Congratulations to the 2019/2020 finalists for the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Awards including, The Ice Chips and the Haunted Hurricane, the second book in the Ice Chips series from father-daughter writing duo Roy and Kerry MacGregor, and Susin Nielsen’s middle-grade story, No-Fixed Address.

The 2019-2020 shortlist will be promoted at this year’s ceremony on May 31st at the Halifax Central Library. The shortlisted books will then be read in the 2019-2020 school year by thousands of children in the Atlantic region. Young readers will vote for their favourite book, and four winners will be announced at the Hackmatack Awards Ceremony in May 2020.

Margaret Atwood has selected Barbara Gowdy’s novel, The White Bone, as the inaugural title for The Globe and Mail‘s book club. Subscribers are invited to discuss the book in an online forum in response to a weekly discussion question. The book club will culminate in a live event where Atwood will interview Barbara Gowdy at the Globe and Mail Centre on May 24.

First published in 1998, Quill & Quire said of the national bestseller, “With writing that manages to be both incisive and hallucinogenic, and that is born along by a moral vision and a deftly controlled sense of outrage, Gowdy has created a landscape, a cosmology, and a community that are wholly surprising and believable. The White Bone is a singular and remarkable novel.”

Operatic, from author Kyo Maclear and illustrator Byron Eggenschwiler has received starred reviews from Booklist, Quill & Quire, and School Library Journal.

“Opera is an unusual but pitch-perfect match for that swell of overwhelming feeling, and Maclear and Eggenschwiler fold it into the story perfectly. A poignant, pithy, and arrestingly illustrated story.” —Booklist

“Operatic offers a deft look at adolescence, rich but subtle, accessible but beautifully complex.” —Quill & Quire

“Brimming with raw emotion, music references, and gorgeous art, this memorable and relatable graphic novel will linger with ­readers.” –School Library Journal

Operatic publishers April 1, 2019 with Groundwood Books.

We’re delighted to share that Christine Higdon’s The Very Marrow of Our Bones is a 2018 Forward Indies finalist in the category of Literary Adult Fiction.

Winners in each genre will be announced June 15, 2019.

Congratulations to Alice Kuipers who has been shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards! Her chapter book Polly Diamond and the Magic Book, illustrated by Diana Toledano, is nominated for the Muslims for Peace and Justice Fiction Award. Kuipers’ novel, Me (and) Me, is one of three finalist for the G. Murray and Edna Forbes Young Adult Literature Award.

David Chariandy’s second novel Brother has won the Windham-Campbell Prize in the category of fiction. Congratulations David on this astounding achievement!

What the jury said:

“Offering a vision at once entirely humane and immensely tender, David Chariandy lays bare the ways that gestures and details articulate the revelations of grief as well as the intimacies found within fraught and fraying social spaces.”

Chariandy’s reaction to the news:

“I was floored by the news! And for some time, I didn’t dare believe my fortune. The Windham-Campbell Prize offers a life-changing opportunity to devote time and energy to writing. I am humbled and profoundly grateful to be counted among the recipients.”

Click here for more information about the prize.

Congratulations to author and illustrator Matt James! His illustrated children’s book The Funeral is a 2019 Ezra Jack Keats Award Honor winner.

Deborah Pope, Executive Director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, said, “It is a joy and a privilege each year to recognize and support new writers and illustrators who create beautiful and entertaining books that reflect the childhood experiences of our diverse population. The Ezra Jack Keats Award brings greater attention to artists who, like Ezra, seek to inspire all children to achieve their full potential.”

We couldn’t be happier to see David Chariandy’s brilliant novel Brother on the Canada Reads 2019 shortlist! Lisa Ray will be defending Chariandy’s second novel in the debates which will air from March 25-28, 2019.⠀

From CBC Books, “Rooted in Chariandy’s own experience growing up as a person of colour in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, the novel is a beautiful meditation on discrimination, agency, grief and the power of human relationships.”⠀

The 2018 Cleaver Award finalists have been announced and we are thrilled to see The Funeral from WCA author and illustrator Matt James, and Bloom from author/illustrator duo Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad are on the list!

The prize is presented by the International Board on Books for Young People, Canadian section, with prize money awarded in trust from the estate of Canadian illustrator Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver. The winner will be announced Feb. 21, 2019.

Bahasa language rights to Najwa Zebian’s NECTAR OF PAIN to Grasindo. The deal was arranged by Maxima Creative Agency with Meg Wheeler of Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Hilary McMahon.

Malayalam rights to Barbara Gowdy’s THE WHITE BONE to Saikatham Books. The deal was arranged by Meg Wheeler of Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Jackie Kaiser.

Russian rights to B. Brett Finlay and Jessica Finlay’s THE WHOLE-BODY MICROBIOME to Exmo. The deal was arranged by Synopsis Literary Agency with Meg Wheeler of Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of John Pearce.