Forest of Reading Award Winners Announced

On May 11, a few of us from Annick headed down to picturesque Harbourfront to attend the Festival of Trees gala put on by the Ontario Library Association. We were very proud to have three books nominated: The Bite of the Mango and Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road for the Red Maple award (non-fiction), and Kaboom! for the Silver Birch award (non-fiction).

We're pleased to announce that Mariatu Kamara's powerful true story The Bite of the Mango, co-written with Susan McClelland, took home the Red Maple non-fiction prize. Here's Mariatu on stage:

The other winners were My Think-a-Ma-Jink by Dave Whamond (Blue Spruce), Not Suitable for Family Viewing by Vicki Grant (Red Maple: fiction), The Monkeyface Chronicles by Richard Scarsbrook (White Pine), How to Build Your Own Country by Valerie Wyatt (Silver Birch: non-fiction), Neil Flambe and the Marco Polo Murders by Kevin Sylvester (Silver Birch: fiction), and Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires (Silver Birch Express). In the French category, La quête du dernier dodo: Les aventures de Cosmo le Dodo by Patrice Racine won Le Prix Tamarack and Les Dragouilles 2: Les Bleues de Montréal by Karine Gottot and Maxim Cyr won Le Prix Tamarack Express.

Congratulations to all the finalists and winners!

Canadian Children's Literature Awards

Last night, the Canadian Children's Book Centre hosted a gala in which the winners of the Canadian Children's Literature Awards were announced. Eight Annick authors and illustrators were finalists, and we were thrilled to see five of them win! (You can read the full CCBC press release here.)

Mattland, written by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert and illustrated by Dušan Petričić, won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award ($20,000). Here's Hazel giving her acceptance speech:


The Bite of the Mango, written by Mariatu Kamara with Susan McClelland, won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction ($10,000). Mariatu is still on her European book tour, so Susan accepted the award. Here she is with Annick's Director, Rick Wilks:


The award winners were in good company: Shin-Chi's Canoe, written by Nicola I. Campbell and illustrated by Kim LaFave, won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award ($25,000) and The Landing, by John Ibbitson, won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People ($5,ooo).

Congratulations are also due to:

• Ruth Ohi, whose book Chicken, Pig, Cow was a finalist for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award
• Elizabeth MacLeod, whose book Royal Murder was a finalist for the Norma Fleck Award
• Melanie Little, whose book The Apprentice's Masterpiece was a finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People

Click here for a list of all finalists, and check out more photos from the event on Annick's Flickr page.

The Bite of the Mango European Tour

Authors Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland are in London, England today to start a five-country European tour to promote the launch of the British, German, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish editions of The Bite of the Mango. Wow...!

Susan will return home after Germany and Mariatu's surrogate aunt in Toronto, Kadi, will join Mariatu for the remainder of the tour. In each of these countries, the publishers have arranged print, TV and radio interviews, school visits and public readings. It is really heart-warming to see how the world is embracing Mariatu and her remarkable story of overcoming the loss of her hands to rebel soldiers in her native Sierra Leone. The sad thing is, this is not just Mariatu's story, but the story of so many amputees in Sierra Leone who were the victims of unimaginable atrocities during the civil war in their country. We wish Mariatu, Susan, and Kadi a rewarding trip and look forward to hearing their stories and seeing their photo on their return at the end of this month.

Susan and Mariatu are grateful to have received a Travel Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to assist in this trip.

Stay tuned for images of the different covers from the foreign editions of The Bite of the Mango...

Fall Means Frankfurt!

Annick once again exhibited at the annual Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest international rights fair in the world. We meet with foreign publishers, agents, and scouts to introduce our fabulous list of upcoming spring '10 books and present new and recent releases. The aim is to sell rights so these books will be published in other countries and languages. Above is a photo of our very beautiful booth, featuring one of the highlights of the fair: a provocative new YA fiction series called Single Voice. Watch for this in stores in February '10!

We also hosted a lovely reception for the foreign publishers and agents of The Bite of the Mango, Mariatu Kamara's moving memoir about losing her hands in the civil war in Sierra Leone and her courageous accomplishments to date: UNICEF Special Representative, founder of The Mariatu Foundation, college student, and public speaker. Mariatu and co-author Susan McClelland embark on a five-country tour in Europe in November to launch some of these foreign editions. Stay tuned for more on that soon...!

Frankfurt is not only about trying to sell our books, however. We also attend the fair in the hopes of acquiring for publication in North America exceptional books from Australia, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and other places. There's so much to choose from.

The excitement of Frankfurt or any international rights fair is found in a synergy, a connection with someone from across the globe who shares the same literary sensibilities. Books really do bridge cultures!

CNN Interview with Mariatu Kamara

Our author Mariatu Kamara was recently on CNN talking about her book The Bite of the Mango, which is an account of her war-time experiences in Sierra Leone. Mariatu is an inspiring speaker -- don't miss it! (She appears at 3:59 in the video below.)

Would you like another cappuccino? Or, how to do business at the Bologna Book Fair.

We've just returned from the Bologna Children's Book Fair where Annick exhibits every year in order to meet with international publishers. What do we do there? Aside from consuming a lot of cappuccino, gelato, and other Italian culinary delights, we have a booth to display our recent books and present them to foreign publishers who may wish to acquire rights to publish our books in their market (depending on the market, that may mean publishing in translation).

Here's a photo of the corner of our booth this year:


We set up meetings in advance, every half hour for the three and a half days of the fair, and meet with about 60 different publishers and sub-agents from countries in Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, Australia, Latin America... It's really exciting finding that synchronicity, talking with a publisher from across the planet who shares our publishing sensibilities and aims. There's a wonderful global community of children's publishers out there. And personally, I love working with people from different countries and cultures and languages. Books really can bridge cultures!

Preparation for the book fair begins about three months in advance with the booking of appointments, preparation of catalogues, and cover blow-ups, shelf talkers, and other booth display materials. And the follow-up - that is, sending publishers the books they requested to review - can also take months, but the results can be very rewarding and very exciting (see The Little Black Book for Girlz goes to Italy! for an example of what can result from a book fair).

Though we've only just returned, here are some of the Bologna highlights this year:

• Receiving an unexpected offer from a prestigious Italian publisher for The Apprentice's Masterpiece by Melanie Little (the cover of which is featured in the large poster in the photo above). Stay tuned for an announcement of an Italian rights sale!
• Hearing several publishers describe The Bite of the Mango (to be published September 2008), the astounding true story of Mariatu Kamara's voyage from victim of war to UNICEF Special Representative co-written by Susan McClelland, as the most outstanding book of the fair! We expect international rights sales of this memoir will be swift.
• Receiving so many compliments on the quality and innovation of our books (kudos to our editors!)

So now it's all about follow-up. And the great thing about cappuccino? It can be enjoyed while working here in Toronto too.