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.

Forest of Reading Awards 2009

A few of us at Annick Press headed downtown on Wednesday to party at the Ontario Library Association's Festival of Trees: a huge event at which the winners of the Forest of Reading awards are announced. This event drew 6,500 students in 2008, and we heard that this year there were about 8,000 students in attendance! The weather cooperated perfectly, resulting in a day filled with sunshine, energetic book-loving kids, and happy authors.

It's up to the students to choose the winning books--over 250,000 readers voted for their favorite nominees--so we were thrilled to hear that our authors Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert were nominated for the Blue Spruce award for Mattland, and Elizabeth MacLeod won the Red Maple Non-Fiction award for Royal Murder! Congratulations, Elizabeth, Hazel, and Gail! (Pictures: Elizabeth MacLeod with the Red Maple award; Gail Herbert and Hazel Hutchins enjoying the awards reception)

Murder at the OLA

Unsuspecting librarians walking past the Firefly booth at this year's OLA Super Conference, did a double take when they saw author Liz MacLeod signing her much-acclaimed book, Royal Murder. To get into the swing of things, she offered librarians a lovely golden "crown" to wear while she sported a bloody dagger. Royal+Murder. Get it? (Those are Liz's words, not mine!) Many of those waiting in line had already read the book, but wanted a second copy to share with others. "Great book!" "Even my son, who never reads anything, loved this book!" "I've already ordered two for the library, so this one will be used as a prize." These were only some of the comments from the librarians who were thrilled to meet Liz and delighted to walk off with a signed copy of the book.