Pajama Press

Pajama Press is excited to announce that two of our titles have been nominated for the 2020 Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading^® Awards.

Giraffe and Bird Together Again, written and illustrated by Rebecca Bender, is a nominee for the Blue Spruce Award.

And Too Young to Escape: A Vietnamese Girl Waits to be Reunited with Her Family, written by Van Ho and Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, is a nominee for the Yellow Cedar Award.

Click here to see the full list of award nominees.

The Forest of Reading^® is an initiative of the Ontario Library Association (OLA) that helps celebrate Canadian books, publishers, authors and illustrators and promotes a love of reading among Ontario students. Every year, over 270,000 participants read a shortlist of books in their age category and vote for their favourites. Learn more at: www.accessola.org

Pajama Press extends our congratulations to Rebecca Bender, Van Ho, and Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, as well as their fellow nominees. Our sincerest thanks go to the Ontario Library Association for promoting reading and Canadian books through this outstanding program. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Book Fund for our publishing program.

For further information, or to request an interview with any of our authors or illustrators, please contact:
Laura Bowman, Publicity
publicity@pajamapress.ca

Pajama Press is thrilled to announce that Girl of the Southern Sea by Michelle Kadarusman is a finalist for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Awards in the category of Young People’s Literature – Text.

Michelle has been crafting her novels under the expertise of our cherished Senior Editor, Ann Featherstone, at Pajama Press since 2017. Michelle’s debut novel, The Theory of Hummingbirds, received high literary acclaim and was nominated for the 2019 Silver Birch Award, the 2019 MYRCA Sundogs Award, and the 2018 SYRCA Diamond Willow Award. Girl of the Southern Sea was published in May of this year and has received unanimously positive reviews from literary journals. The Booklist review cites, “In spare and elegant prose, Kadarusman weaves a quiet tale of survival, grit, and integrity.” Pajama Press is delighted to see Michelle’s writing earn such a high distinction with this new nomination for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award.

Michelle will be donating a portion of her royalties from Girl of the Southern Sea in support of Plan International Canada’s Because I Am A Girl campaign, and Pajama Press will match her donation. Learn more about Plan International Canada at: https://plancanada.ca

The Governor General’s Literary Awards are the oldest and most prestigious national literary awards in Canada. Founded in 1936, the awards span over seven categories in both English and French and acknowledge the best 70 books to be published in Canada in 2019. More information and the full list of finalists can be found here: https://canadacouncil.ca/press/2019/10/ggbooks-2019-finalists.

Pajama Press extends our heartfelt congratulations to Michelle Kadarusman, her fellow nominees, and their publishers. Our sincerest thanks go to the Canada Council for the Arts for their dedication to high-quality Canadian literature for people of all ages and for their continued support of Canadian authors and illustrators. We also acknowledge the support of the Canada Book Fund, the Ontario Arts Council, and Ontario Creates for our publishing program.

For further information, or to request an interview with Michelle Kadarusman, please contact:

Laura Bowman, Publicity
publicity@pajamapress.ca