On Wednesday, May 13th, the WestJet stage at the Toronto Harbourfront was a chilly place to be, but things heated up as the authors and illustrators nominated for the 2015 Forest of Reading Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award filed onstage, to the cheers of the excited children in the audience.

The crowd warms up with hosts from TVO Kids
One of the nominees was Rob Laidlaw, author of Cat Champions: Caring for our Feline Friends. Pajama Press is pleased to announce that Cat Champions was selected as an honour book, one of three runners-up in the contest decided by the votes of children from schools and libraries across Ontario.

Rob Laidlaw regales the crowd with stories of his own cats
Pajama Press also extends congratulations to Anneliese Carr and Deborah Ellis, authors of the winning book Anneliese Carr: How I Conquered Lake Ontario to Help Kids Battling Cancer (Lorimer), as well as Helaine Becker and Alex Ries, author and illustrator of the honour book Zoobots: Wild Robots Inspired by Real Animals (Kids Can Press).

Rob Laidlaw and Anneliese Carr applaud Helaine Becker
Cat Champions: Caring for our Feline Friends has also been nominated for the 2015 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award and the 2015 Red Cedar Information Book Award. It is a a Bank Street Best Book, a Best Books for Kids & Teens Starred Selection, and a Resource Links “The Year’s Best” selection. Its companion book, No Shelter Here: Making the World a Better Place for Dogs, won the Silver Birch Non-Fiction Book Award and the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award, among other nominations and honours.