Blue Lipstick also was selected by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) as one of the 2008 Notable Children's Books. Each year a committee of ALSC identifies the best of the best in children's books. According to the Notables Criteria, "notable" is defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children's books, notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children's interests in exemplary ways.

The hilarious and unique collection of poetry by John Grandits was chosen by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), for its 2008 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers selection list. The list is presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The Quick Picks list suggests books that teens, ages 12-18, will pick up on their own and read for pleasure; it is geared to the teenager who, for whatever reason, does not like to read.

A 15-year-old girl named Jessie voices typical—and not so typical—teenage concerns in Blue Lipstick. Her musings about trying out new makeup and hairstyles, playing volleyball and cello, and dealing with her annoying younger brother are never boring or predictable. Who else do you know who designs her own clothes and writes poetry to her cat? Jessie’s a girl with strong opinions, and she isn’t shy about sharing them. Her funny, sarcastic take on high school life is revealed through concrete poetry: words, ideas, type, and design that combine to make pictures and patterns. The poems are inventive, irreverent, irresistible, and full of surprises—just like Jessie—and the playful layout and ingenious graphics extend the wry humor.

The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a prized and juried award presented annually. It is based on excellence of writing and awarded to a Canadian writer who has published a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection any time during the previous calendar year. Named after the novel by Phyllis Gotlieb, one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian speculative fiction, the award consists of a cash prize of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion.

About Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet, the Sunburst jury said:

"Proulx doesn't shy away from showing the tumultuous mix of beauty and ugliness at work in the mind of a teen stoner. Her debut novel tackles ESP, drug use, teen sexuality and the mores of small-town conservative Michigan all foregrounded against the soundscape of Luke Hunter's life. There is no doubt teens will recognize many of the characters in this uncomfortable novel. The book, like the protagonist, is not without flaws; Proulx's huge accomplishment here is writing a character whose rage, frustration and love are palpable through the disaffected teen voice."

More information can be found at The Sunburst Award website.

"Though the story makes an easy springboard for adult-child dialogue, the issue of same-sex marriage is incidental to the plot, which straightforwardly addresses the fear of being replaced when a loved one marries. Featuring a sunny palette, Brannen's delicately outlined watercolors convey the characters' varied emotions — the guinea pigs' eyes are particularly expressive — and the mutual affection of the heroine and her uncle. The final scene, which depicts Chloe between her uncles in the light of a full moon, underscores Brannen's reassuring message."
-Publishers Weekly

Sarah Brannen's illustrations are also featured in The ABC Book of American Homes (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2008) written by Michael Shoulders, which has been recently released.

After foretelling the death of a friend with freakish accuracy, Luke Hunter becomes big news in his hometown in Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet. Terrified, but pretending not to be, he holds everyone at arm’s length as he lurches through a personal minefield studded with existential ponderings, a missing teen’s frantic mother, and a dream girl who isn’t his.

“Through this award, we are proud to celebrate the accomplishments of Ottawa’s great writers,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien. “These writers strengthen the cultural fabric of our city and make it a better place to live.”

The winners of the 2008 Ottawa Book Awards will be announced
October 18, 2008 at 8 p.m. at Library and Archives Canada during an opening event for the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

More information can be found at ottawa.ca/arts.

The picture book received enormous press coverage along with two Top Ten Picks - from Indie Next (formerly Book Sense) and Bookazine. It was a Junior Library Guild selection and was named among the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2009, a cooperative project of the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council. 

"Two Bobbies is one powerful, heartwarming book."
- Marigny Dupuy, The Times-Picayune
 
"...one knockout book for readers of all ages."
- Book Group Buzz, A Booklist Blog
 
"Two Bobbies is one [book] you will not soon forget."
- Jennifer Schultz, The Kiddosphere

"Children (and adults) will love this story."
- Fran Hawk, The Post and Courier

"This moving story about the importance of friendship and home highlights the plight of the hurricane's lost and left-behind animals, as well as the value of animal shelters."
- Booklist

From that assortment, a committee chooses one title from each language to be the two featured books for the Itabashi Translation competition, in which Japanese residents from around the country attempt their own translation of the book into their native language. The grand prize winners’ translations receive almost a thousand dollars in cash and prizes and are also considered for publication.

This year’s English selection is Four Feet, Two Sandals, written by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Doug Chayka, originally published in 2007 by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

The publisher, honoured by the selection, notes in their press release, "This poignant story of loss, friendship, and sharing has introduced many American children to the tragic realities of refugee children and we are excited that its message of the life-changing power of hope will soon be shared across the ocean in Japan."

Link to news release on Eerdman's Books for Young Readers

The 2008 jurists for the award, Jean Little, Susan Perren and Judith Saltman, describe Michael’s published work spanning two decades, as: 

“A dynamic linking of memory and place defines Inuit children’s author Michael Kusugak’s picture books, short stories, and historical novel. Kusugak’s stories are primarily set in the 1950’s of his childhood in Repulse Bay, a small Inuit community of only 100 people, at the north end of Hudson’s Bay within the Arctic Circle. Drawing from personal experience, Kusugak writes unforgettably of the lived experience of the North: the beauty of the Arctic landscape, its variety of seasonal change and animal and human activities, the close knit life of the Inuit community, the presence of mythic imagery and belief. Kusugak’s voice is unique with Inuit diction and metaphor — falling stars are “star droppings”. Kusugak writes of family love, folk tricksters, residential school, pre-contact era shamanism in a unifying spirit of place and culture, offering Canadian child and adult readers a living version of a rich way of life.”

Kusugak devotes his time to writing, storytelling and speaking with educators and is currently travelling to launch his newest picture book Igvillu: The Littlest Sled Dog, illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka.

Based on this first novel, Down to the Dirt (the film), debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and recently completed a critically-acclaimed Festival tour across Canada. Look for it in wide-release early in 2009. 

More information can be found about the film at its official website:
downtothedirt.com

Jeff will spend much of February sailing around the Sea of Cortez with international whale researchers in preparation for his next book, Three Minds, an exploration of whales, elephants, and humans, and how their elemental environments influence the development of “mind.” 

Each Spring Anna leaves her home in Mexico and travels north with her family where they will work on farms harvesting fruits and vegetables. Sometimes she feels like a bird, flying north in the spring and south in the fall. Sometimes she feels like a jack rabbit living in an abandoned burrow, as her family moves into an empty house near the fields. But most of all she wonders what it would be like to stay in one place.

The Low German-speaking Mennonites from Mexico are a unique group of migrants who moved from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s and became an important part of the farming community there. But it has become increasingly difficult for them to earn a livelihood, and so they come back to Canada each year as migrant workers. 

Migrant was also a Finalist for the 2011 Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature, Illustration.

Diacu's research in this area will be further explored in his book, Megadisasters, which will be published in English by Princeton University Press and Oxford University Press (Fall 2009) and in Japanese by Bungeishunju, and has been optioned for film by Chiaro Productions Inc.

More information can be found about the book on Penguin Canada's website:
www.sheikhsbatmobile.com

Updates to come.

The Incident Report takes place in the Allan Gardens Public Library, home to the mad and the marginalized; the novel is both a mystery and an erotic love story, told in 144 brief lyric reports that ricochet off each other to form an utterly unusual and compelling novel.

The shortlist will be announced on October 6, while the winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize will be declared at a Gala ceremony on November 10, 2009.

For more information about the Scotiabank Giller Prize:

Scotiabank Giller Prize

Joshua Knelman’s investigation finds there are only a handful of detectives, FBI agents and lawyers fighting a global battle against a thriving black market that is estimated to be one of the largest in the world. Meanwhile, the chain of criminals moves from thugs on the street to multinational organized crime syndicates, to a global network of art dealers who wash the artworks’ provenance clean again. In a surprise ending, Knelman learns that corruption can appear in the unlikeliest places.

Joshua Knelman is an award­-winning arts and investigative journalist and editor. He was a founding editorial member of The Walrus magazine. His writing has appeared in Toronto Life, Saturday Night, The National Post, and the Globe and Mail. Knelman’s feature article “Artful Crimes” in The Walrus won a gold National Magazine Award for Arts and Entertainment. Knelman is also the fiction editor of Four Letter Word: New Love Letters, which has sold in over ten territories worldwide.

Established in 1987, the prize aims to recognise the best fiction by both established and new writers from Commonwealth countries and ensure these works reach a wider audience outside their countries of origin. Almost 200 books have now been recognised with prizes since the scheme began.

The Prize aims to discover and promote up-and-coming and under-recognised writers, encourage dialogue and understanding of different cultures through reading, and share compelling stories of human experience.

"A compelling, gracefully written novel about mixed gender that sheds insight as surely as it rejects sensationalism. This book announces the arrival of a major writer."
- Kirkus Review of Annabel

Annabel is published by:

CANADA - House of Anansi
U.K. (incl. A/NZ) - Jonathan Cape
U.S. - Grove Atlantic
BRAZIL - Nova Fronteira
CHINA - (simplified rights) Beijing Green Beans Books Company
FRANCE - (ex. Quebec) - Editions Christian Bourgois
GERMANY - btb (Random House)
ISRAEL - Matar Publishing House
ITALY - Bompiani
THE NETHERLANDS - The House of Books
NORWAY - Forlaget Oktober 
PORTUGAL - Edicoes Asa
QUEBEC - Editions Du Boreal

Winter’s debut novel, on the Longlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2012, was also the winner of the 2011 Thomas Head Raddall Prize, a finalist for the 2011 Orange Prize, the 2010 Governor General's Literary Award, the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Award.  It has been a New York Times Editor's Choice, Oprah Magazine Top Book to Watch, Globe & Mail Top 100 Book, Quill & Quire Best Book, and an Amazon.ca Best Book.

About the novel:  In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once—a hermaphrodite. Only three people are privy to the secret — the baby’s parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina. Together the adults make a difficult decision: to raise the child as a boy named Wayne. But as Wayne grows to adulthood within the hyper-masculine hunting culture of his father, his shadow-self—a girl he thinks of as “Annabel”—is never entirely extinguished.

About the Author:  In addition to Annabel, Kathleen Winter is the author of a novella and two books of creative non-fiction. Her first collection of short stories, boYs (Biblioasis, 2006) was the winner of both the Winterset Award and the 2006 Metcalf-Rooke Award. Her short fiction has appeared in leading Canadian literary journals. A long-time resident of Newfoundland, she now lives in Montreal.

"In her first novel, Suzanne Desrochers recreates the brutal and often cruel circumstances they endured, combining imaginative insight with meticulous research (the book began as a master’s thesis in history at York University). Its strength, however, lies in tracing the unique contours of one woman’s life against a dramatic backdrop, making it a bookseller favourite and one of the year’s unqualified word-of-mouth successes."
- Quill & Quire