The Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable is looking forward to gathering with our members on November 15, 2025 to celebrate the 2025 Sheila Barry Best Canadian Picturebook of the Year Award and pay tribute to our dear friend and longtime colleague, Norma Charles.
EVENT DETAILS The annual VCLR Fall Tea will be hosted at the University Golf Club on Saturday, November 15, 2025. The event will begin promptly at 1:00pm.
The event will include a silent auction fundraiser, book sales of the Sheila Barry Award finalists and titles by Norma Charles, and a special recorded video presentation by Julie Flett, about her winning book, Let’s Go! / haw êkwa!, published by Greystone Books. We will also be awarding the Ron Jobe Scholarship and share memories and words about our former treasurer and children’s literature friend, Norma.
EARLY BIRD TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW! Early bird tickets are available now until October 31, and ticket sales close on November 10. You will have the opportunity to renew your VCLR membership through Eventbrite and also donate to our organization to defray fees for students.
Congratulations to Julie Flett for Let’s Go! / haw êkwa! (published by Greystone Kids), the winner of the 2025 annual Sheila Barry Best Canadian Picturebook of the Year Award! There will be a celebration of this award’s winner and finalists later in the fall.
Let’s Go! haw êkwa! by Julie Flett reveals its theme in the cover image. A boy watches from his window as a skateboarder passes by. He longs to become one. With support from family and community, persevering after setbacks, he succeeds. He becomes the boy skateboarding past a window as another child watches.
The spare text integrates English and Cree words. They are onomatopoeic: sounds of a skateboard on the sidewalk, of falling on hard pavement, the joyful sound of success.
Illustrations add details that enhance the narrative. Learning takes time as shown in images of trees changing colour. Family supports his learning. His mother watches, his aunt extends a helping hand.
The use of colour adds depth to the story. The sidewalk is hard edged and gray as he tries and falls. Then swoosh! The pages flow in swirls of colour: a waterfall of skateboarders, bright sun shining as his confidence grows, swaths of blue winding like a river. The image of the boy with other skaters captures the joy of skateboarding and of community, skating ‘down the street, like a little river, together.’ Let’s Go! haw êkwa! beautifully integrates text and illustration, a picture book to celebrate.
Our two finalists for this year’s Sheila Barry Best Picture Book Award are:The Weedflower by author, Elizabeth Davaze, and illustrator, Marianne Ferrer (Owlkids Books) and This Land is a Lullaby by author, Tonya Simpson, and illustrator, Delrée Dumont (Orca Books).
The Weedflower is a heartwarming story that records adorable moments in the schoolyard. Through a school girl’s eyes, readers see an unnoticeable yellow bud that sprouts and slowly turns into a gigantic fluffball with the love and care from school children.
Davaze is undoubtedly a skillful storyteller who can turn everyday stories into great adventures. The story invites readers to pay attention to a tiny, yellow bud that is often neglected in daily life through Sam’s eyes. No one notices the flower sprouting at the corner of the cement schoolyard except Sam. Other children join, and under their love and care this delightful flower “illuminate(s) every dark corner of the playground,” finally turning into a “perfect, dreamy fluffball”. The simple yet encouraging plot allows readers to discover beauty in trivial moments, conveying the importance of noticing and nurturing the overlooked wonders around us.
The warm, golden palette used in Ferrer’s watercolour illustrations echoes the dandelion’s journey from humble sprout to glowing fluffball. The strategic use of bright yellow draws readers’ attention to the centre of the book – the weedflower. Coupled with the muted, earthy palette dominated by sage greens and warm browns, Ferrer’s dynamic playground scenes capture the organic way Sam’s initial discovery spreads to inspire others. The varied typography also enables readers to have a better understanding of the emotions that build throughout the narrative, enhancing the story’s emotional impact. Told from a child’s perspective, The Weedflower reminds readers to rediscover the beauty of small things in today’s cities, where nature is often overlooked amidst the hustle and bustle of urban life. Although the fluff of the weedflower floats away, the flower does carry power that stays – the power of hope, love, and vitality – as light blooms in the grey.
This Land is a Lullaby is a melodious rhyming letter to a child as a mother carries her baby across Cree territory. Tonya Simpson serenades readers with vivid imagery of the Alberta plains, weaving teachings from the land and the ancestors into a mother’s gentle song. With evocative language that engages sight, sound, and touch, the lullaby nurtures an early spiritual connection to plants, animals, and more-than-human kin.
Delrée Dumont’s pointillism art conveys distinctly prairie notes to complement the lyrical text. Golden wheat fields are in the backdrop of crackling lightning above wild horses. Indigo skies are speckled with glistening stars. Soaring geese, heron, fireflies and dragonflies burst from bright green grasslands. Each scene seamlessly blends human and nonhuman life, reinforcing the sacred interconnectedness of beings at the heart of the story.The meticulous dot patterns advance the story across a single day by capturing its shifting light — from the gentle glow of dawn to the blaze of sunset, and torrential rains leading to the guiding light of the moon.
The book closes by repeating the opening stanza, sharing a tender reminder that the land holds history, art, and spiritual meaning in First Nations culture and, ultimately, shaping a profound sense of home and belonging.
