FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (September 21, 2010) – The two winners of the inaugural 2009 Lane Anderson Award were announced by Hollister Doll and Sharon Fitzhenry, Directors of the Fitzhenry Family Foundation, at an intimate dinner in Toronto. The annual Lane Anderson Award honours two jury-selected books, in the categories of adult and young reader, published in the field of science, and written by a Canadian. The winner in each category receives $10,000.
The Insecto-Files, written by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Claudia Dávila and published by Maple Tree Press wins the young reader category.
JURY COMMENTS: “Extremely interactive and thought inspiring with questions and experiments that made us want to try them; amazing support illustrations.”
Helaine Becker is an award-winning writer of books for children. She has written over 40 books, and also writes for children’s magazines and kid’s television.
The other shortlisted books were Why Do Horses Have Manes? by Elizabeth MacLeod (Kids Can Press) and Big and Small, Room for All by Jo Ellen Bogart with illustrations by Gillian Newland (Tundra Books).
The Young Reader Jury for the 2009 Lane Anderson Award:
Cathy Sandusky is a primary school specialist with extensive hands-on experience in student-teacher workshops exploring links between science and literacy. She holds degrees in English and Psychology, and spent many years as a buyer of educational books and resources. Today, she is Fitzhenry & Whiteside’s Children’s Book Publisher.
Kathy Stinson sorted mail, waited tables, and taught school before finally figuring out what she really wanted to do was write – everything from picture books to young adult novels, from biography to historical fiction. Kathy has worked as a freelance editor for a number of publishers. She has also served as Writer-in-Residence for several library systems in southern Ontario and has led writing workshops all across Canada.
Marlene Turkington is presently the Children’s Book Selector for GoodMinds.com. She recently retired from the Thames Valley District School Board after 42 years. She has been an elementary teacher, an elementary and secondary teacher-librarian at various schools, an itinerant resource librarian and a Library Coordinator. She has taught all three library courses as an instructor for the University of Western Ontario. She has served on the executive of ATLC (Association for Teacher-Librarians in Canada) and was the vice president, president and past president of CASL (Canadian Association of School Libraries). She served on the Woodstock Public Library Board for 12 years, being the chair for 5 of those years. Her Awards of Recognition include: Ontario Volunteer Recognition Awards, OSLA Award for Special Achievement and nominated twice for the TVDSB Award of Distinction.
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For more information, please contact:
Debby de Groot, MDG & Associates
Tel: 416-363-1448 | debby@mdgassociates.com