Pajama Press

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 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.

We are thrilled to extend our congratulations to Karen Bass, author of Graffiti Knight. This YA novel, set in Leipzig, East Germany, two years after World War II, has won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People.

Karen Bass accepted this prestigious award Thursday night at the 10th annual TD Canadian Children’s Literature Awards celebration. Hosted at The Carlu in Toronto, this gala is a highlight of the publishing year in the Canadian children’s book industry. The Geoffrey Bilson Award, named for a Canadian author and history professor, is one of six major prizes awarded at the gala each year. This is the fourth award win for Graffiti Knight, which has already taken home the CLA Young Adult Book Award, the R. Ross Annett Children’s Literature Award, and the CAA Exporting Alberta Award. Other accolades include a nomination for the 2014–2015 B.C. Teen Readers’ Choice Stellar Awards and designations as an OLA Best Bet, a Best Books for Kids & Teens Starred Selection, and a Resource Links “The Year’s Best” selection.

Pajama Press is excited announce a new Young Adult novel by Karen Bass to be published in the spring of 2015. Uncertain Soldier also explores World War II themes, this time with connections to the author’s home province of Alberta.

Pajama Press would also like to congratulate Meghan Marentette, whose middle-grade novel The Stowaways was a finalist for the Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Shelagh Rogers for the CBC was a wonderful host

Graffiti Knight’s text desiger Martin Gould, author Karen Bass, and editor Linda Pruessen

Karen Bass gives her thanks to all librarians

Pajama Press designer Martin Gould

Nominated authors Meghan Marentette and Karen Bass

Richard Jones and Karen Bass

Meghan Marentette and publisher Gail Winskill

“Editor Goddess” Linda Pruessen and award-winning author Karen Bass

Rebecca Buchanan, Richard Jones, Erin Woods, Patricia Jones, Gail Winskill, and John Spray

Karen Bass with reviewer and juror Helen Kubiw

Nominated author Meghan Marentette and publicist Erin Woods

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre announced the finalists for its 2014 children’s literature awards in a press release last night. Pajama Press congratulates Karen Bass, author of Graffiti Knight, and Meghan Marentette, author of The Stowaways, for their nominations to these auspicious awards.

Graffiti Knight is a finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. The jury said, “The clash between the Soviet victors and the German people after World War II is masterfully captured in this exciting story of a teen in Berlin [sic] who deals with uncertainty at home and school by challenging his city’s new social order… Bass has created a character that engages readers with his anger, compassion and remorse… A well written and intriguing book possessing strong plot, characters and themes within a historical context.”

The Stowaways is a finalist for the Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. The jury said, “Meghan Marentette has written a book ripe for reading aloud and sharing with the family… The Stowaways most importantly reminds us of the thrill and joy — and even the necessity — of adventure… Endearing characters, themes of innovation, adventure and courage, and a beautiful package combine to destine this charming animal fantasy to become a Canadian classic.”

The winners will be announced at the awards given at the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Awards gala in Toronto on November 6.