Congratulations to the following authors and illustrators nominated for 2015 Forest of Reading Awards!

The Blue Spruce Award Young Frank, Architect Frank VivaAbrams Hardcover: 978087070893

Young Frank, Architect, MoMA’s first storybook for kids ages three to eight, follows the adventures of Young Frank, a resourceful young architect who lives in New York City with his grandfather, Old Frank, who is also an architect. Young Frank sees creative possibilities everywhere, and likes to use anything he can get his hands on—macaroni, old boxes, spoons, and sometimes even his dog, Eddie—to creates things like chairs out of toilet paper rolls and twisting skyscrapers made up of his grandfather’s books. But Old Frank is skeptical; he doesn’t think that’s how REAL architects make things. One day, donning matching bow ties, straw boater hats, and Le Corbusier-inspired glasses, they visit The Museum of Modern Art, where they see the work of renowned architects like Frank Gehryand Frank Lloyd Wright. And they learn that real architects do in fact create wiggly chairs, twisty towers, and even entire cities. Inspired by what they see, Young Frank and Old Frank return home to build structures of every shape and size: “tall ones, fat ones, round ones, and one made from chocolate chip cookies.”

The Silver Birch Fiction Award Dial “M” for Morna (The Dead Kid Detective Agency) Evan Munday ECW Press Paperback: 9781770410732

 October Schwartz and her five deadest friends are back. The holiday season has descended upon the town of Sticksville like an eggnog rainstorm, but October has no time for candy canes or mistletoe. She’s busy dealing with an oddly pleasant new history teacher, her living friends’ new roles as high-school radio DJs, and two (!) new mysteries that need solving before the new year. October and her ghost friends are hot on the trail of the person (or persons) responsible for Morna MacIsaac’s death in 1914 — or as hot as one can be on a 100-year-old trail — when October’s friend Yumi finds herself the target of anti-Asian harassment at school. Solving two mysteries at once won’t be easy, but our intrepid heroine in black eyeliner loves a challenge. Follow October, Cyril, Tabetha, Morna, Kirby, and Derek as they sleuth their way through a blizzard of suffragettes, iceskating disasters, mystical telephones, and boats named Titanic, all set against a backdrop of yuletide pandemonium.

The Red Maple Non-Fiction Award We Are Canada Rikia Saddy & Cameron McLellan Simply Read (Ingram Publisher Services) Hardcover: 9781927018200 Paperback: 9781927018309

This is a story of Canada unlike any you’ve heard before.  Illustrated and evocative, it conjures up a new understanding of who we are and what we’ve built, together. We Are Canada tackles tough questions about Canadian identity, underpinned by the simple idea that we are one.