The West Coast Book Prize Society handed out the BC Book Prizes on April 25. Eight awards were handed out that night, including two in the children’s category — the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize and the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize. The winners are listed below.
Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize ($2,000)
Supported by the BC Library Association
Judges: James Heneghan, Tonya Martin and Janice Douglas
My One Hundred Adventures
Written by Polly Horvath
Groundwood Books
My One Hundred Adventures tells us how Jane, happy though she is, suddenly feels a kind of itchy restlessness and sets out deliberately to make her life more exciting by having one hundred adventures. She compels her best friend, Ginny, to join her. Some of the adventures are spectacular, others are gentler; and slowly over the summer, Jane begins to figure out more about her family, friends, and life in general.
Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize ($2,000)
Supported by Kate Walker and Company
Judges: Ron Jobe, Kari-Lynn Winters and Bonne Zabolotney
The King Has Goat Ears
Written by Katarina Jovanovic
Illustrated by Philippe Béha
Tradewind Books
Have you ever had a secret that you knew you shouldn’t share, but the burden of keeping silent was so great you just had to let it out? This is the struggle that Igor, the young apprentice of Miro (the only barber left in the kingdom), experiences after he cuts King Boyan’s hair, and astutely responds to the king that his prominent, goat ears “look just fine.“ Released back to his village, it is not Igor’s intention to betray the king’s secret to his subjects. And so, in a creative turn that draws upon an ancient Serbian folktale, author Katarina Jovanovic (who now resides in Vancouver but who worked for many years in children’s programming for Serbian radio) relieves Igor of the burden of his secret by having him dig a hole in a meadow, shout his secret into it, and cover up the hole again. Surely this can’t be good for Igor.
For a complete list of the award winners and finalists in all categories, please visit the BC Book Prizes website at www.bcbookprizes.ca.