make it, continue to overshadow her regular visits to the shore until she starts to live beyond others' words.

Jean Mills, who wrote the Red Maple-nominated Skating Over Thin Ice (Red Deer Press, 2018), knows how to tell a story about dealing with expectations from family, school and self. She gets what it's like to trust and not trust your own feelings and to be confused about how those you care about conduct themselves around you. From an addicted mother to an unfamiliar grandmother and peers that are both charming and deceptive, Larkin must look at every interaction as a potential disaster and possibly harmful. Sadly this is probably not unusual for teens who are trying to understand a world in which they are expected and allowed to take on greater responsibilities but may be unsure whether they have the strength or understanding to meet them. For Larkin, it may not always be evident which is the safe world or the dangerous one, not unlike a shore that borders land and water, but she is developing the courage to choose her heading and a solid intuition about good people that will guide her.

I Read Canadian Day: Feb. 19, 2020

Author Eric Walters

  

wanted to:

• unite young readers across Canada for a day of reading Canadian books;
• raise awareness of Canadian books; and
• celebrate the richness, diversity and breadth of Canadian literature.

(And you know that's what CanLit for LittleCanadians is all about too!)

 Using the Ontario Library Association’s I Read Canadian fund and initiative as its foundation, I Read Canadian Day was created with input from countless individuals involved with books including authors, publishers, teachers and library organizations. 

With the support from the 

Ontario Library Association,

the Canadian Children’s Book Centre 

and 

CANSCAIP 

I READ CANADIAN DAY

was declared for  

February 19, 2020

We challenge everyone from west to east, and far north to south,

 to Read Canadian (that includes reading to children)

for 15 minutes 

and to share their experience at their library, in their school, with their families and friends, or on social media.

Register your school, organization or young reader(s)

(There are no fees, accounts, passwords or subscriptions necessary.

We just want to log how many young people will be reading Canadian on February 19, 2020.)

Teaching and supplementary materials are available at the website with more being developed to really make this a special day for all.

(An article by Paul Coccia for the Canadian School Libraries Journal 

has lots more details and ideas.)

I'll be reading Canadian on February 19, 2020.  

Join me for the first #IREADCANADIAN DAY !

Finding Lucy

Written and illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-088-8

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

October 2019

Lucy is a joyful artist. She paints with bold colours and emotion and a brush full of voice that brings her and her cat great joy. But when others begin to opine about her work and advise her about her painting, that comfort turns to turmoil as she attempts to heed their unsolicited advice.

From Finding Lucy by Eugenie Fernandes

In her raggedy and patched pants, bright yellow tee and paint-splattered apron, with ginger pigtails bursting from the top of her head, Lucy is happy. She paints from her heart. But, then a rabbit reporter tells her that her artwork looks like jellybean soup. An elephant tells her it isn't loud enough. A crocodile tells her it isn't scrumptious enough.

From Finding Lucy by Eugenie Fernandes

When Lucy starts painting for herself again, "the painting was like a dream." But then she starts listening again to those who call her work out as not brave enough (that from a chicken) or not pink enough (that from a mother pig) or in need of more green (a frog shared that with her).

From Finding Lucy by Eugenie Fernandes

By now, Lucy was beginning to see that everybody had something to say.

It would seem that a variety of animals–giraffe, leopard, ostrich, fox and others–all confound her and her creativity. Only the cat reminds her to paint what once brought her joy.

She painted the flutter of birds and the whimsy of the wind.

Ultimately Lucy rediscovers her true art and accepts it as an expression of self, not the means for the approval of others.

From Finding Lucy by Eugenie Fernandes

And ever after, after that,
the cat purred,
and Lucy painted with grit
and determination
and GUMPTION
and PIZZAZZ.

And the courage of spring
and the color of laughter.

I don't know if Lucy is supposed to honour a famous artist or a piece of abstract expressionist art but I don't think it matters. Eugenie Fernandes has given us a story in words and pictures that supports that idea that creativity is an expression of self and needs to be embraced rather than questioned, especially when every armchair critic feels the need to voice their personal preferences and expects the artist to accommodate those. From colour to feeling, shape and voice, creativity comes from within and Lucy knew and knows this. Sadly she is distracted by those with loud and overbearing opinions and buckles under their varied and judgemental assertions.

I hope Eugenie Fernandes, whose art work has won her a variety of awards and accolades, has always felt supported in her artistic endeavours whether she chooses to use acrylic paint on canvas as she does here in Finding Lucy or other media. If Finding Lucy demonstrates anything it's that those who observe art derive their perceptions from their perspective and attitudes and Lucy can't possibly give every viewer what they need to see the art's beauty. I'm glad that she finally trusts herself, and her very wise cat, that what she brings to her art is everything it needs to be to bring her joy.

From Finding Lucy by Eugenie Fernandes

The 2019 First Page Student Writing Challenge

Get your students in Grades 7 to 12 writing with
CBC Books' 

THE FIRST PAGE 
STUDENT WRITING CHALLENGE

in which two winning entries 

 (one for Gr. 7-9 and one for Gr. 10-12) 

will be selected by

 award-winning YA author
Kelley Armstrong

The Challenge:  
• Write the first page of a novel (any literary genre) set in 2169 with the protagonist dealing with an issue currently relevant  (climate change, diversity, gender, refugees, leadership, etc.) and show how it has played out 150 years from now.
• Write 300-400 words.  Be sure to give your "book" a title.

Eligible Participants:
• All Canadian residents who are full time students enrolled in Gr. 7 to 12 may enter.

Timeline:
• Submit between November 4, 2019 and November 25, 2019

Selection:
• Author Kelley Armstrong will judge the entries based on the following criteria:

• creativity;
• critical thinking; and
• quality of writing

• Shortlists of 10 entries per grade category will be selected from which the winner will be chosen.

Prizes:
• One year subscription to OwlCrate, a monthly delivery of a box of books (winner may select middle grade or young adult)
• The school library of each winner will also receive 50 YA books chosen by CBC.

Full details of this writing challenge are provided at CBC Books 

with rules and regulations available here.

Teachers' guides, writing tips, posters and more are also available at
the CBC Books website for the contest.

2019 Governor General's Literary Awards: Winners announced today

Today, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the winners for the highly prestigious Governor General's Literary Awards.

Congratulations to the winners

of all the awards
and especially for these of books for young readers

English-language: Young People's Literature (Text)

Stand on the Sky

Written by Erin Bow

Scholastic

English-language:  Young People's Literature (Illustration)

Small in the City

Written and illustrated by Sydney Smith

Groundwood Books

 French-language: Young People's Literature (Text)

L'albatros et la mésange

par Dominique Demers

Éditions Québec Amérique

French-language: Young People's Literature (Illustration)

Jack et le temps perdu

par Stéphanie Lapointe

Illustrée par Delphie Côté-Lacroix

Quai no 5, Les Éditions XYZ

••••••••••••••

There will be
Public Readings and Book Signings

on

Wednesday, December 11, 2019 (English-winning books)
Thursday, December 12, 2019 (French-winning books)
12 p.m. (both days)

at

Canada Council for the Arts
Massey-Lévesque Board Room (2nd floor)
150 Elgin St.
Ottawa, ON


••••••••••••••

Winners will be presented later at Rideau Hall.

He Must Like You: Upcoming release

We all 💕 Danielle Younge-Ullman's 

Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined

Written by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Razorbill

978-0-425-28759-0

368 pp.

Ages 13-17

2017

Reviewed here

(It did win the White Pine Award and
was nominated for
a Governor General's Literature Award and
 the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award.) 

Now we can look forward to her newest YA novel,

one that blends that same depth of issue with the humour that made Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined such a hit.

He Must Like You

Written by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Penguin Teen

July 14 2020

Read this excerpt to get a sense for why you're going to want to read this one!

“I have the item” is the first thing I hear when I walk into work on Sunday night.

The item in question is my duvet, and the person winking at me about it is Kyle.

Kyle, who is standing behind the host stand in the cheery foyer of the Goat wearing a mini cowboy hat with plush horns curling out of it—the latest in his growing collection of goat-themed apparel. He looks hilarious, cute, and deceptively harmless.

“It’s in my truck. I’ll give it to you after?”

“Sure. Thanks,” I say, with what I hope is a neutral-seeming nod.

I’ll have to wash it in hot water. Twice.

“Or we could go for a drive, climb into the back, get cozy,” Kyle suggests, with a waggle of his white-blond eyebrows.

My insides take flight like a flock of startled birds, and then I’m doing this awkward thing where I’m cringing and trying to smile at the same time. But smiling might be too encouraging and so I stop, because even after three weeks of my ignoring his texts and generally avoiding him as much as possible, Kyle continues to look at me with those stupidly hopeful, flirty eyes.

Still, I don’t want to be rude. We work together, and in that capacity Kyle has been fine. In fact, except for the one (admittedly problematic) incident, he’s been great. Not to mention, I’m the one who asked him to bring me the duvet when my mom finally noticed it was missing today. I’m also the one who let him wear it home from my house in the first place.

“I’ll just grab it from you after,” I say. “I have a lot of homework.”

“Your call,” he says with a shrug.

“Right.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” I say, with another too-bright smile. “Um, what’s my section?”

“The patio,” Kyle says, gesturing at the giant, erasable seating chart that sits on the host podium.

“Alone?”

“Yeah. That okay?”

It’s a big section to handle solo but more tables means more tips, so I say, “Totally.”

“By the way, Perry’s coming in, and he asked for you specifically,” Kyle says, looking at me like he expects this to make me ecstatic.

Perry Ackerman is a handful, and high on the list of people I’d rather not have to deal with right now. But he’s a great tipper, and a regular, so I give Kyle a thumbs-up and say, “Awesome.”

“I knew that’d make you happy.”

“So happy,” I say, and walk away taking deep breaths.

On my way through the restaurant I wave at my fellow servers Brianna and Kat, both of whom are working in the front tonight. Kat seems not to see me, but Brianna gives me a thumbs-up and pulls a comically panicked face that tells me she’s already in the weeds.

The patio is at the back of the restaurant, and is, in fact, not a patio at all, but a windowless, rectangular space tricked out with fake plants, paper lanterns, an anemic fountain, and painted “windows” on every wall that do not fool anyone.

I have just enough time to tidy the section, tally my float, and gulp down a half cup of hideously bitter coffee behind the wall of the service station before I hear, “Libbyyyyyyyy!”

“You got the ol’ perv?” Brianna gives me a wry, dimpled grin as she comes through with a stack of dirty plates. Her amazing crown of black braids adds at least three inches to her diminutive stature.

“Yep.”

“All right, tits up,” she says, which I’ve come to understand means some combination of “chin up” and “good luck.”

I snort and square my shoulders.

(Retrieved from

 http://www.penguinteen.com/penguin-teen-cover-reveal-bonanza-2/

on October 16, 2019.)