PRESS RELEASE/ANNOUNCEMENT

Announcing the first annual Sheila Barry Best Canadian Picturebook of the Year award! Thank you to the writers, artists, publishers, and jurors for all their work in helping us to get to this point.

The Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable is pleased to announce the names of the finalists for the first annual Sheila Barry Best Canadian Picturebook of the Year award.

The $2500 cash award is specifically for a picturebook that “hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning of the page” (Barbara Bader, 1976).

The winning book and three honour books will be announced on September 7, 2020.  A virtual award ceremony is planned for late fall. Tickets available online starting mid August, 2021

MEDIA CONTACT: Kathryn Shoemaker, Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable, kshoe@telus.net

Shortlist

King Mouse by Cary Fagan. Illustrated by Dena Seiferling. (Tundra)

Birdsong by Julie Flett. (Greystone)

Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe. (Simon & Schuster)

Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden by Andrew Larsen. Illustrated by Anne Villeneuve. (Kids Can)

Encounter by Brittany Luby. Illustrated by Michaela Goade. (Tundra)   

It Began with a Page by Kyo Maclear. Illustrated by Julie Morstad. (Tundra)

Princess Puffybottom . . . and Darryl by Susin Neilsen. Illustrated by Olivia Chin Mueller. (Tundra)

The House at the End of the Road by Kari Rust. (Owlkids)

The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota’s Garden by Heather Smith. Illustrated by Rachel Wada. (Orca)

Small in the City by Sydney Smith. (Groundwood)