Author: vancouverroundtable

The Information Book Award jury is pleased to announce the shortlist for the Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada’s 2021 Information Book Award. This award is given annually to a book that arouses interest, stimulates curiosity, captures the imagination, and fosters concern for the world around us. The award’s aim is to recognize excellence in Canadian publishing of children’s nonfiction.

Congratulations to the following titles, authors, illustrators, and publishers on the 2021 Information Book Award shortlist (all titles published in 2020 and listed alphabetically):

Bird’s Eye View: Keeping Wild Birds in Flight. By Ann Eriksson. Published by Orca Book Publishers.

Bringing Back the Wolves. By Jude Isabella. Illustrated by Kim Smith. Published by Kids Can Press.

The Boreal Forest. By L. E. Carmichael. Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon. Published by Kids Can Press

The Eagle Mother. By Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson). Illustrated by Natasha Donovan. Published by Highwater Press.

In the Dark. By Lisa Deresti Betik. Illustrated by Josh Holinaty. Published by Kids Can Press.

Ocean Speaks: How Marie Tharp Revealed the Ocean’s Biggest Secret. By Jess Keating. Illustrated by Katie Hickey. Published by Tundra Books.

Powwow: A Celebration through Song and Dance. By Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane. Published by Orca Book Publishers.

Terry Fox and Me. By Mary Beth Leatherdale. Illustrated by Milan Pavlovic. Published by Tundra Books.

(Information Book Award Jury: Sarah Fast, Brooklyn Cribdon, Sarah Bagshaw. Chair: Lauren Hathaway)

The winning and honour titles will be selected from the shortlist by the Information Book Award jury and announced in late fall at the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable’s Annual Illustrator’s Breakfast.

Thank you to all publishers who nominated titles for this year’s award. Although 2020 was full of challenges for the publishing industry (and the world) due to the pandemic, the jury still received an impressive number of submissions and were excited to see so many themes and topics explored in imaginative and engaging ways. The future is bright for the publishing of nonfiction children’s books in Canada!

For more information on the Information Book Award, including criteria and previous winners, visit https://www.vclr.ca/information-book-award-2/.

Administered by the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable, the Sheila Barry Best Picturebook of the Year Award will be announced each year at what has previously been known as the Fall  VCLR Annual Illustrator’s Breakfast  but will now be the Annual VCLR Sheila Barry Best Canadian Picturebook of the Year Award Breakfast.

The $2500 cash award is specifically for books in the acknowledged picturebook format famously defined by Barbara Bader in 1976 as “an art form [that] hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning of the page”

Submissions are due March 31, 2021. The submission fee is $30 per title. For each submission please include three copies of the book. If the book is shortlisted we will request brief bios of each author/and/or illustrator, their photos, and contact information.

You can find out more about the submission criteria and download the submission form here.

We are very pleased to recognize It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way, written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Julie Morstad, as the winner of the 2020 Information Book Award. This picturebook biography explores the life of Gyo Fujikawa, a Japanese American illustrator and activist, and her determination to represent children of all backgrounds in her books. We look forward to formally honoring this title and its creators at the (virtual) Celebration of BC’s Award-Winning Children’s Writers and Illustrators on Saturday, January 16, 2021, 9:00 – 10:30 am. 

We would like to thank all publishers who nominated books for this year’s award, as well as the authors and illustrators of the nominated titles, for their dedication to providing young readers with books that engage and inspire them to always keep reading, learning, and paying attention to the world around them. A special mention to our three honour titles:

– Beastly Puzzles written by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler
– I Am a Feminist: Claiming the F-Word in Turbulent Times by Monique Polak
– Moon Mission by Sigmund Brouwer

The Information Book Award is awarded annually to a book that arouses interest, stimulates curiosity, captures imagination, and fosters concern for the world around us. The purpose of the award is to recognize excellence both in the writing and publishing of nonfiction for children and young people ages 5-to-14. The submission deadline for the 2021 Information Book Award will be announced in the Fall.

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You are invited to the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable’s Annual Illustrator’s Breakfast.

This year it is a virtual breakfast with a live virtual presentation by Sydney Smith, winner of the first Sheila Barry Best Canadian Picturebook of the Year Award, for Small in the City.

Saturday, November 14, 2020 at 9 am – 10:30 am.

All registered guests will be sent a zoom invitation to the live virtual event.

You have the choice of registering for the event only or of attending the event and receiving a signed copy of Small in the City, a handmade centrepiece, and some other treats so be sure to provide your snail mail address.

The event will also feature the presentation of the Ron Jobe Scholarship and the announcement of the 2020 Information Book Award winner.

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Celebration of BC’s Award-Winning Children’s Writers and Illustrators

A celebration of BC award winning children’s authors and illustrators of 2020. The guest speaker will be the winner of the 2020 Information Book Award (the winner will be announced November 14 at the annual VCLR Sheila Barry Best Canadian Picturebook of the Year Award breakfast). 

Saturday, January 16, 2021, 9:00 – 10:30 am

Note: This event is free to members–please make sure your membership is up-to-date. The first 50 people that register will receive a book by mail. Be sure to provide your snail mail address when you sign up.

1 April, 2017. (No, it’s not a joke. Really!)

Announcing the shortlist for the inaugural Children’s Book Award!

Oy Vey! The Joan Betty Stuchner – Oy Vey! – Funniest Children’s Book Award committee has finally stopped laughing long enough to release this hilarious news. We have a shortlist! We received fifty very funny books, but these five kept our jury the most “buckled over with guffaws, incapacitated with giggles, and/or rib-ticklingly, side-splittingly, thigh-slappingly entertained.”

They are:

The Princess and the Pony, written and illustrated by Kate Beaton, Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2015

The Day Santa Stopped Believing in Harold, written by Maureen Fergus and illustrated by Cale Atkinson, Tundra Books, 2016

Move It, Miss Mackintosh!, written by Peggy Robbins Janousky and illustrated by Meghan Lands, Annick Press 2016

The Liszts, written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Júlia Sardà, Tundra Books 2016

Kabungo, written by Rolli and illustrated by Milan Pavlovic, Groundwood Books 2016

Congratulations!  The $1000 prize winner will be announced 20 June, 2017 at a special, giggle-filled celebration at the Cottage Bistro in Vancouver, 7-9 pm, 4470 Main Street.

For tickets to this FREE event, please write: cindyheinrichs@yahoo.com or visit the Joan Betty Stuchner Oy Vey Funniest Children’s Book Award Facebook page and include yourself via the event invitation posted there.

About Joan Betty Stuchner:

Joan Betty Stuchner, beloved children’s author and teacher, passed away unexpectedly in 2014.  Joan was many things — brave, gracious, warm, generous, kind and absolutely hilarious to boot.  (“Oy vey!” she’s probably saying now…) With this award we honour Joan’s life-affirming humour and encourage other children’s writers to laugh it up on the page the way she did.