Pajama Press

Pajama Press is pleased to announce that three of our picture books have been nominated for the 2016 Rainforest of Reading Award: Bad Pirate by Kari-Lynn Winters and Dean Griffiths, In a Cloud of Dust by Alma Fullerton and Brian Deines, and Skydiver: Saving the Fastest Bird in the World by Celia Godkin.

Inspired by the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading program, the Rainforest of Reading is a book festival that brings award-winning children’s literature from Canada to primary schools in Saint Lucia, Grenada, Montserrat, and Nevis. For three weeks in March 2016, 8,500 students in grades 3, 4, and 5 will read and engage with the twelve nominated books. At the end of the three weeks, students will vote for their favourite book and many will attend a day-long celebration with the authors and illustrators themselves.

We are thrilled that our books will be a part of this important literacy initiative. Congratulations to our participating authors and illustrators!

The Rainforest of Reading will announce full festival information on their new website, to be unveiled on February 5, 2016

Pajama Press is honoured to celebrate a win for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People for the second year in a row. Dance of the Banished by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch received the award on November 18^th at the Canadian Children’s Literature Awards Gala at the Carlu in Toronto.

“In Canada we are writing fantastic historical fiction for kids,” Skrypuch said, speaking in particular to her fellow finalists Patrick Bowman (Arrow Through the Axes, Ronsdale Press) and Caroline Pignat (The Gospel Truth, Red Deer Press and Unspeakable, Razorbill Canada).

This is not the first award for Skrypuch, who has written more than a dozen historical picture books, chapter books, and juvenile and young adult novels. In these books. as in Dance of the Banished, Skrypuch employed her exceptional research skills to bring to light aspects of history that are little known or understood.

A second Pajama Press title was also a finalist for an award at the gala. A Brush Full of Colour: The World of Ted Harrison was shortlisted for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for the most distinguished English-language Canadian children’s book of the year. This picture book biography, co-written by Margriet Ruurs and Katherine Gibson and illustrated with Ted Harrison’s own art, details the artist’s life from his childhood in an English coal mining town to his final home in British Columbia. It recently won the Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada Information Book Award and is nominated for several more, including the Forest of Reading Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award. A Brush Full of Colour is published under the Ann Featherstone imprint.

Pajama Press extends warm congratulations to our talented authors, and appreciation to the TD Bank Group and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre for their administration of these awards.

Pajama Press is pleased to announce that A Brush Full of Colour: The World of Ted Harrison by Margriet Ruurs and Katherine Gibson is the winner of the 2015 Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada Information Book Award.

The results were announced on Saturday, November 7th at the Vancouver Roundtable’s Illustrator Breakfast. The award will be formally presented on January 27th, 2016.

Dreaming in Indian: Contemporary Native American Voices, edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale and published by Annick Press, was selected as the 2015 Information Honour Book.

A Brush Full of Colour is a picture book biography of Ted Harrison, Canada’s most iconic painter of the Yukon. In addition to the Information Book Award, it has been nominated for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award, the Rocky Mountain Book Award, the Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award, and the Hackmatack Award.

Click here for more information about the Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada Information Book Award.

Pajama Press is pleased to announce that Dance of the Banished by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch has been shortlisted for the 2015 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People.

This Young Adult novel, set in Canada and Anatolia during World War I, uses a compelling love story to explore two difficult and significant historical events: the internment of so-called enemy aliens in Canada, and the Armenian Genocide. Skrypuch, the granddaughter of a World War I internee, conducted extensive research into history that had not been brought to light in 100 years.

Ali and Zeynep, the novel’s protagonists, are betrothed Anatolian teenagers caught by circumstances that threaten to separate them forever. While Ali has found passage to a better life in Canada, war breaks out in 1914; he is declared an enemy alien and sent to an internment camp. Meanwhile, left behind in a country plunged into war and revolution, Zeynep is determined to stay alive and—despite the impossible odds—cross a continent and an ocean to find Ali again. First, though, she must find a way to save her Christian Armenian neighbours from the horrors of the Armenian Genocide.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the multi-award winning author of more than a dozen historical picture books, chapter books, and juvenile and young adult novels, including three other novels about the Armenian genocide: The Hunger, Nobody’s Child, and Daughter of War. Her first work of narrative non-fiction, Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War, won the Red Cedar Information Book Award, was an OLA Red Maple Honour Book, and was nominated for the Hamilton Literary Award. It was followed in 2012 by One Step at a Time: A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way, winner of the 2014 OLA Silver Birch Non-Fiction Award. In 2008, in recognition of her outstanding achievement in the development of the culture of Ukraine, Marsha was awarded the Order of Princess Olha, which was bestowed upon her personally by the president of Ukraine. Marsha lives in Brantford, Ontario.

The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People is administered annually by the TD Bank Group and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. Established in memory of children’s author and historian Geoffrey Bilson, it awards $5,000.00 to the Canadian author of an outstanding work of historical fiction for children or young adults. The winner will be announced at the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Awards Gala in Toronto on November 18^th.

Pajama Press is pleased to announce that A Brush Full of Colour: The World of Ted Harrison by Margriet Ruurs and Katherine Gibson has been shortlisted for the 2015 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award.

This beautiful picture book biography, which includes a forward by Harrison himself, is the only book for young readers written about Canada’s most famous artist of the Yukon. Since its publication in 2014 it has been nominated for a number of awards, including the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award, the Rocky Mountain Book Award, the Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada Information Book Award, and the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award.

Ted Harrison, who passed away in early 2015, was one of Canada’s most celebrated artists; his distinctive and colourful paintings of the Arctic and the West Coast are recognized around the world. Ted’s many honours include the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour. Several generations of schoolchildren have grown up familiar with his work through picture books like A Northern Alphabet, The Shooting of Dan McGrew, and The Cremation of Sam McGee.

In A Brush Full of Colour, readers learn how Harrison’s passion for learning saved him from a life in England’s coal mines and set him on a road of worldwide travel that led him to the incredible Yukon he had read about as a child. The story is illustrated with Harrison’s own drawings and paintings, showing how the classically trained artist developed his unique and colourful style.

Margriet Ruurs is the award-winning author of more than two dozen books for children. When she isn’t giving workshops at international schools around the world, Margriet runs a booklover’s bed and breakfast on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. Learn more at www.margrietruurs.com.

Katherine Gibson is the best-selling author of four non-fiction books. Her work has been published internationally in several languages. Katherine’s extensive research for the illustrated biography Ted Harrison: Painting Paradise was instrumental in the writing A Brush Full of Colour. Katherine lives on Vancouver Island. Learn more at www.katherinegibson.com

The TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, administered by the TD Bank Group and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, is awarded to the most distinguished children’s book of each year. The winner will be announced at the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Awards gala in Toronto on November 18^th.

Pajama Press is pleased to announce that Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass has been nominated for the Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader’s Choice Award.

This award program, open to participants in three age groups from Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, and Washington, asks children and teens to read a shortlist of nominated titles and vote for their favourites. Voting takes place in March and April. Learn more at www.pnla.org.

Graffiti Knight is a Young Adult novel set in Eastern Germany two years after the close of World War II. Its protagonist, sixteen-year-old Wilm, chafes under the unjust strictures of Soviet rule and seeks a way to speak out.  Graffiti Knight, a USBBY Outstanding International Book selection,has won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award, the R. Ross Annett Children’s Book Award, and the Exporting Alberta Award. It has also been nominated for the B.C. Teen Readers’ Choice Stellar Award, among other honours.

Click here to watch the Graffiti Knight book trailer.

Click here for interviews with Karen Bass.

Click here to download the free Graffiti Knight classroom discussion and activity guide.

Skydiver: Saving the Fastest Bird in the World by Celia Godkin has been nominated for the Green Earth Book Award.

Skydiver is a non-fiction picture book that 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. The book has also been nominated for the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award.

The Green Earth Book Award, administered by The Nature Generation program, is the United States’ first book award for environmental stewardship for children and young adults. Winners will be announced on Earth Day, April 22, and formally presented at the Read Green Book Festival in Washington, D.C., on October 1.

Visit The Nature Generation website to learn more.

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 congratulates Deborah Ellis, whose 2014 novel Moon at Nine has been shortlisted for the 2015 Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award.

Based closely on real events, Moon at Nine recounts the story of two teenaged girls who fell in love in 1980s Tehran. The moving novel has already been selected for the Amelia Bloomer Project List and as a Quill & Quire book of the year, an Ontario Library Association Best Bet, and a Best Books for Kids & Teens starred selection.

The CLA Young Adult Book Award is sponsored by TD Bank Group and Library Services Centre each year for a work of fiction that appeals to young adults between the ages of 13 and 18. The winner and honour books will be announced during the week of April 20^th. The award will be presented during the CLA National Conference and Trade Show in Ottawa on June 4^th.

Visit the Moon at Nine page to download a classroom discussion guide, find resources about Deborah Ellis, watch the official book trailer, or read full reviews.

Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass has been honoured by the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) as one of six Outstanding International Books for grades 9–12 in 2015.

Chosen from among all books published outside of the United States but first distributed within that country in a given  year, the Outstanding International Books list is chosen based on the following criteria (taken from the USBBY website):

• Books that represent the best of children´s literature from other countries
• Books that introduce American readers to outstanding authors and illustrators from other countries
• Books that help American children see the world from other points of view
• Books that provide a perspective or address a topic otherwise missing from children´s literature in the U.S.
• Books that exhibit a distinct cultural flavor
• Books that are accessible to American readers.

Graffiti Knight has already received a number of significant awards, including the CLA Book of the Year Award, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, the R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature, and the CAA Exporting Alberta Award. Pajama Press congratulates author Karen Bass on yet another well-earned accolade.

Click here to view the full list of 2015 selections.