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.

Book of Life Podcast About The Apprentice's Masterpiece

We're pleased to announce that Melanie Little's award-winning verse novel The Apprentice's Masterpiece is now available in paperback!

At Book Expo America in 2008, Heidi Estrin of The Book of Life podcast interviewed our associate publisher, Colleen MacMillan, about the book, which had just been released in hardcover. Click below to hear more about what it was like to develop a book for young adults set during the Spanish Inquisition! (This clip is part of a longer podcast of interviews about Jewish books for kids and teens; click here for the original podcast in its entirety.)

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!

Podcasts on Open Book Toronto

Over the next few months Open Book Toronto will be featuring the Annick podcast series.

Listen to interviews with key authors as they discuss their latest books. And if you want to find out more about our authors and their books, visit our website.

Catch the first story about Melanie Little, author of The Apprentice's Masterpiece, here.

Annick Goes to BEC

Melanie Little, author of The Apprentice's Masterpiece

The number of exhibitors was noticeably down from previous years, and there were fewer independent booksellers than everyone had hoped for, but even so, Book Expo Canada 2008 was a successful show for Annick. Thanks to the presence of a number of teachers and librarians, the booth was busy with people stopping to ask about our upcoming books. The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland drew a lot of attention as did The Apprentice's Masterpiece by Melanie Little. Long line-ups awaited all our authors who signed books: Loris Lesynski, Melanie Little, Elizabeth MacLeod, Ruth Ohi, Charis Cotter, and Kathy Stinson.

Loris Lesynski, author of Shoe Shakes

Most of the publishers, association representatives and some booksellers attended a meeting on Monday to discuss the future of BEC. While everyone agreed that something had to be done to increase attendance, there was no consensus as to what that should be. There seems to be a movement afoot to move the show from June to September. As a publisher of children's books, we would be concerned that teachers and librarians who now attend BEC will not come to a fall show.

Elizabeth MacLeod, author of Royal Murder

The idea of opening BEC up to the public is a good one, but not unless a way can be found of allowing them to purchase books. Why else would they want to spend money to get in? For those who want to see and hear big name authors, there is the International Festival of Authors held later in the fall, and for those wanting bargains, there's The Word On The Street. Perhaps the appeal to the public would be being able to purchase the new Fall titles before they actually hit the stores. As for The Word On The Street, those publishers interested in selling could partner with an independent bookseller of their choice. Whatever the case, it looks as if BEC as it stands now is not viable for either its owners, Reed Exhibits, or for the publishers who attend. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.

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.

Annick Goes to ALA Midwinter

Annick Press regularly attends all the major book shows (BookExpo Canada, BookExpo America, American Library Association, etc.), but each show is a unique experience. When our Director, Rick Wilks, went to Philadelphia last week for the Midwinter ALA Meeting, he was delighted to see the aisles full of librarians from all over North America, many of whom stopped in at the Annick booth to say hello and check out our new Spring titles. Here's what they were saying:

"Annick always does such interesting books."

"I always look forward to receiving the Annick catalog."

"Thank you Annick for publishing books that other publishers won't."

The big hit among our upcoming books? The Apprentice's Masterpiece by Melanie Little. The advance reading copies and presentation kits were in high demand. This promises to be a book that people will talk about for a long time.

Love that new book smell!

With the holidays fading into a distant memory, all of us at Annick are hard at work preparing for an exciting new season. Although it may look like winter outside, inside the Annick front office Kathy and Lisa are busy unpacking our beautiful new SPRING books!

The front office is Annick’s Grand Central Station—books arriving and departing, being sent all over the world. Kathy and Lisa are always working hard submitting books for awards, sending out review copies, preparing for fairs, and welcoming visiting authors.

Earlier this week The Apprentice’s Masterpiece by Melanie Little arrived (hot off the press!) at the office and all of us have been oohing and ahhing over how beautiful it looks. One of our favorite things about working at Annick is seeing the end result of everyone’s hard work—a beautiful new book—and holding it in your hands for the first time.