With the Ontario Library Association Super Conference fast approaching, it seems appropriate to acknowledge another OLA program that is engaging children across the province right now: the OLA Forest of Reading.
Every October the Forest of Reading committees, which are made up of public and school library practitioners, select shortlists of nominated titles for the following categories:
The Blue Spruce Award—ages 4–7
The Silver Birch Award—ages 8–12
The Red Maple Award—ages 12–13
The White Pine Award—high school and teen readers
The Evergreen Award—adults of all ages
The Golden Oak Award—new adult readers
Le Prix Tamarac—french language fiction and non-fiction
Le Prix Peuplier—french language books read aloud to participants
In the months between the announcement of the nominees and the awards ceremony in June*, participants read or are read books from the shortlists in their age category and vote for their favourite. The awards are presented at the Festival of Trees in Toronto, where hundreds of eager school children meet and cheer on their favourite authors.
With more than 250,000 readers participating each year through their school or public library, the Forest of Reading is the largest program of its kind in Canada. To learn more, visit the Ontario Library Association website.
Not a resident of Ontario? Many other provinces and regions in Canada have readers’ choice awards. We have already featured the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award and British Columbia’s Chocolate Lily Book Award. We look forward to featuring more!
*The Evergreen Award and the Golden Oak Award are presented at different times.