Ontario Library Association announces Forest of Reading award shortlists

The Ontario Library Association has announced its shortlists for its 2012 Forest of Reading program. The winners, as chosen by Ontario school children, will be announced during the Forest of Reading Festival, May 15–16, 2012.

Here are the English-language nominees:

Blue Spruce (Grades K–2)

• A Flock of Shoes, Sarah Tsiang; Qin Leng, illus. (Annick Press)
• Giraffe and Bird, Rebecca Bender (Dancing Cat Books)
• Kiss Me! (I’m a Prince!), Heather McLeod; Brooke Kerrigan, illus. (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• The Little Hummingbird, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Greystone Books)
• Making the Moose Out of Life, Nicholas Oldland (Kids Can Press)
• Noni Says No, Heather Hartt-Sussman; Geneviève Côté, illus. (Tundra Books)
• One Hockey Night, David Ward; Brian Deines, illus. (North Winds Press)
• Rosyln Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth!, Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood Books)
• Small Saul, Ashley Spires (Kids Can)
• Stanley’s Little Sister, Linda Bailey and Bill Slavin, illus. (Kids Can)

Silver Birch Fiction (Grades 3–6)

• Better Than Weird, Anna Kerz (Orca Book Publishers)
• Crossing to Freedom, Virginia Frances Schwartz (Scholastic Canada)
• Ghost Messages, Jacqueline Guest (Coteau Books)
• Ghosts of the Titanic, Julie Lawson (Scholastic Canada)
• The Glory Wind, Valerie Sherrard (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• The McGuillicuddy Book of Personal Records, Colleen Sydor (Red Deer Press)
• Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze, Alan Silberberg (Simon & Schuster)
• Neil Flambé and the Aztec Abduction, Kevin Sylvester (Simon and Schuster/HarperCollins Canada)
• That Boy Red, Rachna Gilmore (Simon and Schuster/HarperCollins Canada)
• Undergrounders, David Skuy (Scholastic Canada)

Silver Birch Non-fiction (Grades 3–6)

• 50 Poisonous Questions: A Book With Bite, Tanya Lloyd Kyi; Ross Kinnaird, illus. (Annick)
• Africans Thought of It: Amazing Innovations, Bathseba Opini; Richard B. Lee (Annick)
• Animals That Changed the World, Keltie Thomas (Annick)
• Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science, Susan Hughes; Michael Wandelmaier, illus. (Kids Can)
• Don’t Touch That Toad & Other Strange Things Adults Tell You, Catherine Rondina; Kevin Sylvester, illus. (Kids Can)
• Game Day: Meet the People Who Make It Happen, Kevin Sylvester (Annick)
• Highway of Heroes, Kathy Stinson (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• Mathemagic! Number Tricks, Lynda Colgan; Jane Kurisu, illus. (Kids Can)
• Totally Human: Why We Look and Act the Way We Do, Cynthia Pratt Nicolson;Dianne Eastman, illus. (Kids Can)
• Who Wants Pizza? The Kids’ Guide to the History, Science & Culture of Food, Jan Thornhill (Maple Tree Press)

Silver Birch Express (Grades 3–6)

• All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine, Monica Kulling; Bill Slavin, illus. (Tundra)
• Banjo of Destiny, Cary Fagan; Selçuk Demirel, illus. (Groundwood)
• Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Gordon Lightfoot; Ian Wallace, illus. (Groundwood)
• The Gargoyle Overhead, Philippa Dowding (Napoleon & Company)
• The Last Loon, Rebecca Upjohn (Orca)
• Our Earth: How Kids are Saving the Planet, Janet Wilson (Second Story Press)
• Saving Arm Pit, Natalie Hyde (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• The Time Time Stopped, Don Gillmor (Scholastic Canada)
• Uumajut: Learn About Arctic Wildlife! Simon Awa; Anna Ziegler; Stephanie McDonald; Leah Otak, trans.; Romi Caron, illus. (Inhabit Media)
• When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew: Tales of Ti-Jean, Jan Andrews; Dušan Petričić, illus. (Groundwood)

Red Maple (Grades 7-8)

• Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom, Susin Nielsen (Tundra)
• Dust City, Robert Paul Weston (Puffin Canada)
• Fanatics, William Bell (Doubleday Canada)
• Fly Boy, Eric Walters (Puffin canada)
• Half Brother, Kenneth Oppel (HarperCollins Canada)
• Haunting Violet, Alyxandra Harvey (Bloomsbury)
• Home Truths, Jill MacLean (Dancing Cat)
• No Safe Place, Deborah Ellis (Groundwood)
• Thunder Over Kandahar, Sharon E. McKay; Rafal Gerszak, photog. (Annick)
• Torn from Troy, Patrick Bowman (Ronsdale Press)

White Pine Fiction (Grades 9–12)

• Ashes, Ashes, Jo Treggiari (Scholastic Canada)
• Beat the Band, Don Calame (Candlewick Press)
• Blood Red Road, Moira Young (Doubleday)
• Chance to Dance for You, Gail Sidonie Sobat (Great Plains Publications)
• Death Benefits, Sarah N. Harvey (Orca)
• The Fifth Rule, Don Aker (HarperCollins Canada)
• The Gathering, Kelley Armstrong (Doubleday Canada)
• Motorcycles & Sweetgrass, Drew Hayden Taylor (Vintage Canada)
• Something Wicked, Lesley Anne Cowan (Puffin Canada)
• The Way It Is, Donalda Reid (Second Story)

White Pine Non-fiction (Grades 9–12)

• The Book of Awesome, Neil Pasricha (Penguin)
• Call Me Russell, Russell Peters (Doubleday Canada)
• Wars: An Illustrated History, Jonathan Webb; J.L. Granatstein, illus. (Scholastic)
• Hockey Now! Mike Leonetti (Firefly Books)
• I.D.: Stuff that Happens to Define Us, Kate Scowen; Peter Mitchell, illus. (Annick)
• Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World, Tom Rand; Dave Clark, eds. (Eco Ten Publishing)
• Nice Recovery, Susan Juby (Viking)
• Stick to Your Vision: How to Get Past the Hurdles and Haters to Get Where You Want to Be, Wes “Maestro” Williams  (McClelland & Stewart)
• Two Generals, Scott Chantler (M&S)
• Will to Live: Dispatches from the Edge of Survival, Les Stroud (Collins Canada)

Golden Oak (adult)

• Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Gordon Lightfoot (Groundwood)
• Fatty Legs: A True Story, Christy Jordan-Fendon and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton; Liz Amini-Holmes, illus. (Annick)
• Highway of Heroes, Kathy Stinson (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• No Safe Place, Deborah Ellis (Groundwood)
• Our Earth: How Kids Are Saving the Planet, Janet Wilson (Second Story)
• Out of Darkness: The Jeff Healey Story, Cindy Watson (Dundurn Press)
• Second Wife, Brenda Chapman (Raven Books/Orca)
• Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged, Jody Nyasha Warner; Richard Rudnicki, illus. (Groundwood)

Tundra Books founder May Cutler, 1923-2011

Publishing pioneer May Cutler has died at the age of 87 at her home in Montreal. She was the first  Canadian woman to found a children’s publishing company, creating Tundra Books in 1967 from the basement of her home. She ran the press for 28 years, publishing iconic works such as Roch Carrier’s The Hockey Sweater. Cutler was also the first female mayor of Westmount, elected in 1987 and serving four years in office. From Montreal’s The Gazette:

[Cutler] ran Tundra … as she was raising four boys, and managed also to write a novel, The Last Noble Savage (1967). She later wrote two plays, a musical, and a biography, Breaking Free: The Story of William Kurelek.

Cutler was the first to publish high-profile award winners, like [William] Kurelek (They Sought a New World, A Prairie Boy’s Winter) and Stéphane Poulin, who wrote stories about Josephine the cat.

From the Tundra Books blog:

May’s accomplishments were remarkable, and after completing an MA in journalism from Columbia University, she worked for the United Nations, then as a journalist and later taught in the English department at McGill where she set up a three-year extension program in journalism. …

But we will always know her as the founder of Tundra Books, which she ran for almost 30 years. May was a visionary, and her passion for the arts and creating children’s books as works of art was evident in titles by renowned artists such as William Kurelek, Ted Harrison, Arthur Shilling, Song Nan Zhang, and many others. She is also responsible for the discovery of the incomparable Dayal Kaur Khalsa, who admired her publisher so much that she named the heroine of her books May.

Arthur Slade wins TD Canadian Children’s Lit Award

The Scotiabank Giller Prize wasn’t the only big book event held in Toronto on Tuesday night – the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Awards were handed out as well. The winners are as follows:

TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award ($25,000):
Arthur Slade, The Hunchback Assignments (HarperCollins Canada)

Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-fiction ($10,000):
Priscilla Galloway and Dawn Hunter, Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road (Annick Press)

Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award ($20,000):
Colleen Sydor, Nicolas Debon, illus., Timmerman Was Here (Tundra Books)

Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People ($5,000):
Shane Peacock, Vanishing Girl (Tundra Books)

Event photos: Bird Child takes flight

Nan Forler launched her picture book Bird Child (Tundra Books) on Saturday Sept. 19 at the The Great Hall in Conrad Grebel University College in Kitchener-Waterloo. Though the birds in the book (illustrated by Francois Thisdale) are more symbolic than literal, the event was a full on birdztravaganza, with bird-shaped cookies, bird crafts, and songs about birds playing in the background.

Some of the planned activities. (Is it just us, or do #2 and #4 seem a little off-theme?)

The signing line.

Peter Carver and Kathy Stinson get Nan Forler to sign their copies.

Forler, flowers, and frustrated-looking kid.

Kathy Lowinger to retire from Tundra

Kathy Lowinger, publisher of McClelland & Stewart kids’ imprint Tundra Books, will be retiring at the end of this year, according to a press release issued by M&S this morning. Lowinger has been a major force in kids’ publishing since 1996, when she joined Tundra in the role of executive editor.

Based on the release, it looks as if no one will be replacing Lowinger, exactly. Instead of naming a new publisher, M&S president Doug Pepper has promoted Tundra director of marketing and sales Alison Morgan to the position of managing director, and promoted Tundra senior editor Kathryn Cole to the position of editorial director.

Look for further details on Q&Q Omni later this week.

TPL-approved books for preschoolers

The Toronto Public Library has released its second annual “first and best” list. Masterminded by Ken Setterington, the library’s child and youth advocate (who was named one of Q&Q‘s CanLit 30 earlier this year), the list highlights recommended Canadian titles for children. A brief Toronto Star item on this year’s list is here, and last year’s list is here.

The 2008 titles are listed below, with links to Q&Q reviews where available.

• Chicken, Pig, Cow by Ruth Ohi (Annick Press)
• It’s Moving Day by Pamela Hickman; Geraldo Valério, illus. (Kids Can Press)
• Little Panda by Renata Liwska (Houghton Mifflin/Thomas Allen & Son)
• One Watermelon Seed by Celia Barker Lottridge; Karen Patkau, illus. (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• A Pocket Can Have a Treasure in It by Kathy Stinson; Deirdre Betteridge, illus. (Annick Press)
• Ready for Winter (and Spring, Summer, Autumn – four-book series), by Marthe Jocelyn (Tundra Books)
• The Sweetest One of All by Jean Little; Marisol Sarrazin, illus. (Scholastic Canada)
• Thing-Thing by Cary Fagan; Nicolas Debon, illus. (Tundra Books)
• Time Is When by Beth Gleick; Marthe Jocelyn, illus. (Tundra Books)
• A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker; Kady MacDonald Denton, illus. (Candlewick Press/Penguin Canada)