 | The 2015 Blue Spruce Award™ Winner: The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten by Maureen Fergus, illustrated by Mike Lowery |  | The 2015 Red Maple Non-Fiction Award™ Winner: The Last Train: A Holocaust Story by Rona Arato | ||||
 | The 2015 Red Maple Fiction Award™ Winner: The Rule of Three by Eric Walters |  | The 2015 White Pine Award™ Winner: Rush by Eve Silver |
The Blue Spruce™ Award program brings recently published Canadian children's picture books to Ontario children ages 4 to 7 in kindergarten through to grade two.
The tsunami has swept everything away—including Kenta’s most prized possession, his soccer ball.
The Blue Spruce™ Award program brings recently published Canadian children's picture books to Ontario children ages 4 to 7 in kindergarten through to grade two.
"I liked kindergarten from the very 1st day," begins the narrator of this very funny and touching picture book. However, she notices, "My mom was happy for me, of course, but I got the feeling that she was also a little sad" to leave her. So one day the little girl invites her mom to join the kindergarten class for the day, which turns out to be a real learning experience — for both of them. Somehow her mom just can't get any of the rules right: she barges to the front of the line, she shouts out without raising her hand, she slams down her scissors during Craft Time. How embarrassing! In a wonderful role reversal that will delight young children, the girl must become the patient and sometimes frustrated expert who instructs her mom on how to behave.
Who is playing that beautiful music in the subway? And why is nobody listening?The Blue Spruce™ Award program brings recently published Canadian children's picture books to Ontario children ages 4 to 7 in kindergarten through to grade two.
A lyrical ode to colors — and the unique ways we experience them — follows a little girl as she explores the world with her family and friends. Your neighbor says red is angry like a dragon’s breath, but you think it’s brave like a fire truck. Or maybe your best friend likes pink because it’s pretty like a ballerina’s tutu, but you find it annoying — like a piece of gum stuck on your shoe. In a subtle, child-friendly narrative, art teacher and debut author Jessica Young suggests that colors may evoke as many emotions as there are people to look at them — and opens up infinite possibilities for seeing the world in a wonderful new way.
Loula has had enough of her terrible triplet brothers and decides to run away to Africa. Luckily, her mother's chauffeur, Gilbert, knows just how to get there. Together, Loula and Gilbert ride camels, cross a desert and, most important, use heaps of imagination in this heartwarming adventure.The Blue Spruce™ Award program brings recently published Canadian children's picture books to Ontario children ages 4 to 7 in kindergarten through to grade two.
Young Frank, Architect 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. 
9-year-old Gabe (Gabriella) Murray lives and breathes hockey. She's the youngest player on her new team, she has a nifty move that her teammates call "the Gabe," and she shares a lucky number with her hero, Hayley Wickenheiser: number 22. But when her coach hands out the team jerseys, Gabe is stuck with number 9. Crushed, Gabe wants to give up hockey altogether. How can she play without her lucky number? Gabe's grandmother soon sets her straight, though--from her own connection to the number 9 in her hockey-playing days to all the greats she cheered for who wore it, she soon convinces Gabe that this new number might not be so bad after all.
| Program Name | Grade Range | Book Type | |
 | Blue Spruce™ | JK–grade 2 | picture books |
 | Silver Birch® | Grades 3–6 | fiction / non-fiction |
 | Red Maple™ | Grades 7–8 | fiction, non-fiction (every other year) |
 | White Pine™ | Grades 9–12 | fiction, non-fiction (every other year) |
 | Le Prix Peuplier | varies | picture books |
 | Le Prix Tamarac | varies | chapter books |
| Le Prix Tamarac Express | varies | shorter chapter books or mature picture books |
| Program Name | Grade Range | Book Type | |
 | Golden Oak™ Awards | adults learning to read, ESL | fiction |
 | Evergreen™ Award | adults of any age |
fiction, non-fiction
|
| BLUE SPRUCE | |
| The Day My Mom Came To Kindergarten | Maureen Fergus, |
| The Highest Number in the World | Roy Macgregor, Genevieve Despres |
| Kenta and the Big Wave | Ruth Ohi |
| Loula is Leaving for Africa | Anne Villeneuve |
| Man with the Violin | Kathy Stinson |
| Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress | Christine Baldacchino |
| Most Magnificent Thing | Ashley Spires |
| My Blue is Happy | Jessica Young |
| Oddrey and the New Kid | Dave Whamond |
| Young Frank, Architect | Frank Viva |
| SILVER BIRCH - FICTION | |
| Creature Department | Robert Paul Wetson |
| Dial M for Morna - Dead Kid Detective Agency | Evan Munday |
| Hidden Agenda of Sigrid Sugden | Jill MacLean |
| Madman of Piney Woods | Christopher Paul Curtis |
| Me & Mr. Bell | Philip Roy |
| Night Gardener | Jonathan Auxier |
| Red Wolf | Jennifer Dance |
| Saving Houdini | Michael Redhill |
| September 17 | Amanda West Lewis |
| Striker | David Skuy |
| SILVER BIRCH - NON FICTION | |
| 50 Body Questions: A Book That Spills Its Guts | Tanya Lloyd Kyi |
| Annaleise Carr: How I Conquered Lake Ontario to Help Kids Battling Cancer | Annaleise Carr as told to Deborah Ellis |
| Big Book of Hockey for Kids | Eric Zweig |
| Cat Champions: Caring for our Feline Friends | Rob Laidlaw |
| Every Last Drop: Bringing Clean Water Home | Michelle Mulder |
| Extraordinary Life of Anna Swan | Anne Renaud |
| From Vimy to Victory: Canada's Fight to the Finish in World War 1 | Hugh Brewster |
| History of Just About Everything: 180 Events, People and Inventions That Changed the World | Elizabeth MacLeod |
| It's a Feudal, Feudal World | Stephen Shapiro |
| Zoobots: Wild Robots Inspired by Real Animals | Helaine Becker |
| SILVER BIRCH - EXPRESS | |
| Be a Wilderness Detective | Peggy Kochanoff |
| Every Day is Malala Day | Rosemary McCarney |
| The Fly | Elise Gravel |
| From There to Here | Laurel Croza |
| The Great Bike Rescue | Hazel Hutchins |
| How to Save a Species | Jonathan Baillie |
| Kung Pow Chicken #1 Let's Get Cracking | Cyndi Marko |
| My Name is Blessing | Eric Walters |
| Prove it, Josh | Jenny Watson |
| Seconds | Sylvia Taekema |
| RED MAPLE - FICTION | |
| The Boundless | Kenneth Oppel |
| The Comic Book War | Jacqueline Guest |
| Dead Man's Switch | Sigmund Brower |
| How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes Are Untied | Jess Keating |
| Outside In | Sarah Ellis |
| Rule of Three | Eric Walters |
| The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden | Philippa Dowding |
| Summer Days. Starry Nights | Vikki VanSickle |
| Unspeakable | Caroline Pignat |
| Zomboy | Richard Scrimger |
| RED MAPLE - NON FICTION | |
| Growing Up, Inside and Out | Kira Vermond |
| It's Catching: The Infectious World of Germs and Microbes | Jennifer Gardy |
| The Last Train: A Holocaust Story | Rona Arato |
| Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed the World | Robbie Robertson |
| Looks Like Daylight: Voices of Indigenous Kids | Deborah Ellis |
| Pay It Forward Kids: Small Acts, Big Change | Nancy Runstedler |
| Real Justice: Sentenced to Life at Seventeen: The Story of David Milgard | Cynthia J. Parton |
| Start Cooking From Scratch: What You Should Know about Food and Cooking | Sarah Elton |
| We Are Canada | Rika Saddy |
| Why Do We Fight? Conflict, War, and Peace | Niki Walker |
| LE PRIX PEUPLIER | |
| Le cadeau des frères Bravo | Caroline Merola |
| Je suis riche! | Angele Delaunois |
| Je veux un animal de compagnie | Jennifer Couëlle |
| La limace | Elise Gravel |
| Ma petite boule d'amour | Jasmine Dube |
| Meuh où est Gertrude? | Benoit Dutrizac |
| Rocheux anniversaire, Léopold! | Isabelle Gaul |
| Une Charlotte olympique | Mireille Messier |
| La vie rêvée de Crapaud la grenouille | Carine Paquin |
| Le voleur de couche | Nadia Sevigny |
| LE PRIX TAMARAC | |
| Victor Cordi (anomalie maléfique) | Annie Bacon |
| Cocorico! | Francois Gravel |
| La fabuleuse histoire de Jérémy Leloup | Gilles Tibo |
| Le journal de guerre d'Émilio | André Jacob |
| Max et la belle inconnue | Olivier Challet |
| Destination Monstroville 01 - Moche Café | Nadine Descheneaux |
| Pas question que les criminels dormant | René Cochaux |
| La patate cadeau ou la vraie histoire de la poutine râpée | Diane Carmel Léger |
| La plus grosse poutine du monde | Andrée Poulin |
| Quatre Filles de génies | Emmanuelle Bergeron |
| LE PRIX TAMARAC - EXPRESS | |
| Le catalogue de robots | Jean-Pierre Guillet |
| Embrouilles à Embrun | Mireille Messier |
| Guiby : Une odeur de soufre | Sampar (Samuel Parent) |
| Il m'énerve, ce William Parker! | Alain M. Bergeron |
| Julie et Alexis le Trotteur | Martine Latulippe |
| Lucie Wan en danger | Agnes Grimaud |
| Mission... à donner le frisson! | Lili Chartrand |
| Moi, zèbre bouchard | Myriam De Repentigny |
| Pablo trouve un trésor | Andrée Poulin |
| Tsuki, princesse de la Lune | Suzanne de Serres |
 | The CatEdeet RavelSingle mother Elise is completely devoted to her eleven-year-old son; he is her whole world. But that world is destroyed in one terrifying moment when her son is killed in a car accident just outside their home. Suddenly alone, surrounded by memories, Elise faces a future that feels unspeakably bleak—and pointless. Lost, angry and desolate, Elise rejects everyone who tries to reach out to her. But as despair threatens to engulf her, she realizes, to her horror, that she cannot join her son: she must take care of his beloved cat. At first she attempts to carry out this task entirely by herself, shut away from a frightening new reality that seems surreal and incomprehensible. But isolation proves to be impossible, and before long others insinuate themselves into her life—friends, enemies, colleagues, neighbours, a former lover—bringing with them the fragile beginnings of survival. Powerfully moving and deeply humane, The Cat is an unforgettable novel about the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. |
 | Cinnamon Toast and the End of the WorldJanet E. CameronHouse Parties. Pick-Up Trucks. Cherry-Vanilla Ice-Cream. Prom Night. Unrequited Love. Welcome to the spring of 1987 and the world of Stephen Shulevitz who, with three months of high school to go in the small town of Riverside, Nova Scotia, has just realised he's fallen in love - with exactly the wrong person. Welcome to the end of the world. As Stephen navigates his last few months before college dealing with his overly dependent mother, his distant, pot-smoking father, and his dysfunctional best friends Lana and Mark, he must decide between love and childhood friendship; between the person he is and the person he can be. But sometimes leaving the past behind is harder than it seems . . . Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World is a bittersweet story of growing up and of one young man finding happiness on his own terms. |
 | Flee, Fly, FlownJanet HepburnWhen Lillian and Audrey hatch a plot to escape from Tranquil Meadows Nursing Home, “borrow” a car, and spend their hastily planned vacation time driving to destinations west, they aren’t fully aware of the challenges they will face. All they know is that the warm days of August call to them, and the need to escape the daily routines and humiliations of nursing home life has become overwhelming. Flushed with the success of their escape plan, they set out on their journey having forgotten that their memory problems might make driving and following directions difficult. Their trip is almost over before it begins, until they meet up with the unsuspecting Rayne, a young man also heading west in hope of reconciling with his family. As Lillian and Audrey try to take back the control that time and dementia has taken from them, Rayne realizes the truth of their situation. But it’s too late – he has fallen under the spell of these two funny, brave women and is willing to be a part of their adventure, wherever it leads them. |
 | The Inconvenient IndianThomas King
The Inconvenient Indian is at once a “history” and the complete subversion of a history—in short, a critical and personal meditation that the remarkable Thomas King has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be “Indian” in North America.
Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, this book distills the insights gleaned from that meditation, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other. In the process, King refashions old stories about historical events and figures, takes a sideways look at film and pop culture, relates his own complex experiences with activism, and articulates a deep and revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands. This is a book both timeless and timely, burnished with anger but tempered by wit, and ultimately a hard-won offering of hope -- a sometimes inconvenient, but nonetheless indispensable account for all of us, Indian and non-Indian alike, seeking to understand how we might tell a new story for the future. |
 | The Massey MurderCharlotte GrayIn February 1915, a member of one of Canada’s wealthiest families was shot and killed on the front porch of his home in Toronto as he was returning from work. Carrie Davies, an 18-year-old domestic servant, quickly confessed. But who was the victim here? Charles “Bert” Massey, a scion of a famous family, or the frightened, perhaps mentally unstable Carrie, a penniless British immigrant? When the brilliant lawyer Hartley Dewart, QC, took on her case, his grudge against the powerful Masseys would fuel a dramatic trial that pitted the old order against the new, wealth and privilege against virtue and honest hard work. Set against a backdrop of the Great War in Europe and the changing faceof a nation, this sensational crime is brought to vivid life for the first time. As in her previous bestselling book, Gold Diggers—now in production as a Discovery Television miniseries—multi-award-winning historian and biographer Charlotte Gray has created a captivating narrative rich in detail and brimming with larger-than-life personalities, as she shines alight on a central moment in our past. |
 | The Painted GirlsCathy Marie BuchananParis, 1878. Following their father’s sudden death, the Van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opera, where for a scant seventeen francs a week, she will be trained to enter the famous Ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir. Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modelling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged 14. Meanwhile, Antoinette, derailed by her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie, must choose between honest labour and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde. Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.” In the end, each will come to realize that her salvation—her survival, even—lies with the other. |
 | River of StarsGuy Gavriel KayRen Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later, and his life changes again, dramatically, as he moves toward the court and emperor while war approaches Kitai from the north.Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor and alienates the women at court. But when her father’s life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has. In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading, under the river of stars, to events no one could have foretold. |
 | The Silent WifeA.S.A HarrisonJodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. Both are at the mercy of their unrelenting wants and needs, and both are unaware that the path they are on is careening toward murder. Much is at stake, including the affluent life they lead in their beautiful waterfront condo in Chicago, as she, the killer, and he, the victim, rush haplessly toward the main event, oblivious of the destiny they are jointly creating, caught in the thrall of disaster unfolding.Chapter by chapter, the narrative evolves from their alternating perspectives. He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. He exists in dual worlds. She likes to settle scores. He decides to play for keeps. She has nothing left to lose. The alternating voices pitch the reader back and forth between protagonists in conflict who are fighting for self-preservation, both of them making deeply consequential mistakes, behaving in ever more foolhardy ways, losing at the games they’re playing. The Silent Wife is a finely wrought, emotionally charged psychological thriller about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can’t be made, and promises that won’t be kept. Expertly plotted and reminiscent of Gone Girl and These Things Hidden, The Silent Wife ensnares the reader from page one and doesn’t let go. |
 | The StopNick Saul & Andrea CurtisIt began as a food bank. It turned into a movement. In 1998, when Nick Saul became executive director of The Stop, the little urban food bank was like thousands of other cramped, dreary, makeshift spaces, a last-hope refuge where desperate people could stave off hunger for one more day with a hamper full of canned salt, sugar and fat. The produce was wilted and the packaged foods were food-industry castoffs—mislabelled products and misguided experiments that no one wanted to buy. For users of the food bank, knowing that this was their best bet for a meal was a humiliating experience. Since that time, The Stop has undergone a radical reinvention. Participation has overcome embarrassment, and the isolation of poverty has been replaced with a vibrant community that uses food to build hope and skills, and to reach out to those who need a meal, a hand and a voice. It is now a thriving, internationally respected Community Food Centre with gardens, kitchens, a greenhouse, farmers’ markets and a mission to revolutionize our food system. Celebrities and benefactors have embraced the vision because they have never seen anything like The Stop. Best of all, fourteen years after his journey started, Nick Saul is introducing this neighbourhood success story to the world. In telling the remarkable story of The Stop’s transformation, Saul and Curtis argue that we need a new politics of food, one in which everyone has a dignified, healthy place at the table. By turns funny, sad and raw, The Stop is a timely story about overcoming obstacles, challenging sacred cows and creating lasting change.
Simone St. James |
