What: Forest of Reading® Festival of Trees™ welcomes thousands of young readers to the Harbourfront Centre site each year for two days of activities celebrating the love of reading—award ceremonies, fun workshops, book signings and more! Events are the culmination of thousands of votes and 250,000 participants from across Ontario, Canada and at international schools.

Presented by the Ontario Library Association and IFOA

When: Tuesday, May 12th & Wednesday May 13th, 10am–2pm

Where: Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto

Who: More than 80 authors/illustrators, hundreds of Ontario schools and thousands of attendees

Participants for this year’s Forest of Reading® Festival of Trees™ include: Forest of Reading®-nominated authors Helaine Becker, Annaleise Carr, Deborah Ellis, Rob Laidlaw, Mireille Messier, Ruth Ohi, Kenneth Oppel, Caroline Pignat, Andrée Poulin, Sampar, Eve Silver, David Skuy, Teresa Toten, Anne Villeneuve, Eric Walters and Dave Whamond.

Ceremony hosts include bestselling Canadian writer and illustrator Kevin Sylvester, Owlkids’ Kim Cooper, chickaDEE’s Mandy Ng and Melissa Peters and Daniel Fernandes from TVO Kids. For the second year, the French component of the Forest of Reading® awards will be celebrated with its own French Festival, which will include French performers, workshops and host Anne LaPlante. Be sure to check out this year’s exciting installations, like those by Groove EDGEucation and Sands Alive, and don’t miss your chance to meet the Toronto 2015 Pan Am & Parapan American Games mascot, Pachi the Porcupine!

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The Ontario Library Association (OLA) creates programmes, advocacy and promotion for its more than 5,000 members who work in primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities and public libraries across Ontario. The mission of the OLA is to foster free public access to information, and to promote Canada’s history and culture through the programmes and services of the libraries of Ontario.

Since its inception in 1974, IFOA has hosted over 8,500 authors from more than 100 countries, including over 20 Nobel Laureates. Our season runs from September to June and includes the annual International Festival of Authors (October 22–November 1, 2015), including YoungIFOA and IFOA Ontario; and the annual ALOUD: a Celebration for Young Readers with Forest of Reading® Festival of Trees™ (May 12–13, 2015).

MEDIA CONTACTS
Maeve O’Regan
moregan@ifoa.org | 416-973-5836

Meghan Gribben
mgribben@ifoa.org | 416-973-4395