Despite some tumultuous weather, thousands of kids and authors gathered at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre May 12–13 to celebrate the Ontario Library Association’s Festival of Trees, in association with IFOA.
Along with author signings, workshops, and book sales (via Tinlids, in a new arrangement this year), the main draw of the festival was the announcement of the 2015 Forest of Reading award winners.
The winning titles were selected from a shortlist of nominees by the approximately 250,000 kids who take part in the OLA’s Forest of Reading program.
And the winners are:
Blue Spruce Award
The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten by Maureen Fergus; Mike Lowery, illus. (KidsCan Press)
Silver Birch Express Award
Kung Pow Chicken #1: Let’s Get Cracking! by Cyndi Marko (Scholastic)
Silver Birch Fiction Award
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier (Puffin Canada)
Silver Birch Non-fiction Award
Annaleise Carr: How I Conquered Lake Ontario to Help Kids Battling Cancer by Annaleise Carr and Deborah Ellis (Lorimer)
Red Maple Fiction Award
The Rule of Three by Eric Walters (Razorbill Canada)
Red Maple Non-fiction Award
The Last Train: A Holocaust Story by Rona Arato (Owlkids Books)
White Pine Award
Rush by Eve Silver (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Canada)
Prix Tamarac
La plus grosse poutine du monde by Andrée Poulin (Bayard Canada)
Prix Tamarac Express
Guiby #1: Une odeur de soufre by Sampar (Éditions Michel Quintin)
Prix Peuplier
Le voleur de couche by Nadia Sévigny; AnneMarie Bourgeois, illus. (Éditions de la Smala)