2024 CCBC Book Awards
Acceptance Speeches
Paul Tom (author), Richard Allen Chase Memorial Award
(Translated from French)
It is with immense pride that I accept the Richard Allen Chase Award. Thank you to Alice Chase and Rocky Mountain Book Award for their desire to celebrate Richard Allen Chase through this award. Thank you to the jury, thank you, everyone. I am so proud of the teamwork which allowed Alain, Afshin and Patricia’s stories to come to life as much on the screen as in book form. I am proud of Mélanie Baillargé’s talent and illustrations, which allowed these stories to travel through the eyes and hearts of thousands of young people in Canada, in French, and now in English, thanks to Arielle Aaronson’s translation efforts. The journey this book has taken is incredible. This is a book which reminds us that the people fleeing their countries want the same thing we do: to find someplace to live in peace, to have a roof over their heads and a refuge for their hearts. They want to be able to dream. As each of us does.
Arielle Aronson (translator), Richard Allen Chase Memorial Award
Thank you to the CCBC, as well as to Alice Chase and the Rocky Mountain Book Award, for selecting Alone as the winner of the 2024 Richard Allen Chase Memorial Award. I would also like to thank the team that made this magnificent book possible: Paul, for his words, Mélanie, for her illustrations, and Afshin, Alain, and Patricia for their stories. Alone holds a very special place in my heart. I, too, immigrated to Canada alone. My first few months in this country were challenging, exhausting, and very, very lonely. It is so hard to be far from home. Unaccompanied minors face challenges beyond imagination, yet their dreams are universal: to be cared for, safe, and loved. It is my hope that as Canadians, we will learn to open our eyes, our homes, and our hearts, to these children. Thank you.
Shannon Bramer (author), David Booth Children’s and Youth Poetry Award
Thank you, Shelley Stagg Peterson, for founding and funding The David Booth Children's and Youth Poetry Award. Poetry is magic, and no-one knew that better than David Booth, who believed poems should be in every child's life, who recognized poetry's ability to act as a springboard for deep thinking, play and joy.
Thank you to the brilliant and generous team at Groundwood Books, especially my dear editor, Nan Froman, who brought Irene Luxbacher, and I together for this book. Irene, thank you for your detailed, heartfelt and sometimes deliciously surreal illustrations that cast warmth and tenderness on every poem in our book.
I might never have the chance again, so I will be bold now and thank Dennis Lee, poet and co-founder of House of Anansi Press. His work has inspired me deeply over the years--it's expansiveness, humour, rigour and gentleness all at once. His poems gave me permission to write mine.
Thank you to my loving family, for the poems you give me, my favourite poems.
Thank you to the jurors, Carol-Ann Hoyte, and the Canadian Children's Book Centre for helping us all thrive and grow as Canadian creators of literature for young readers. I feel so grateful and humbled to be among you all.
Irene Luxbacher (illustrator), David Booth Children’s and Youth Poetry Award
There is so much to be grateful for and appreciate today.
I’m grateful for the most brilliant and heart-felt words of my new dear friend –Shannon Bramer whose words both take me back to my childhood and push me forward.
I’m grateful for the trust that my agent Emily Van Beek and the wonderfully, gifted team at Groundwood Books placed in me…The opportunity to draw out the exquisite, heartfelt, playful truth and beauty of Shannon’s words. It was such a challenge and such a gift.
I am also so very grateful to Shelley Stagg Peterson, for her generous support and to the CCBC and the jury for placing me in the company of such marvellous, nominees, amazing artists, every one --I feel so humbled.
And, I’m also SO, grateful to David Booth, even far beyond today's celebration. My autistic son Luca and I have both benefited from his legacy at OISE through a friend and teacher that credits him as being the greatest influence and inspiration in her teaching career,and without her support of Luca, I would have never have had the time or emotional space to take on the illustrations of Robot Unicorn Queen.
So this is truly such a miraculous full circle moment in my mind and heart ...and there is just so much to be grateful for and appreciate today.
Nicki Pau Preto (author), Arlene Barlin Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy
Wow, thank you so much. This is such an honor. And my first award! I’ll keep this short and sweet, unlike my books—I’m a writer, not a talker.
Thank you to Elly Barlin-Daniels for founding this award in honor of her sister, Arlene Barlin, who was definitely my kind of people, and thank you to the jury for selecting Bonesmith as the winner.
I know it’s a cliche, but it truly is an honor just to be nominated. To have my work recognized among such talented authors, and in the Science Fiction and Fantasy category, which has been so essential to me not only as a writer but also as a reader and a fan of stories. I will always be a lover of SFF, and I know I will always be a writer of it too. Thank you.
Sandra McTavish (co-author), Jean Little First-Novel Award
Back in 2005, I approached Tho and asked if he would share the story of his journey from Vietnam to Canada with me. He did, and I was riveted, and asked if he’d work with me to make his story into a novel. Thank you, Tho, for saying yes.
Without you, there would be no The Cricket War. Thank you for never once turning down my request for a conversation, for answering every question I ever asked, and for repeatedly retelling a story that I suspect was difficult to tell the first time, let alone the hundredth. Thanks also for ensuring every page is both accurate and authentic.
It took a few years to write the novel and over a decade to get a publishing deal. But we never gave up, and all those years of waiting and wondering and rewriting and collecting enough rejection letters to wallpaper a house make tonight extra special.
Tho and I wish to thank the Canadian Children’s Book Centre and the jury for this award, and to Maggie de Vries, Sarah Ellis, and Kit Pearson for creating the Jean Little First Novel Award.
In my day job, I work in educational publishing. Years ago, I was thrilled when Jean Little granted me permission to publish one of her short stories for a high school anthology. At night, I’ve been a closeted writer since grade six, dreaming of one day becoming a “real” published novelist just like Jean Little. So, winning this award feels like a full circle moment.
Tho and I were thrilled when Kids Can Press’s Editorial Director Yasemin Ucar gave The Cricket War the green light. We’d like to thank Yasemin and the entire team at Kids Can with a very special thanks to our editor Patricia Ocampo for her gentle guidance.
Finally, I’d like to thank my wonderful husband Doug Reid, who always believes in me—even in those moments when I don’t believe in myself. And a special thanks to Tho’s dad Bryan and to my parents for their endless support.
Thọ Phạm (co-author), Jean Little First-Novel Award
Thank you, Sandra. Without you to bring the story to paper, my journey’s story would not have made it past the family circle. It is more like a personal secret since most Vietnamese boat people tend to keep their escape journeys close to their hearts and do not generally share their stories because they are not pleasant to tell. Thank you for putting up with me and helping to make aware of the plight of refugees risking their lives seeking freedom, of which I am one. I am very fortunate to make it, but we know of many others who have lost family members and would never make a trip to Vietnam or step on a boat, even a cruise ship due to painful memories.
We are very honoured to be nominated for the two awards and really thrilled to be the recipient of the Jean Little First Novel Award. Thank you so much to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre and Jean Little family for this award. Sandra deserves all of these recognitions because she has done 99 per cent of the work and I only went along for the ride … and it has been quite a long ride for over a decade!
As Sandra has already mentioned, we owe our gratitude to Kids Can Press’ team and especially editorial director Yasemin for giving us a chance, and editor Patricia for your guidance and advice for our first novel, also to cover artist Tenzin, all the marketing team Michaela and Bianca for promoting the book everywhere. Thank you all for giving my younger self a voice and an opportunity to tell my story to the next generation.
I am most grateful for my Dad, Bryan Buchan, who has sacrificed and put his personal life on hold to adopt 7 of us as his children and take all 11 of us “boat people” under his wings while on an elementary school teacher’s salary in a small bungalow, which felt huge to me at the time! I was the last one to be added in 1982 after the first 8 and then 2 more in 1980. He has been an extremely important and continuous part of all of our lives for the past 40 plus years. His unconditional love for us has shaped me into who I am and he is still making large positive impacts on my family, my wife and children.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you Canada, and to every Canadian from the bottom of my heart for taking in the Vietnamese refugees, for giving us the second chance at life and freedom. We consider Canada as the best country to live in and hope that we continue to be a leader in human rights.
Abdi Nazemian (author), Amy Mathers Teen Book Award
(transcribed from video acceptance speech)
I’m so deeply honoured to receive the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award.
Thank you to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre for recognizing this story and honouring it as a Canadian story.
This novel is very much about an immigrant family who are leaving little pieces of themselves in different parts of the world.
My own immigrant family moved to Canada when I was seven. The years I lived in Canada with my aunts and uncles and cousins, all of whom were granted Canadian citizenship, were some of the best years of my life, the years where I felt the most connected to my roots.
To be honoured as a Canadian writer just connects me back to that little kid who knew that storytelling could change the world and I am so grateful to you for reminding me of that.
Jessica Outram (author), Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People
Bonjou. Good evening. It is such an honour to be here and for Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold to receive The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. First, I’d like to thank my ancestors, my great-Aunt Bernice for inspiring this story, and my family for patiently answering my questions as I wrote the book. I’d like to thank Gillian Rogerson who was an editor at Second Story Press when I started this book, for her advice and encouragement. Thank you to Chandra Wohleber. Thank you to Jordan Ryder who took on the final phases for bringing this book to life, the whole Second Story Press team was incredible to work with. Thank you to Margie Wolfe for publishing women-focused, social justice and human rights books for children and adults. Thank you to the Métis Nation of Ontario’s Language Initiative for generously adding Michif-Fransé into the book. I am grateful this story found a home at Second Story Press. Thank you to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre and the jury. I am feeling very blessed. Marsi!
Jack Wong (author-illustrator), Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award
Thank you to A. Charles and Marilyn Baillie, and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre for this award. As an author, I gravitate to any and all stories, and having heard Marilyn speak before about this award and give just a glimpse at the story behind it, it’s all the more meaningful to be receiving it, and it’s a true honour.
I’ve been on an incredible journey since the release of When You Can Swim, which is my first book. There are so many people I want to thank, not only for this book but for the whole journey, so really I’d just like to thank everyone who is involved in children’s literature in Canada — everyone who makes up this community that I got to jump into, feet first, and now have a career in. Among them are my fellow nominees, and all the nominees and winners we’re celebrating here tonight. I’m thrilled and honoured to be in your company. Among them too are the folks at CANSCAIP, whose conference I had the chance to participate in over the weekend — one example of this community in practice.
I would like to thank a special team who is here tonight, the folks at Scholastic Canada: Nikole Kritikos, Gui Filippone, Maral Maclagan, Diane Kerner, and the whole team who have made this book such a success.
Lastly, I want to thank my wife Ainsley, who is here with me tonight. I’m not very good at looking at my own work — I almost always focus on the little things I still wish I’d done differently or better — but when Ainsley looks at the book, she sees a story about us, going swimming and seeing the world together and holding each other up. It’s a privilege to be able to see the world every once in a while through your eyes. Thank you.
Jean E. Pendziwol (author), TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award
Thank you so much to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, the jurors, and especially the TD Bank Group, for honouring Skating Wild On An Inland Sea with this award.
There’s magic that happens when a picture book is co-created -- something that arrives alongside the words and images that isn’t there in either, yet could not exist without both. I feel that’s especially true with this book. I’m so grateful to Todd who came and sat beside Lake Superior in winter, wandered the snowy trails along the shore, climbed the ancient cliffs and listened to the ravens call. Somewhere between my scribbled words and Todd’s screen-printed art, the inland sea enchanted our work and it became much more than either of us could have created on our own.
To my husband Richard, my “kids” Erin, Colin and Ryan, to my Dad and Mary Ann, and sister Barbara, I love you and I’m so grateful for your support.
To my community of writers who see me through the ups and downs of this business of making art, especially the Laughing Foxes.
To the creators of the other finalist books, it is humbling and an honour to share space on the shelf with you.
To Nan Froman, Karen Li, Kirsten Brassard, Michael Solomon and the rest of the dynamic team at Groundwood, thank you for giving this story a home and supporting its journey into the world.
Todd Stewart (illustrator), TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award
To the TD Bank Group, to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, thank you. Thank you to the members of the jury who selected our book to sit on the same shelf as the other books nominated this year, as well as those from past years.
This is a great honour. I feel grateful to work in this world of Canadian children’s literature. I’m inspired by the beautiful books we all make and by the people I work with. Thank you to everyone at Groundwood Books - Karen, Nan, Michael, and Kirsten, the whole team at Groundwood, for supporting the book throughout.
A huge thank you to Jean E Pendziwol, whose words tell so much more than a story about two kids who go skating, they capture so eloquently the setting of this special place, which is what I first look for when reading any story. And to her family, her father Craig and step-mother Mary-Ann, who welcomed me to their home on the shores of Lake Superior as I was researching the illustrations.
I’m grateful to the community of Thunder Bay, specifically the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop and the Art Gallery of Thunder Bay, for hosting events around the book launch and to all the people who came out to the book launch for making me feel welcome in their part of the world.
Finally to my family in Montreal, Emily and Henry, and my wider community of friends and family, thank you for your support and encouragement through all these years.