ANN CONNOR BRIMER AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Vicki Grant, Betsy Wickwire’s Dirty Secret (Harper Collins Canada)
Determined to avoid everyone and everything from the life she knows, Betsy Wickwire stumbles into an unusual café and an even more unusual girl, and discovers the hard way that not all dirty secrets can be swept under the rug.
Vicki Grant has been called “a superb storyteller” (The Canadian Children’s Book Centre) and “one of the funniest writers working today” (Vancouver Sun). She began her career creating ads, moved on to writing scripts for Theodore Tugboat, Big Comfy Couch and her own Gemini Award-winning series Scoop & Doozie before finally graduating to young adult fiction. Her twelve novels have appeared on shortlists for every major Canadian award and numerous American ones as well. Most recently, Not Suitable for Family Viewing won the Ontairo Library Association’s Red Maple award. She lives in Halifax with her family.
Gloria Ann Wesley, Chasing Freedom (Roseway Publishing)
Chasing Freedom recounts the journey of two Black Loyalist women from South Carolina to Birchtown, Nova Scotia. This gripping story offers readers a rare glimpse into the complexities of life facing Black Loyalists in 1783 when acceptance and happiness are rare commodities and life is a continuous fight for survival.
Gloria Ann Wesley is an African Nova Scotian educator and writer who published her first book of poetry, To My Someday Child, in 1975, earning her the distinction of being the first published Black Nova Scotian poet (by Resolution of the Nova Scotia Legislature, April 5, 2007). She later published Woman, Sing (2002) and Burlap and Lace (2007). Her poetry appears in three Canadian anthologies: Canada in Us Now (1976), Other Voices: Writings by Blacks in Canada (1985) and Fire on the Water (1992).
Susan White, The Year Mrs. Montague Cried (Acorn Press)
When Taylor is just nine years old, her brother Corey becomes terminally ill. During this time she writes a journal that mirrors her family’s journey through treatment, separation, coming to terms with a terminal illness, and the eventual loss of a sibling. It is a touching story of relationships and personal growth, which encourages discussion of many important issues faced by young adults.
Susan White was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. As a teenager she moved to the Kingston Peninsula. She earned a B.A. and B.Ed. at St. Thomas University and then returned to the peninsula, married her husband Burton and together they established a small farm and raised four children. Susan taught elementary school until retiring from teaching in 2009 to pursue her writing career. The Year Mrs. Montague Cried, Susan’s first novel, won the young adult category of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia’s 2010 Atlantic Writing Competition. The book was published by Acorn Press in May 2011. Her next novel comes out in the spring of 2012.
APMA BEST ATLANTIC-PUBLISHED BOOK AWARD
Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada (Nimbus Publishing), by Chris Benjamin
Eco-Innovators profiles some of the region’s most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in sustainability. These entrepreneurs and educators, activists and agitators, farmers and fishers have all made measurable contributions both in their respective fields of interest and in motivating others to make change.
Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nimbus Publishing is the largest English-language publisher east of Toronto. Nimbus produces more than thirty new titles a year on a range of subjects relevant to the Atlantic Provinces—children’s picture books and fiction, literary non-fiction, social and cultural history, nature photography, current events, biography, sports, and cultural issues.
Chris Benjamin is a journalist, fiction writer, columnist with The Coast and web writer/editor at CBC. He has written for The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Chronicle Herald, VoicePrint Canada, Z Magazine, This Magazine and Progress Magazine. He wrote Eco-Innovators and the critically-acclaimed novel, Drive-by Saviours. He has had short stories published in anthologies and literary journals and shared an honourable mention in the 2009 National Magazine Awards. He is Dylan’s papa and Miia’s husband. Previously he has worked for a national daily newspaper in Ghana and for environmental non-profits in Halifax and Toronto.
Salmon Country (Goose Lane Editions), by Doug Underhill, with photographs by André Gallant
In a stunning combination of superb colour images and lively personal essays, Salmon Country takes us on an excursion along New Brunswick’s famous salmon rivers. Marrying the words of Doug Underhill and the photographs of André Gallant, Salmon Country explores the people, the rivers, the traditions, history, and mythology of this sport of sports.
Based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Goose Lane Editions is Canada’s oldest independent publisher. For more than fifty years, Goose Lane has believed in the power of words to inspire, to change, to enlighten, and that stories both show who we are and who we might become — one word at a time. Their catalogue — of novels, stories, poems, books on history and travel, on nature and humanity, on human ingenuity and creativity — is a treasury of human thought.
Doug Underhill has authored twelve books, including Miramichi Fishing Stories: All True of Course. His articles have appeared in The Times Transcript, Miramichi Leader, and The Maritime Sportsman. A founding member of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick, his work has appeared in numerous anthologies, magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. A journalist for twenty years and a retired teacher, he now writes an on-line fishing column. He holds a B.A. and B.Ed. from St. Thomas University. A long-standing salmon angler, he also participated in a documentary on the Miramichi River produced by Discovery Channel for its Great Canadian Rivers series.
André Gallant’s photographs have appeared in magazines such as Outdoor Photographer, Canadian Camera, and En Route, among others. He is the author of Photographing People at Home and Around the World, Destinations: A Photographer’s Journey, and Dreamscapes: Exploring Photo Montages. He teaches photography workshops with Freeman Patterson. He is the recipient of two National Magazine Awards for his photography.
That Forgetful Shore (Breakwater Books), by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole
Triffie and Kit are closer than sisters. But for two girls growing up in a tiny Newfoundland outport at the dawn of the twentieth century, having the same dreams and ambitions doesn’t mean life will hand you the same opportunities. A teacher’s certificate offers Kit the chance to explore the wider world, while Triffie is left behind, living the life she never wanted with the man she swore she’d never marry. The letters she and Kit exchange are her lifeline — until a long-buried secret threatens to destroy their friendship. Inspired by postcards found in a 150-year-old house in Coley’s Point, Newfoundland, That Forgetful Shore is a story of friendship, love, faith and betrayal.
Breakwater Books, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, was founded in 1973. Initially, its sole purpose was to publish materials that preserved the unique culture of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Maritime provinces. In recent years, Breakwater has successfully begun publishing cutting edge literature in all genres, including children’s books, literary and commercial fiction, educational curricula, non-fiction, and poetry, while at the same time continuing to support its culturally significant backlist titles. Breakwater also takes great pride in fostering the careers of up and coming authors while continuing to support its established writers. Many authors and titles maintain strong links to Newfoundland and Labrador and the North Atlantic, while other Breakwater authors hail from all parts of Canada as well as the United Kingdom, and write about topics and themes of national and international interest.
Trudy Morgan-Cole is a writer and teacher living in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her previous works of historical fiction include By the Rivers of Brooklyn, The Violent Friendship of Esther Johnson, Deborah and Barak, and Ester: A story of Courage. By the Rivers of Brooklyn was a finalist for the APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award 2010, and the Silver Medal Winner of the Ippy for Best Regional Fiction 2010. Trudy lives in St. John’s with her husband and two children, and teaches English, writing, and social studies to adult learners.
DARTMOUTH BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION IN MEMORY OF ROBBIE ROBERTSON, presented by the Kiwanis Club of Dartmouth
Carol Campbell and James F. Smith, Necessaries and Sufficiencies: Planter Society in Londonderry, Onslow and Truro, 1761-1780 (Cape Breton University Press)
A social, political, cultural, and material micro history of the eighteenth-century daily life of New England and Irish Planters, in the district of Cobequid, which is now part of Colchester County, Nova Scotia. Vignettes from a cross-section of immigrants detail migration and settlement and the evolution of New England and Irish cultural mores in this wilderness setting.
Carol Campbell and Jim Smith are retired school teachers with lifelong interests in local history. Currently, they are based at the Colchester Historical Society Archives in Truro where they collaborated in researching and writing Images of our Past: Historic Colchester (2000) and Planters and Grantees of Cobequid, Nova Scotia: 1761-1780 (2011). Carol Campbell’s thesis, “A Prosperous Location: Truro, 1770-1835,” earned her a Master’s Degree from Dalhousie University. Her article, “A Scots-Irish Plantation in Nova Scotia: Truro 1760-1775,” was published in the collection Making Adjustments: Change and Continuity in Planter Nova Scotia 1759-1800, edited by Margaret Conrad (1991). James F. Smith’s History of Pugwash and his two-volume Pictou County Census – 1871 have been recognized internationally. He has contributed to periodicals such as The Nova Scotia Historical Review, Gemeentelijke Archiefdienst Gorinchem, and Belfast Telegraph magazine.
Dianne Marshall, Heroes of the Acadian Resistance (Formac Publishing)
Called “well-assembled, clearly written” by the Literary Review of Canada, Marshall’s Heroes offers a fresh perspective on the 1755 Expulsion of the Acadians, telling the little-known story of two young men who became leaders of guerilla fighters, resisting British authorities in Nova Scotia.
Dianne Marshall is a native Haligonian with a lifelong passion for the city’s history and culture. She has been writing Nova Scotia history features for newspapers and magazines for several years—most notably in the Sunday Herald’s Novascotian insert— and is a regular history contributor to CBC’s Information Morning. Heroes of the Acadian Resistance (Formac) is her second book.
Harry Thurston, The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History (Greystone Books, in association with the David Suzuki Foundation)
An authoritative and fascinating exploration of the natural history of the east coast of North America. Written by the Atlantic region’s best-known nature writer, The Atlantic Coast draws upon the most up-to-date science on the ecology of the region as well as the author’s lifetime experience as a biologist and naturalist. The Atlantic Coast is the fruit of four decades’ exploration of the North Atlantic from Labrador to Delaware. It is both a personal tribute and an accessible, comprehensive guide to an intriguing ecosystem.
Harry Thurston is a lifelong resident of Nova Scotia, where he has never lived more than fifty miles from the sea. A poet as well as a journalist, he has published more than twenty books on subjects as diverse as dinosaurs to shorebirds. The award-winning Tidal Life: A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy (1990), winner of three non-fiction prizes in the Atlantic region and, according to Maine’s Island magazine, a “natural history classic,” is still in print over twenty years after its original publication. A Place Between the Tides: A Naturalist’s Reflections on the Salt Marsh, was a finalist for the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize and the British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, and winner of the 2004 Sigurd Olsen Nature Writing Award in the United States. Currently, Thurston lives on the banks of the tidal Tidnish River which flows into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where he keeps watch on the migrant and resident wildlife of “this place of abundance.”
DEMOCRACY 250 ATLANTIC BOOK AWARD FOR HISTORICAL WRITING
Carol Campbell and James F. Smith, Necessaries and Sufficiencies: Planter Society in Londonderry, Onslow and Truro, 1761-1780 (Cape Breton University Press)
A social, political, cultural, and material micro history of the eighteenth-century daily life of New England and Irish Planters, in the district of Cobequid, which is now part of Colchester County, Nova Scotia. Vignettes from a cross-section of immigrants detail migration and settlement and the evolution of New England and Irish cultural mores in this wilderness setting.
Carol Campbell and Jim Smith are retired school teachers with lifelong interests in local history. Currently, they are based at the Colchester Historical Society Archives in Truro where they collaborated in researching and writing Images of our Past: Historic Colchester (2000) and Planters and Grantees of Cobequid, Nova Scotia: 1761-1780 (2011). Carol Campbell’s thesis, “A Prosperous Location: Truro, 1770-1835,” earned her a Master’s Degree from Dalhousie University. Her article, “A Scots-Irish Plantation in Nova Scotia: Truro 1760-1775,” was published in the collection Making Adjustments: Change and Continuity in Planter Nova Scotia 1759-1800, edited by Margaret Conrad (1991). James F. Smith’s History of Pugwash and his two-volume Pictou County Census – 1871 have been recognized internationally. He has contributed to periodicals such as The Nova Scotia Historical Review, Gemeentelijke Archiefdienst Gorinchem, and Belfast Telegraph magazine.
James E. Candow, The Lookout: A History of Signal Hill (Creative Book Publishing)
For centuries, Signal Hill has dominated both the skyline of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and the hearts and minds of its residents. The Lookout traces the hill’s remarkable history as a military site and communications centre, with special attention to its most famous building, the former signaling station Cabot Tower.
James E. (Jim) Candow was born and raised in Gander, Newfoundland, and is a graduate of Memorial and Dalhousie universities. From 1977 until 2010, he worked as a historian in Parks Canada’s Atlantic Service Centre, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has written, edited, or co-edited seven books including Of Men and Seals: A History of the Newfoundland Seal Hunt (1989) and Lomond: The Life and Death of a Newfoundland Woods Town (1998). He resides in Halifax, and is currently writing a history of Cape Spear lighthouse.
Jacques Poitras, Imaginary Line: Life on an Unfinished Border (Goose Lane Editions)
The Maine/New Brunswick border, the first drawn between the two nations, has long served as a microcosm for Canada-U.S. relations. Now, mounting political paranoia has led to a sharp divide, disrupting the lives of nearby residents. Jacques Poitras travels the border to uncover the history and ongoing dispute over a line that shouldn’t be there, almost wasn’t there, and can be difficult to find even when it is there.
Jacques Poitras is CBC Radio’s provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick. His journalism has been recognized by the National Newspaper Awards and the Radio and Television News Directors Association, and he has appeared on Radio-Canada, National Public Radio, and the BBC. His book Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy was shortlisted for the BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and the National Business Book Award, and won the 2008 APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award and the Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Choice Award. He also teaches journalism part-time at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.
JIM CONNORS DARTMOUTH BOOK AWARD (FICTION), presented by Boyne Clarke
Mary Rose Donnelly, Great Village (Cormorant Books)
Retired schoolteacher Flossy O’Reilly feels the whisper of death at her back. It is in her home in Great Village, Nova Scotia, where she is surrounded by piles of books. It is beside her as she gazes out over the shore with her lifelong friend Mealie. It walks with her into the village, while details of the distant past return to her with startling clarity. With worsening chest pains, exacerbated by the arrival of an unwelcome teenager, she fully expects her life is ebbing away, but before it does, she must finally confront the deceptions and shame of the long-hidden past.
Mary Rose Donnelly was born in Alliston, Ontario. She studied literature at the University of Toronto before continuing her studies in journalism at the University of Western Ontario. A journalist, editor, and gardener, like Flossy O’Reilly, she counts Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bishop, and William Shakespeare among her favourite authors. She has lived in France and Peru, but calls Canada home. In 1992 she published Katharine: A Biography of Dr. Katharine Boehner Hockin. Great Village is her debut novel.
Bruce Graham, Diligent River Daughter (Pottersfield Press)
Charlene Durant, a brave, strong young woman from the Parrsboro Shore of Nova Scotia, fights for her independence and identity in the early 1900s. In 1914 when Canada is swept into the Great War, Charlene is already a veteran of loneliness and much private heartbreak, yet her indomitable spirit and belief in her own intelligence keep her from sinking into despair.
Bruce Graham is a Nova Scotia writer and former broadcaster who for many years was the face of the evening TV news in Maritime homes. His career in broadcasting has touched on almost every aspect of the profession, from his humble beginnings as a radio announcer in Boston to anchoring the nightly news in Halifax. His reporting has taken him around the world, with assignments in the Middle East, Puerto Rico, the South Pacific, Europe and Asia. Bruce and his wife Helen reside in their hometown of Parrsboro, NS. Diligent River Daughter is his fifth book.
Frank Macdonald, A Possible Madness (Cape Breton University Press)
“What’s best” for a town sometimes has unintended consequences. When a global corporation plans a daring scheme to exploit the remaining coal from a seemingly inaccessible source — and thus to secure Shean’s economic future — politicians try to marginalize the few voices of dissent. Some, however, are not easily silenced.
Frank Macdonald is a novelist and columnist living in Inverness, Cape Breton. He is the award-winning author of A Forest for Calum (2005 Cape Breton University Press) long-listed for the 2007 IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award, T.R.’s Adventure at Angus the Wheeler’s (2010 CBU Press), and most recently, the novel, A Possible Madness (2011 CBU Press). His humorous, often satirical columns in the Inverness Oran have twice been anthologized.
LILLIAN SHEPHERD MEMORIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN ILLUSTRATION
Doretta Groenendyk, Thank You for My Bed (Acorn Press)
Doretta Groenendyk’s whimsical illustrations bring this lyrical bedtime story to life. Cuddle up for a cozy adventure as we see how children from all over the world snuggle up and say “thank you for my bed.” Children will realize that although cultures may differ, we are all the same in that each night; we all go to bed.
Doretta Groenendyk is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University and the author and illustrator of several children’s books, including Snow for Christmas, which was nominated for the 2011 Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration. She lives in the Annapolis Valley with her husband and three children.
Patsy MacKinnon, A Day with You in Paradise by Lennie Gallant (Nimbus Publishing)
This beautiful picture book depicts a family’s fun-filled day at a Prince Edward Island beach. Racing past dunes, building sand castles, and singing songs by a bonfire at night, the family revels in the peaceful beauty of an Island beach. Lennie Gallant’s lyrical description of a PEI summer day is matched perfectly with Patsy MacKinnon’s sun-soaked illustrations. A Day with You in Paradise is based on Lennie’s song of the same name from the Juno-nominated album When We Get There.
Patsy MacKinnon’s diversity as an artist is highlighted in a national nomination for her storybook illustrations and a national award for her sixty-foot mural design. She is a professional artist and elected member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor and the Canadian Society of Authors, Illustrators, and Performers. Patsy has illustrated five children’s books. Her award-winning paintings have been selected for inclusion in the Nova Scotia Art Bank, the Cape Breton University permanent collection, and been viewed in the nationally televised series Pit Pony.
Sydney Smith, Monkeys in My Kitchen by Sheree Fitch (Nimbus Publishing)
Willa Wellowby’s house has been overrun by monkeys. They’re ballet dancing, playing the bagpipes, listening to the Beatles, and causing mayhem and destruction all over the house and yard. And the more Willa asks them to leave, the more havoc they wreak. She calls the police, the RCMP, the FBI, and Scotland Yard to get rid of these monkeys…but when the Mounties finally show up, it’s Willa who’s in trouble!
Sydney Smith an illustrator born and bred in Nova Scotia. He attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University and has lived in Halifax since receiving his BFA in 2006. Since then, he has collaborated with many musicians and authors including Sheree Fitch, having illustrated two of her books. He was awarded the HRM Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Illustration in 2011 for his work on Fitch’s Mabel Murple.
MARGARET AND JOHN SAVAGE FIRST BOOK AWARD
Heather Jessup, The Lightning Field (Gaspereau Press)
Set against the backdrop of Cold War Toronto, The Lightning Field moves from the thrilling construction of the Avro Arrow—the most advanced jet plane of its time, whose wings Peter Jacobs has engineered; to his wife Lucy’s search for meaning in the dead-ends and cul-de-sacs of post-war suburbia. Amongst loss and unexpected offerings, personal dismantling and reassembly, this tragic yet hopeful novel sets the loves and discordant desires of one family against the cold yet endless possibilities of space.
Heather Jessup grew up in Vancouver and now lives in Halifax. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto and a creative writing instructor at Dalhousie University. Her fiction, poetry and reviews have been published in literary journals across Canada and in the United States. The Lightning Field is her first novel.
Michael Murphy, A Description of the Blazing World (Freehand Books)
A Description of the Blazing World interlaces two narratives in a novel about the city in the new millennium: a crowded space that incubates signs of an apocalypse that never quite materializes. But it is this very threat of imminent danger—that everything could go up in blazes—that drives a reclusive man and a lonely boy to search for their respective revelations.
Michael Murphy grew up in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and now lives in Halifax. His work has been published in The Fiddlehead, The Windsor Review, Filling Station, and All Rights Reserved. He has a B.A. in English from Dalhousie University, as well as an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Windsor. He is currently in his third year at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie. A Description of the Blazing World is Michael’s first novel.
Riel Nason, The Town That Drowned (Goose Lane Editions)
When Ruby Carson falls through the ice, she has a vision of her entire town floating underwater. The citizens soon discover that a dam is being constructed and their homes will be swallowed by the rising water. As the town prepares for its own demise, fourteen-year-old Ruby Carson sees it all from a front-row seat.
Riel Nason grew up in Hawkshaw, New Brunswick, and now lives in Quispamsis, NB, with her husband, young son and daughter. Her short stories have appeared in literary journals across Canada including The Malahat Review, Grain, The Antigonish Review, and The Dalhousie Review. For more than ten years she has written a column on collectibles for New Brunswick’s Telegraph-Journal. The Town That Drowned is her debut novel.
Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction
Gerard Collins, Moonlight Sketches (Creative Book Publishing)
Welcome to Darwin, Newfoundland, small town with big secrets. On the surface, nothing ever changes and everyone is content. But the truth is as restless, cold, and mutable as the ocean in these sixteen linked short stories. In Darwin, people’s secrets are hidden and their fears are buried. But night after night, the moon bears quiet witness to their brightest moments and darkest days.
In Moonlight Sketches, Gerard Collins portrays a land of shadows, beyond the overpass, where cruelty and hope gnaw at your peace of mind as the brine patiently devours a wharf. With his trademark dark humour and a nod to the unknown, the author shines a light on the difficulty of being human and yet somehow surviving with grace, dignity, and a modicum of happiness.
Gerard Collins has won numerous arts and letters awards for fiction, was shortlisted for the Cuffer Prize, and was nominated by the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador as their 2012 Emerging Artist of the Year. He has published in Storyteller, Zeugma and various anthologies, including Hard Ol’ Spot. His first novel, Finton Moon, will be published in Spring 2012 and has already won the Percy Janes First Novel Award. Gerard has a Ph.D. in American gothic literature and teaches English at Memorial University in St. John’s. Moonlight Sketches is his first book.
Kevin Major, New Under the Sun (Cormorant Books)
Needing a change, Shannon Carew takes a job in the National Parks system in Newfoundland and Labrador. The journey brings her life full circle, returning her to the birthplace she abandoned years before. As she makes new connections, and unearths old ones, Shannon learns the land holds many memories, stories of Maritime Archaic, the Vikings, the Basques, the Beothuk, and the Europeans who came after.
Kevin Major is an award-winning author of fifteen fiction and non-fiction books for both young adults and adults. His previous work includes Hold Fast, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for children’s literature, and No Man’s Land, his first adult novel, which has been adapted into a play and performed for the past ten years by Rising Tide Theatre. New under the Sun is his third adult novel. Born in Stephenville, Newfoundland, he currently lives in St. John’s with his wife. They have two grown sons.
Patrick Warner, double talk (Breakwater Books)
A love story in reverse. double talk tells the story of Violet Budd and Brian (Baby) Power, two characters fleeing from their past. Brian is ambling after an immigrant’s dream, and Violet is desperate to ditch her middle-class origins for something more earthy and bohemian. Their contrary social and geographical flight paths intersect in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the early 1980s, where, for a time, they find love, sex and a safe haven in each other.
No happy-ever-after story, double talk follows Violet and Brian over a fourteen-year period, as the ordinary pressures of life bring to the surface the many differences that exist between them. double talk is a coming-of-age novel, a love story, and an examination of social class and its mysterious codes. Winner of the Percy Janes First Novel Award.
Patrick Warner was born and raised in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland. He moved to Newfoundland in 1980 in search of better weather and economic prosperity. Bitterly disappointed on both counts, he turned to poetry, penning three critically acclaimed collections between 2001 and 2009. double talk is his first novel. He currently lives in downtown St. John’s with his wife, Rochelle, and two daughters, Annie and Greta.
THE BRUNEAU FAMILY CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE AWARD
Andy Jones, Jack and the Manger (Running the Goat Books & Broadsides)
Jack and the Manger retells the story of Jesus’s birth as if it were a Newfoundland folktale. It’s seen through the eyes of Jack, who befriends a couple on their walk to Bethlehem. There’s some ”angel talk,” gravel pit camping, an edge-of-your-seat birth drama, and the low-down on how Caesar Augustus’s count-and-tax plan brought them all together. A down-to-earth version of a heavenly tale.
Andy Jones is a writer, actor, storyteller and director living in St. John’s, who is renowned for his work in theatre, television and film. His longstanding interest in Newfoundland folk traditions underlines his previous books Peg Bearskin (adapted with Philip Dinn) and The Queen of Paradise’s Garden, which he performs as a play with puppets by Darka Erdelji.
Susan M. MacDonald, Edge of Time (Breakwater Books)
Someone wants Alec dead, and that someone can invade innocent bystanders, bending their will to his, forcing them to murder. That someone can travel through multiple dimensions, has powers beyond Earthly experience, and knows everything Alec knows. Riley is a target too. The Tyons have come to Earth, looking for kids like Riley and Alec, who aren’t even aware of their special genetic traits and don’t know how to control them. It’s a race against time. Do they have the edge needed to save themselves, and more importantly, the world?
Susan M. MacDonald had lived in half the provinces of Canada before settling in Newfoundland in 1998. She sent her first manuscript off to a publisher in grade six, but was politely rejected. A lifelong reader of science fiction and fantasy, she began writing in earnest thirty years later. Edge of Time is her first published novel. Susan is married, has two children, two dogs and a fluctuating number of goldfish.
Janet McNaughton, Dragon Seer’s Gift (HarperCollins Canada)
Bored by homework and bullied at school, twelve-year-old Gwyn Rae is launched into the adventure of his life when he reluctantly takes on a Heritage Fair project to boost his history mark, and, with help from his older sister, investigates the papers of his ancestor, Daniel Rae.
Janet McNaughton is the multi-award-winning author of many books, including The Secret Under My Skin, An Earthly Knight and Dragon Seer, which was shortlisted for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the CLA Young Adult Book Award, and the CLA Book of the Year for Children Award. Janet lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland, with her family.