BC Book Prizes 2008 winners
Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize
Supported by the BC Library Association
Judges: Julie Burtinshaw, Shelley Hrdlitschka and David Ward
Winner! The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane
by Polly Horvath
Publisher: Groundwood Books
Like her National Book Award-winning The Canning Season, The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane is filled with plot twists and extraordinarily strange characters. It is also a moving meditation on loss and finding family in the most unlikely places. Following the death of their parents, two cousins are sent to live with their distant, scholarly uncle and his eccentric house staff. Told in four characters’ voices, the novel is a layered account of one bad year from multiple points of view linking humour and pain. Polly Horvath has written many award-winning books for children and young adults, including The Trolls and Everything on a Waffle, which won the Sheila Egoff Prize in 2002. She lives in Victoria. More
Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize
Supported by Kate Walker and Company
Judges: Alison Acheson, Kathryn Shoemaker and John Wilson
Winner! A Sea-Wishing Day
by Robert Heidbreder
Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
Publisher: Kids Can Press
On a hot summer day, a wish transforms an urban backyard into a place of breezy high-seas adventure. As our bold Captain and Skipper ride the salty waves, they encounter a beastly sea monster, buried treasure, a scurvy pirate crew, lovely mermaids and more. The creative pair who brought you the acclaimed I Wished for a Unicorn offer up another celebration of the boundless distances a childhood wish can travel. A retired elementary school teacher, Robert Heidbreder has been enchanting children with his joyful poems and rhymes for more than two decades. His 2005 book, Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, won the BC Chocolate Lily Young Readers’ Choice Award. Kady MacDonald Denton is an author and illustrator of books for children and lives in Peterborough, Ontario.More
NOMINEES:
The Day It All Blew Away
by Lisa Cinar
Publisher: Simply Read Books
Huge-headed Mr. Tadaa and the little person are mighty lonely. Surrounded by characters who are always tipping their hats and shunning those who don’t return the favour, poor Mr. Tadaa has a head too big for his hat. Even worse, the little person’s hat is so big it wears him. One blustery day, Mr. Tadaa’s hat and the little person are blown away by the wind ... and right into each other! A surprise twist at the end shows that even in a world of hat-tippers, nonconformists can find happiness and friendship. Vancouver-based writer and illustrator Lisa Cinar graduated from Emily Carr Institute with a BFA in Fine Arts. This is her first book. More
Elf the Eagle
by Ron Smith
Illustrated by Ruth Campbell
Publisher: Oolichan Books
Elf is a baby eagle who worries about many things, including the distance from his nest, high up in a tree, to the ground, way, way down below. He also worries about his sister, Edwina, who is older and more adventurous than he is. Eventually, when his baby down grows into strong, black feathers, his parents stop bringing him food and tempt him with tasty morsels that they keep just out of reach. Elf gets very hungry and one day he accidentally tumbles out of his nest; before he knows it, he is flying. Founder and publisher of Oolichan Books, Ron Smith is the author of three collections of poetry and a book of short stories. He lives in Lantzville on Vancouver Island. This is his first book for children. An Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design graduate, Ruth Campbell is a painter who was born and raised in Montreal. She now lives in Vancouver. More
Jeffrey and Sloth
by Kari-Lynn Winters
Illustrated by Ben Hodson
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Jeffrey can’t think of a thing to write, so he doodles instead, only to have his doodle begin to order him about. Jeffrey struggles with the situation until he discovers that the most strong-willed doodle is powerless against a well-told tale. Jeffrey and Sloth is bound to have children rushing for their coloured pencils and their pens to see who and what they can create. Kari-Lynn Winters is an author and playwright. A graduate of Canada’s National Theatre School, she also performs with a children’s theatre group, The Tickle Trunk Players. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in the Language and Literacy Department at UBC. Ben Hodson is an award-winning artist based in Ottawa. More
Pink
by Nan Gregory
Illustrated by Luc Melanson
Publisher: Groundwood Books
Vivi is dizzy with wanting pink. Perfect pink. The kind the rich girls have, beyond the budget of her beloved truck-driver dad. One day in the window of a fancy toy store she sees something that embodies everything she longs for—a bride doll in a dress of perfect glistening pink. She saves and saves to buy the doll, walking the next-door dog and running errands. But when she takes her parents to show them the precious doll, she experiences a crushing disappointment. Pink is a touching story about longing for something beyond reach and finding something better close to home. Nan Gregory is a Vancouver-based award-winning author and professional storyteller. She won the CLA Book of the Year Award for Wild Girl and Gran and the Sheila A. Egoff Prize and the Mr. Christie’s Award for How Smudge Came. Luc Melanson is a commercial artist who has illustrated many picture books. He lives in Montreal. More
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
Supported by Friesens, Transcontinental and Webcom
Judges: Margaret Gunning, Rob Wiersema and Carol Windley
Winner! Conceit
by Mary Novik
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
This lush and lyrical novel is centred on the life of the historical character Pegge Donne, daughter of the great English love poet John Donne. Conceit brings to life a passionate, intelligent girl and woman set against the backdrop of the courtly world of late Elizabethan London and the turmoil of the ensuing decades, including the catastrophic Great Fire of 1666. Like Girl With a Pearl Earring, Conceit is a vivid and intelligent novel with a complex female character at its heart. Mary Novik is a former English and Creative Writing instructor at Langara College and was poetry reviewer for The Vancouver Sun for five years. This is her first published novel. More
Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize
Supported by Abebooks
Judges: Kirk LaPointe, Rita Moir and Harold Rhenisch
Winner! Everywhere Being is Dancing
by Robert Bringhurst
Publisher: Gaspereau Press
In this companion volume to The Tree of Meaning (2006), Robert Bringhurst collects talks and meditations under the principle that “everything is related to everything else.” His studies of poetry, polyphonics, oral literature, storytelling, translation, mythology, homogeny, cultural ecology, literary criticism and typography all build upon this sense of basic connection and his thinking involves the work of poets, musicians and philosophers. Robert Bringhurst, recipient of the 2005 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence, is a poet, typographer and linguist, well known for his award-winning translations of the Haida storytellers Skaay and Ghandl, and for his translations of the early Greek philosopher-poet Parmenides. He lives on Quadra Island. More
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
Supported by the BC Teachers’ Federation
Judges: Elizabeth Bachinsky, Kate Braid and John Pass
Winner! Forage
by Rita Wong
Publisher: Nightwood Editions
A vividly described, fierce commentary on our international political landscape and the injustices it breeds, this collection of poems holds sharply modern and timely opinions. It also features marginalia, Chinese characters and photos to give depth to the poetry’s political context. Bridging cultures and contexts, Forage manages to be instructive without being pedantic, thought-provoking while still calling forth humour and beauty. Rita Wong’s first book, monkeypuzzle, was published by Press Gang in 1998 and received the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop Emerging Writer Award. She lives in Miami and Vancouver and teaches Critical and Cultural Studies at the Emily Carr Institute. More
Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize
Supported by BC 150
Judges: David Lester, Kate Walker and Judith Williams
Winner! The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating
by J.B. MacKinnon, Alisa Smith
Publisher: Random House Canada
When this Vancouver couple learned that the average ingredient in a North American meal travels 1,500 miles from farm to plate, they decided to launch a simple experiment to reconnect with the people and places that produced what they ate. For one year, they would consume only food that came from within a 100-mile radius of their apartment. The pair’s discoveries sometimes shook their resolve as they got personal with issues ranging from global economics to biodiversity and immersed themselves in the seasons. The 100-Mile Diet has attracted media and grassroots interest around the world. Alisa Smith is a freelance writer. J.B. MacKinnon is the author of Dead Man in Paradise, which won the 2006 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction and was shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize. More
BC Booksellers’ Choice Award in Honour of Bill Duthie
Supported by BC Booksellers’ Association and Duthie Books
Judged by members of the BC Booksellers’ Association
Winner! The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest
by Ian McAllister
Publisher: Greystone Books
For seventeen years, Ian McAllister has lived on the rugged north coast of BC. This book—which includes an introduction by Paul Paquet and contributions by Chris Darimont—follows McAllister’s experiences during that period following two packs of wolves. Their behaviour—which depends on the vast old-growth forest—is documented in words and pictures as they fish for salmon in the fall, target seals hauled out on rocks in winter, and give birth to their young in the base of thousand-year-old cedar trees in spring. Most interestingly, scientific studies reveal a genetically distinct population of wolves—one that is increasingly threatened by human incursions. McAllister’s first book, The Great Bear Rainforest (1997), co-authored with his wife, Karen McAllister, and Cameron Young, won the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award. He lives on Denny Island in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. More
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners
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