2011 Forest of Reading Award Nominees Announced

The Forest of Reading nominees were announced yesterday!

This Ontario program is one of Canada’s largest recreational reading programs with more than 250,000 young people participating each year through their school or public library. Kids who participate in the registered program and read a minimum of five of
the ten books in their reading category get to cast a vote the week of April 23, 2011. The nominated authors are honoured at a  ceremony in May, and the winning author presented with their award.

I’m always curious to see what books are nominated in all of the six categories, but I pay special attention to Red Maple and White Pine categories as those are where the YA titles are represented.

The Red Maple Award is for grades 7 & 8 and is split into two sub-categories, fiction and non-fiction. This year’s fiction selections are:

• The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee (Random House)
• Ghost Ride by Marina Cohen (Dundurn)
• Haunted by Barbara Haworth-Attard (HarperCollinsCanada)
• My Name Is Henry Bibb by Afua Cooper (Kids Can Press)
• Nieve by Terry Griggs (Biblioasis)
• Not Suitable for Family Viewing by Vicki Grant (HarperCollinsCanada)
• Only in the Movies by William Bell (Random House)
• POP by Gordon Korman (Scholastic Canada, Ltd.)
• The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong (Random House)
• Wounded by Eric Walters (Penguin Group Canada)

The White Pine award is for high school-aged teens. This year’s selections are:

• Borderline by Allan Stratton (HarperCollinsCanada)
• Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay (Random House)
• Fishtailing by Wendy Phillips (Coteau Books)
• Gravity Brings Me Down by Natale Ghent (Random House)
• Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey (Penguin Group Canada)
• The Monkeyface Chronicles by Richard Scarsbrook (Thistledown Press)
• The Second Trial by Rosemarie Boll (Second Story Press)
• Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers (HB Fenn)
• Swim the Fly by Don Calame (Random House)
• The Worst Thing She Ever Did by Alice Kuipers (HarperCollinsCanada)

I’m thrilled to be participating on the White Pine steering committee again this year.  Looks like I have some serious reading to do! I’ve read many of the Red Maple selections, but only one of the White Pines.

For more information about the Forest of Reading program, including the complete list of nominated titles, go to: www.accessola.com/reading/

Let the reading begin!