Pajama Press

Elephant Journey: The True Story of Three Zoo Elephants and their Rescue from Captivity, written by Rob Laidlaw and Illustrated by Brian Deines, has been nominated for the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award. Elephant Journey is an account of the road travelled by Toka, Thika, and Iringa, three African elephants, from the Toronto Zoo to the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California.

The Hackmatack Award is Atlantic Canada’s reading program for students in grades four to six. Participants will read a shortlist of ten fiction books and ten non-fiction books in either English or French, then vote for their favourites. You learn more at the Hackmatack Award website.

In 2014, No Shelter Here: Making the World a Kinder Place for Dogs, also by Rob Laidlaw, won the Hackmatack Award in the English Non-Fiction category. Its sequel, Cat Champions: Caring for our Feline Friends, was nominated the following year.

Two Pajama Press books have been nominated for the 205–16 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award.

Skydiver: Saving the Fastest Bird in the World, a picture book illustratedby Celia Godkin, chronicles the successful efforts of scientists to reintroduce peregrine falcons to their former territories in North America after the population was depleted by the effects of DDT.

A Brush Full of Colour: The World of Ted Harrison, a picture book biography written by Margriet Ruurs and Katherine Gibson, recounts the life of Canada’s iconic artist of the Yukon. Filled with full-colour examples of Ted Harrison’s art from throughout his career, the book also features an introduction written by the artist himself.

The Hackmatack Award is Atlantic Canada’s reading program for students in grades four to six. Participants will read a shortlist of ten fiction books and ten non-fiction books in either English or French, then vote for their favourites. You can view the full list at the Hackmatack Award website.

Pajama Press is proud to announce that No Shelter Here: Making the World a Kinder Place for Dogs by Rob Laidlaw has won the 2013/2014 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award for English Non-Fiction.

No Shelter Here has proven to be a popular children’s choice  book; it has already won the 2013 Forest of Reading Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award and is nominated for the 2014/2015 Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award.

The Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award is a reading program that encourages a love of reading among children in grades 4–6 in Canada’s Atlantic provinces. Participating students choose their favourite books from among a list of 10 in each category: English Fiction, English Non-Fiction, French Fiction, and French Non-Fiction. You can read about this year’s other three winners here.

Cat Champions: Caring for our Feline Friends is the companion book to No Shelter Here. It is already nominated for next year’s award program, and we look forward to sharing it with students in Atlantic Canada in the 2014–2015 school year.

Congratulations, Rob, and congratulations to all of the students who read and voted this year!

Pajama Press is proud to congratulate Jill MacLean, whose young adult novel Nix Minus One has won the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature. The award was presented yesterday at the Atlantic Book Awards gala in Charlottetown, PEI, following a week-long festival with events across the Atlantic provinces.

A powerful story about a teenaged boy growing up in small-town Newfoundland, Nix Minus One has also been nominated for the CLA Young Adult Book of the Year, the White Pine Award, and the Snow Willow Award, among other honours.

A second Pajama Press title, The Stowaways by Meghan Marentette, was also shortlisted for this award. Both authors are residents of Nova Scotia.

The Ann Conner Brimer Award is given annually “to the author of a children’s book which has made an outstanding contribution to children’s

literature in Atlantic Canada” (www.atlanticbookawards.ca). This is the third time a book by Jill MacLean has been selected.

Pajama Press is honoured to have Nix Minus One chosen for this prestigious award.

Authors Meghan Marentette, Janet Cameron, Jan Coates, and Jill MacLean at the gala

We are pleased to announce that No Shelter Here: Making the World a Kinder Place for Dogs by Rob Laidlaw has been nominated for the 2013-2014 Hackmatack Awards.

The Hackmatack Awards are Atlantic Canada’s children’s choice reading awards for students in grades four to six. For more information about the program, visit www.hackmatack.ca.

Congratulations to Rob Laidlaw for this nomination. Young “Dog Champions” across the country will be celebrating this news.