Forest of Reading Awards Get New Websites

The Ontario Library Association has created new interactive websites for each of its Forest of Reading awards:

• Blue Spruce Online (primary school to grade 2, picture books)
• Silver Birch Online (grades 3 to 6, fiction and non-fiction)
• Red Maple Online (grades 7 to 8, fiction and non-fiction)
• White Pine Online (high school fiction)

There are two types of accounts: student and teacher/librarian. After making an account, users can read excerpts from the nominated books, watch videos of the authors and illustrators, make their own videos, rate and comment on the nominated books, build their own collections, post top-ten lists, and more. I encourage teachers and librarians (and parents!) to get their kids to try out the websites and see what they think!

We have two books nominated for the Silver Birch this year: Pharaohs and Foot Soliders (by Kristin Butcher, with illustrations by Martha Newbigging) and Animal Aha! (by Diane Swanson). You can read samples of both on the Silver Birch Online website, plus you can watch videos of the authors talking about the books! As a sneak peek, here's Kristin Butcher, introducing us to one of the stars of Pharaohs and Foot Soliders.

Kristin Butcher and the Touring Mummy

Earlier this week, Claire Eamer regaled us with her Canadian Children's Book Week adventures. Today I received an email from Kristin Butcher, who reported that her 10-day tour took her "from as far west as you can go in Canada to as far east as you can go." Here's what she had to say about her experience talking to kids about her latest book, Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers: One Hundred Ancient Egyptian Jobs You Might Have Desired or Dreaded:

The kids were enthralled with Pharaoh Phil and loved the embalming presentation. Of course, it didn't hurt that I always let one of them pull the brain out through the nose. It totally grossed out the teachers, but the kids thought it was great.

We covered all the jobs in the Afterlife chapter, from Cutter to Mourners. When I told the kids that the mourners threw dirt on themselves, they wanted to know if they threw it at each other too. Only kids would think of that. Today's young people are pretty knowledgeable, and there was always someone in the group who knew about the brain being extracted through the nose, as well as other sundry bits of information. It helped to keep the presentation moving—though not always in the direction I had envisioned.

Kristin also sent along some pictures from one of her presentations. Here are some of the tools and props she uses in her embalming demonstration, in which the class gets to help mummify "Pharaoh Phil."

And here's Kristin and Pharaoh Phil, pre-embalming:

I'll leave you with this close-up of Pharaoh Phil, who looks rather nonchalant about his approaching mummification:

TD Canadian Children's Book Week 2009!

My first "spring has almost arrived in Toronto!" post was on March 20, and I quickly learned I'd been a bit premature. (I plead ignorance: I only moved to Toronto last September, after all!) But today really felt like spring: the temperature went up to 20C and I was able to go outside in short sleeves. Hooray!

Things have been busy at Annick: books are heading off to the printer, new books are in the works, and we're gearing up for some neat stuff for fall (more about our fall list later!). Meanwhile, our books continue to win awards: Mattland (written by Hazel Hutchins and illustrated by Dusan Petricic) has won the Canadian Library Association's Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award, and Melanie Little's The Apprentice's Masterpiece is the CLA's Young Adult Canadian Honour Book. I also selected the winners for our My Parents Are Sex Maniacs contest, and will be posting their stories, along with a Q&A with author Robyn Harding, next week!

More good news: three of our authors have been invited to this year's TD Canadian Children's Book Week! From November 14-21, Kristin Butcher (Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers), Claire Eamer (Super Crocs and Monster Wings), and Charis Cotter (A World Full of Ghosts) will be giving readings at schools, community centres, and libraries. (More information on tour schedules to follow!) In celebration of Vancouver's 2010 Olympics, this year's Book Week theme is "sports."

Wherever you are, I hope you're enjoying spring so far!