Journal articles on the topic 'Runaway children – Juvenile fiction'

This article presents a framework for understanding police responses to runaway and missing children. Its principal components are (a) the legal context, (b) departmental policies and organization, and (c) perceived youth types. Police responses are affected by police perceptions of runaway youth relative to police responsibilities, departmental structure and policy regarding juvenile operations, and statutory constraints. Community characteristics and dispositional resources also influence police perceptions of missing youth cases, and, consequently, responses to them. Several objectives for future research are offered. These must be undertaken with a conceptual understanding of the interrelationships between law, community, department, police values and experiences, and adolescent behavior.

Imperial and colonial juvenile literature is assumed to be ‘an excellent reflector of the dominant ideas of an age’ (Mackenzie). This article by contrast argues for a less mimetic view through close rereading of Mrs R. Lee's Playing at Settlers, or the Faggot House (1855) , particularly its unfinished critiques of high colonialism from within. The actions of its enlightened British juvenile protagonists to educate their peers, and adult interlocutors, makes this text ‘settler’ and ‘Robinsonade’ fiction with a difference, as much for Britons at home as for those overseas. The tensions, cultural specificities and multi-colonial dimensions of the text explored in this article then suggest avenues for further research on juvenile works of the period, whether British or other European. Recovery of other similar, yet forgotten, works for children not only invites more informed reappraisal of them, but also of over-zealous postcolonial readings of the ‘civilising mission’ that have denied vociferous counter-colonial voices in juvenile, next-generational form.

AbstractDuring the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, thousands of middle-class youths published their own amateur newspapers. These periodicals were printed using the so-called toy (or “novelty”) press, a portable tabletop device that helped democratize word processing. Children often used their presses to compose miniature novels and short stories. They then shared their prose with a national community of fellow juvenile writers collectively known as “Amateurdom.” Adolescent fiction explored an array of subjects, but the frontier, territorial expansion, and empire in the West became some of its particular fixations. All that imperial storytelling, however, possessed a rich subtext. Boys and girls, reacting to late-nineteenth-century changes in the lived experience of childhood, used their printing presses to challenge various constraints imposed upon them. But in so doing, they both perpetuated and reinforced a pernicious culture of settler colonialism that celebrated the subjugation of American Indians. Ultimately, the amateur publications of children remind us that fiction is not exclusively an adult enterprise. The creative output of young people provides important insight into an underexplored realm of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era’s literary world.

Twice Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead bases the plot of his novels on various facts of American reality found in documents and newspaper publications. By juxtaposing fact and fiction, he transforms them to create a new reality, rooted in the events of real life but acquiring a universal or metaphorical character that could be seen even in his early works. In “John Henry Days” (2001) the writer makes use of the legend of the famous black laborer John Henry, its reflection in the folklore and everyday life of the American South and attempts to up-sell it in today’s USA with the help of social networks. In the novel “The Underground Railroad”, written after Whitehead’s archival research and his study of slave narratives of the mid-19th century, the document is woven into the artistic structure of the text by using authentic announcements about runaway slaves. The novel “The Nickel Boys” was written under the influence of the information about the horrible findings discovered on the grounds of the so-called Arthur Dozier School, established in early 20th century for juvenile delinquents, telling the story of two black boys who got there in the 1960s. The writer incessantly explores the impact of racism on American society and social injustice making use of a historical novel elements, of alternative history, neo-slave narratives and satire in his descriptions of the contemporary US media.

This essay builds on the author’s previous work on the Left Behind novels for kids, arguing that while current socio-political conditions have certainly contributed to the success of the series, an earlier phenomenon informs its literary structure: the many novels and stories produced by the American Sunday School Union (ASSU). The numerous literary, cultural, religious, and historical details that connect ASSU fiction and the Left Behind: The Kids series demonstrate significant continuities in the projects of US evangelical Christianity over more than a century. The closing section discusses how the differences between the current crop of evangelical narratives and the historical ones are just as instructive as their similarities, for they demonstrate changing conceptions of children and childhood in the United States, and the place and purpose of religious-themed narratives for young readers on the eve of the new millennium and in the opening decade of the twenty-first century.

Objective – While storytime programs for preschool children are offered in nearly all public libraries in the United States, little is known about the books librarians use in these programs. This study employed text analysis to explore topics and genres of books recommended for public library storytime programs. Methods – In the study, the researchers randomly selected 429 children books recommended for preschool storytime programs. Two corpuses of text were extracted from the titles, abstracts, and subject terms from bibliographic data. Multiple text mining methods were employed to investigate the content of the selected books, including term frequency, bi-gram analysis, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis. Results – The findings revealed popular topics in storytime books, including animals/creatures, color, alphabet, nature, movements, families, friends, and others. The analysis of bibliographic data described various genres and formats of storytime books, such as juvenile fiction, rhymes, board books, pictorial work, poetry, folklore, and nonfiction. Sentiment analysis results reveal that storytime books included a variety of words representing various dimensions of sentiment. Conclusion – The findings suggested that books recommended for storytime programs are centered around topics of interest to children that also support school readiness. In addition to selecting fictionalized stories that will support children in developing the academic concepts and socio-emotional skills necessary for later success, librarians should also be mindful of integrating informational texts into storytime programs.

Crime stories for the youngest. About the current of Polish crime novels addressed to children and teenagers after 1989: ReconnaissanceLiterature intended for children and teenagers has got a specific character because of the specificity of the reader. What attracts our attention is first of all the didactic level of texts addressed to young concerning both age and literary knowledge readers and the instrumentalism, understood as a flow of particular information which aim is exerting a pedagogical influence. Therefore, the criminal intrigue is not in the centre of reader’s attention. It does, however, play an important role as the fiction mode, which enables genealogical instantiation of a particular text. This property draws the crime story for children and teenagers near to the novel of manner which is addressed to the juvenile reader; in this novel, the central theme point remains the closest setting of a protagonist, who is modelled on the assumed reader and his or her relationship with surroundings. The criminal thread is then fulfilling a function of a background which allows boosting the plot of the novel. However, reading texts for children and teenagers can be treated as an introduction to adult-oriented novels, especially when the reader has an opportunity to solve the mystery together with protagonists and outrun them in uncloaking the killer.

Anthropomorphism, the imposition of human traits on nonhuman objects and animals, is an ancient tradition in the art of storytelling. Existing studies on anthropomorphism in literature have mostly focused on its being a satirical device in adult fiction but paid less attention to how anthropomorphism is constructed in literature for children. This study was executed to examine the depiction of anthropomorphism through folktales, modern fables, and digitales-in selected contemporary Nigerian prose narratives for children intending to establish the use of anthropomorphized characters to bring abstract concepts to life. Jean Piaget’s cognitive constructivism was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. Five narratives were purposively selected because of their relevance to the study. The narratives were subjected to critical analyses. The face of anthropomorphism is revealed as a rhetorical tool through personification and metaphoric expressions. Anthropomorphism in children’s narratives serves as an attention grabber and a means of giving concrete information on learning through cognitive constructivism which is effective through a literature-based learning experience. In juvenile literature, anthropomorphism is used in building a relational attitude between the young readers and the fictional characters in the text for subtle facilitation of knowledge.

Some people cannot love even their family members, while some seemingly normal people have few paradoxical qualities. Is there a connection between their strange behavior and their childhood experiences? What is the role of childhood in the character development of a person? The psychologists consider childhood experiences as the building blocks of a person’s personality. Freud believed that the child’s bond with the parents is the key to his/her psyche. Erikson divides a person’s life into eight stages of development. Every child faces a crisis or a challenge at each stage. The resolution of the crisis would lead to the acquisition of virtue, while failure caused maladaptive. Karen Horney also puts forth similar views. If the child’s basic need is not met, he/ she would either move towards people or move against or move away from people. This article examines the portrayal of children, their challenges, idiosyncrasies, and impact of their experiences on their psyche in the fiction One Amazing Thing, written by famous Indian American author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni from a psychoanalytical perspective. She has written a few children’s novels also. A master storyteller, she weaves reality, imagination, and psychology together and creates both adult and juvenile characters who are true to life.

ABROAD is a short film, which tells a story of an Indonesian student, Priyo (23) who lived in Brisbane. He had to live in his yellow car, after finding out that his scholarship had been corrupted. Priyo began his new journey when he met Pamela (17), a runaway musician who was stuck in Brisbane for a night during her trip to Sydney. Their friendship grows stronger when they played music and performed together at Brisbane streets. Unfortunately, Priyo’s car was vandalized due to his religion. Later on, their friendship was tested as they explore the city for the first time. The film explores the journey to find the meanings of passion, dream, and faith. Depicted by the main character who is an Indonesian student, the film attempts to share the experience of students who chose to travel outside their home country, in search of better education for better life. Although most part of the story is fiction, the main character (Priyo) is inspired by the real life experience of an Indonesia student in Canberra. He lived in his car for two year while trying to complete his master degree. Dramas that were presented in the storyline were based on the writer’s observation toward his surroundings, friends, and communities. Living and studying in another country could bring great experiences to international students, but at the same time, living through differences in values and beliefs could be a challenging task. The meaning of ‘abroad’ is not just about people who live outside their home country. But, it could also depict people’s experience when they try to get out of their comfort zone in order to achieve a higher goal in their life. Based on these reasons, the main targeted audiences of the film are people from the age of 25 and above. Additionally, the film also attempts to target local audiences, especially parents, as a bridge between parents and children. Hopefully it could prevent the rising number of runaway’s children. The outline of the production begins with the script development, which will be completed by the end of November. As soon as the final script is done, the production will proceed with the pre-production from December until early January. This process includes assembling the crew, finding cast, art design, and composing music. The crew will consist of GFS students for the production crew and some Indonesian students who voluntarily want to help in funding and marketing. The production will start around late January or early February, Bernadus Yoseph Setyo Prabowo adalah staf pengajar pada Program Studi Televisi dan Film, Universitas Multimedia Nusantara. e-mail: bernadus.yoseph@umn.ac.id 54 Vol. X, No. 2 Desember 2017 and the post-production will begin in March. There are some challenges in this project. Firstly, the project has to combine two different cultures between Indonesia and Australia through out the process. However, having an Australian as the director and an Indonesian as the producer can solve these. The other problem is related to the sensitive issue around religion, especially Islam. Recently, the religion feels being judged in Australia because of the action of ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) and ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and Levant). There will be three problems that are going to be discussed in order to resolve the challenges of the project.
 Keywords: short film, film production, Abroad

Interviews with Canadian children’s public librarians reveal that they believe fiction and non-fiction scatological content has an important place in library collections, that children have an intellectual freedom right to access this material, and that adults have many misconceptions about the role of library collections and the development of juvenile humour.Des entrevues auprès de bibliothécaires jeunesses au Canada révèlent qu’ils croient que le contenu scatologique dans les documents de fiction et de non-fiction a sa place dans les collections en bibliothèque, que les enfants ont un droit intellectuel d’accès à ce type de matériel et que les adultes ont de nombreuses fausses idées quant au rôle des collections en bibliothèque et au développement d’un sens de l’humour juvénile.

This article is a study of letters written by American children to authors of juvenile fiction. It emphasizes the rhetorical and material choices children made in bridging the distance between themselves as writers and the authors who were to receive the letters. Focused on notions of convention, the study uses the theoretical concept of the slant to analyze the way the child writers conformed to conventions of writing and communication while also rendering those expectations askew. Ultimately, the stylistic techniques and content choices reveal methods children used to cocreate a world with the authors to whom they wrote.

Intra- and inter-generational family singing is found throughout the world’s cultures. Children’s songs across many traditions are often performed with adult family members, whether simultaneously (in unison or harmony) or sequentially (as in call-and-response). In one corpus of printed children’s songs, however, such musical partnering between young and old was scripted, arguably for the first time. Children’s periodicals and readers in late eighteenth-century Germany offered a variety of poems, theatricals, riddles, songs, stories, and non-fiction content, all promoting norms around filial obedience, virtue, and productivity. Readers were encouraged to share and read aloud with members of their extended families. But the “disciplining” going on in this literature was as much emotional as it was moral. Melodramatic plots to dialogues, plays, and Singspiele allowed for tenderness and affection to be role-played in the family drawing room. And the poems and songs included in and spun off from these periodicals constituted, for the first time, a shared repertoire meant to be sung and played by young and old together. Duets for brothers and sisters, parents and children—with such prescriptive titles as “Brotherly Harmony” and “Song from a Young Girl to Her Father, On the Presentation of a Little Rosebud”—not only trained children how to be ideal sons, daughters, and siblings. They also habituated mothers and fathers to the new culture of sentimental, devoted parenthood. In exploring songs for family members to sing together in German juvenile print culture from 1700 to 1800, I uncover the reciprocal learning implied in text, music, and the act of performance itself, as adults and children alike rehearsed the devoted bourgeois nuclear family.

The Bildungsroman has been extensively studied in the West, bit scholarly works on it in Africa are very few. This could be attributed to the fact that these narratives are sometimes treated as juvenile fiction because of the preponderance of growing-up children in them. I therefore examine how third generation Nigerian female writers subvert and alter the form in an African context to articulate the fact that growth as a universal human experience differs according to contexts and the space where it is negotiated. The paper concentrates mainly on Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, but I shall make passing remarks on Azuah’s Sky-High Flames and Atta’s Everything Good Will Come, not specifically for the purpose of intertextuality, but to demonstrate how these novels belong to the same tradition. From the plot structure and analysis of texts it becomes clear that the traditional western Bildungsroman has been domesticated within a postcolonial context to appraise narrative of growth. They offer a model of resistance to women’s oppression. The Nigerian variant of the Bildungsroman articulated in these novels portrays the struggle for individuation and the negotiations of feminine subjectivity, while concurrently depicting the plight of women in a society plagued by the debilitating forces of patriarchy, and alternatives to the plight.

Smith Milway, Katie. Mimi's Village and How Basic Health Care Transformed It. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 2012. Print.Mimi’s Village is part of the CitizenKid series, a collection that seeks to inspire children to be better global citizens. Based on Katie Smith Milway’s experiences working for non-profit organizations, the story is set in Western Kenya – a real-world context that is vividly supported by Eugenie Fernandes’ colourful full-page illustrations of flora, fauna and village life.Told in simple one-page chapters, this story introduces children to the health challenges experienced by Mimi and her family: unsafe drinking water, a child’s life-threatening illness, and travel through the night to a distant health clinic. As the story develops, readers begin to see that small steps can radically improve health in the village: clean water, vaccinations and mosquito nets. Perhaps most importantly, Mimi’s inspirational role – she asks her father, “Could you build a clinic too? Maybe then a nurse would come” – demonstrates that children can make meaningful contributions to their communities. This theme is carried into the book’s final seven pages, which include the story of a “real village health worker,” as well as concrete suggestions that answer the question, “How can you help?”The writing in this book is not the strongest and the title may not inspire child readers. In addition, younger readers will benefit from reading this with an adult. These shortcomings are, however, fully mitigated by Mimi’s engaging story and the book’s two important messages: simple public health measures will dramatically improve the lives of many children living throughout the world; and children everywhere can positively impact their world. This juvenile nonfiction book will make a compelling addition to any library collection.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Shelagh K. GenuisShelagh K. Genuis is an Alberta Innovates–Health Solutions Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health. Although an avid reader of biography, she has never stopped reading children’s fiction.

Abstract Background Still's disease in children is a rare autoinflammatory disease with distinct characteristics from other forms of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. A better understanding of its mechanism has led to the use of targeted therapies with a significant improvement in patient prognosis. Despite these advances, there are still subtypes of Still's disease refractory to the usual treatments with serious complications. Objective demonstrate therapeutic escalation in the Child’s Still Methods We report the case of a patient unresponsive to multiple disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), who required high doses of steroids. The biological ones were an inevitable recourse to improve the vital and functional prognosis; with at the end, a therapeutic escape with anti IL1 after two years of favorable response. Case report 12-year-old girl with no particular family history, with Still's disease diagnosed at the age of nine with a typical clinical form: thermal steeple concomitant with a morbiliform and evanescent skin eruption, polyarthritis, with hepatosplenomegaly. The diagnosis was confirmed by a major biological inflammatory syndrome with raise serum ferritin, serum C-reactive protein level and sedimentation rate. Despite doses > 0.5 mg/kg/d of prednisone, she showed high-threshold sensitivity to corticosteroids with the appearance of deleterious effects: Cushingoid obesity, stretch marks and bilateral cataracts. Methotrexate was added at a dose of 12 m/m2/week, without clinical response. She eventually developed severe macrophage activation syndrome which was successfully treated with bolus corticosteroids. Faced with this systemic form refractory to the usual treatments; biotherapy was used. Anakinra was added to his treatment at a dose of 2 mg/kg/day. Impressive improvement in systemic and joint clinical signs occurred within the first few weeks of treatment and acute phase reactants returned to normal. Anakinra was well tolerated and no adverse effects were observed. After 24 months of follow-up and complete clinical remission, without corticosteroid therapy, she presented with a severe flare of her disease with severe inflammatory runaway (SMA) and disseminated intravascular coagulation. After controlling this acute clinical condition with intravenous corticosteroids and ciclosporin; we switched to antiIL6 with a good clinical and biological evolution. Discussion The excellent response to anakinra in this case refractory to conventional treatments suggests that IL1 inhibition could be an important therapeutic target in some patients. Nevertheless, some subtypes of Still's disease escape anakinra after a few years of good response and this has been suggested by some authors. Conclusion Pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin IL1, IL6, and IL18 have been implicated in the pathogenesis of childhood Still's disease. In recent years, targeted biologics have been used with several cases of successful treatment in forms refractory to conventional drugs.

Hartt-Sussman, Heather. Noni speaks up. Tundra Books, 2016.Nominated for the Ontario Library Association’s Blue Spruce Award, Noni speaks up is the third book in the Noni series by Toronto-based children’s picture book author, Heather Hartt-Sussman, and acclaimed illustrator Geneviève Côté.When Noni sees Hector being bullied by other kids at school, and is encouraged by her friends to join in, she is unable to speak up; Noni is paralyzed by fear of making enemies if she stands up for her schoolmate. Noni feels bad for not defending Hector, but is uncertain about what to do.During a restless night, she worries about what might happen if she doesn’t take her friends’ side. She considers the things Hector is being bullied about. As Noni reflects on her relationships with her friends, she notices that they sometimes say and do things to her that are hurtful.When Noni goes to school the next day, she sees Hector being bullied again and experiences the same fear and inability to speak. But when her friend laughs at Hector’s misfortune, Noni has had enough and screws up the courage to defend Hector. Speaking out stops her friend laughing, and Noni and a grateful Hector actively ignore the bully’s taunting, demonstrating another strategy for dealing with bullying.Noni speaks up presents a realistic scenario and provides accurate, helpful information for dealing with bullying, in an empathic and reassuring manner. Young readers will relate to the events in the story, and the Noni models positive behaviour that children experiencing a similar issue could put into practice. This book meets the Juvenile Health Fiction Checklist criteria (described in the October 2014 issue of the Deakin Review).Readers who enjoy Noni speaks up can re-connect with Noni in Hartt-Sussman’s other books, Noni is nervous and Noni says no.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Maria TanMaria is a sessional instructor at the University of Alberta and a former editorial team member of the Deakin Review. She is the co-author, with Sandy Campbell, of the Children’s Health Fiction Checklist, described in the October 2014 Special Issue of the Deakin Review (Vol. 4, No. 2) https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/deakinreview/article/view/23321.

McAllister, Ian, and Nicholas Read. The Sea Wolves: Living Wild in the Great Bear Rainforest. Vancouver: Orca, 2010. Print At first glance, The Sea Wolves is a small coffee table book. It is not, however, just a pretty photographic exploration of the wolves that inhabit The Great Bear Rainforest. It is a very long opinion piece written expressly to convince readers that wolves are not “the big bad wolf” of stories; rather, we should all love and respect them. Authors Ian McAllister, a founding director of both the Raincoast Conservation Society and Pacific Wild, and Nicholas Read, a journalist, pull no punches in their attempt to sway the reader. While the book does present facts about the wolves and their environment, many of them likely accurate, the authors make sweeping statements and claims which they require the reader to accept at face value. For example, though the authors state that there is “a great deal of evidence to suggest that over-fishing, fish farms and climate change have all played a role in [the wolves’] decline,” this statement does not direct the reader to any evidence. Part of the purpose of the book is to educate the reader about the wolves; however, it is also clearly designed to manipulate the readers’ emotions. The authors attempt to get the reader to identify with the wolves through anthropomorphizing the animals and by drawing extensive parallels between the lives of wolves and the lives of people. For example, they state that the reason that wolves save the “tastiest deer” for their young pups “could be because, just as in human families, wolf families like to spoil their babies.” Furthermore, throughout the book, the authors choose emotionally-laden words and images, stating, for example, that wolves “have been persecuted by humans, with a kind of madness,” or that they “romp on the beach in the ocean foam that burbles off the waves like bubble bath.” Each interpretation of the wolves’ behaviour seems designed to achieve the desired effect of garnering sympathy for the creatures. While there is nothing wrong with writing a polemic against the dangers to wolves and their environment, this book is presented by the publisher as juvenile non-fiction for ages 8 and up. Children in upper elementary or even junior high school grades may have difficulty distinguishing between facts and strongly-worded opinions presented in a book labelled as non-fiction. Recommended: Three stars out of fourReviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

Shapiro, Simon and Sheryl Shapiro. What Can You Do with Only One Shoe: Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent. Illus. Francis Black. Toronto: Annick Press, 2014. Print.The publisher is promoting this charmingly-illustrated book as one intended to inspire a practical and constructive response to the environmental concerns with which we all must grapple. It is a theme which is oddly underrepresented in children’s books, perhaps because it is difficult to craft an approach which is empowering.This book considers popular contemporary ideas about recycling/repurposing everyday objects which have outlived their initial purpose, but it is not the do-it-yourself handbook that it appears to be. Instead, it is a collection of juvenile short poems with a humorously entertaining tone, but no clear message. Clearly, we should not judge this book by its title or by its covers. One poem makes fun of a toilet-turned-into-a-planter and offered as a gift, while another offers a range of silly suggested uses for a single shoe, including flattening pancakes. There is a poem which describes a tractor pulling a “broom propeller” for street sweeping which doesn’t work very well (“pebbles flying left and right”) and another in which a dog made of bicycle parts is less than satisfying (“he can’t lick my nose”). There are some poems with a less mocking tone, but which offer suggestions that are even more absurd, such as children making musical instruments from rusty cans retrieved from a landfill site or children building their own playground, complete with a swing and a slide, from an old ambulance. Intended for children aged 5-8 years old, I wonder what young readers would make of these poems.The illustrations by Francis Blake are by far the best feature of this book. Going well beyond what is found in the poems, the illustrator has created a marvelous cast of characters that are expressive in a way that is both quirky and charming. While the illustrations deserve four stars out of four, the text certainly does not.Not recommended: 1 star out of 4 Reviewer: Linda QuirkLinda taught courses in Multicultural Canadian Literature, Women's Writing, and Children's Literature at Queen's University (Kingston) and at Seneca College (Toronto) before moving to Edmonton to become the Assistant Special Collections Librarian at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta. Her favourite children's book to teach is Hana's Suitcase, not only because Hana's story is so compelling, but because the format of this non-fiction book teaches students of all ages about historical investigation and reveals that it is possible to recover the stories of those who have been forgotten by history.

News and AnnouncementsAs we move into the so-called “summer reading” mode (although reading is obviously not a seasonal thing for many people), here is a “summery” (pardon the pun) of some recent Canadian book awards and shortlists.To see the plethora of Forest of Reading ® tree awards from the Ontario Library Association, go to https://www.accessola.org/WEB/OLAWEB/Forest_of_Reading/About_the_Forest.aspx. IBBY Canada (the Canadian national section of the International Board on Books for Young People) announced that the Claude Aubry Award for distinguished service in the field of children’s literature will be presented to Judith Saltman and Jacques Payette. Both winners will receive their awards in conjunction with a special event for children's literature in the coming year. http://www.ibby-canada.org/ibby-canadas-aubry-award-presented-2015/IBBY Canada also awarded the 2015 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Picture Book Award to Pierre Pratt, illustrator of Stop, Thief!. http://www.ibby-canada.org/awards/elizabeth-mrazik-cleaver-award/The annual reading programme known as First Nation Communities Read (FNCR) and the Periodical Marketers of Canada (PMC) jointly announced Peace Pipe Dreams: The Truth about Lies about Indians by Darrell Dennis (Douglas & McIntyre) as the FNCR 2015-2016 title as well as winner of PMC’s $5000 Aboriginal Literature Award. A jury of librarians from First Nations public libraries in Ontario, with coordination support from Southern Ontario Library Service, selected Peace Pipe Dreams from more than 19 titles submitted by Canadian publishers. “In arriving at its selection decision, the jury agreed that the book is an important one that dispels myths and untruths about Aboriginal people in Canada today and sets the record straight. The author tackles such complicated issues such as religion, treaties, and residential schools with knowledge, tact and humour, leaving readers with a greater understanding of our complex Canadian history.” http://www.sols.org/index.php/links/fn-communities-readCharis Cotter, author of The Swallow: A Ghost Story, has been awarded The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award for 2015. Published by Tundra Books, the novel is suggested for children ages nine to 12. http://www.iode.ca/2015-iode-violet-downey-book-award.htmlThe 2015 winners of the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards were selected by two juries of young readers from Toronto’s Alexander Muir / Gladstone Avenue Junior and Senior Public School. A jury of grade 3 and 4 students selected the recipient of the Children’s Picture Book Award, and a jury of grade 7 and 8 students selected the recipient of the Young Adult / Middle Reader Award. Each student read the books individually and then worked together with their group to reach consensus and decide on a winner. This process makes it a unique literary award in Canada.The Magician of Auschwitz by Kathy Kacer and illustrated by Gillian Newland (Second Story Press) won the Children’s Picture Book Category.The winner for the Young Adult/Middle Reader Category was The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel (HarperCollins Publishers).http://www.ontarioartsfoundation.on.ca/pages/ruth-sylvia-schwartz-awardsFrom the Canadian Library Association:The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier (Penguin Canada) was awarded CLA’s 2015 Book of the Year for Children Award.Any Questions?, written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood Books) won the 2015 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award.This One Summer by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood) was awarded the 2015 Young Adult Book Award.http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Book_Awards&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=16132The 2015 Winner of the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Juvenile/YA Book was Sigmund Brouwer’s Dead Man's Switch (Harvest House). http://crimewriterscanada.com/Regional awards:Alberta’s Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature 2015:Little You by Richard Van Camp (Orca Book Publishers) http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/r_ross_annett_award_childrens_literatureRocky Mountain Book Award 2015:Last Train: A Holocaust Story by Rona Arato. (Owl Kids, 2013) http://www.rmba.info/last-train-holocaust-storyAtlantic Book Awards 2015 from the Atlantic Book Awards SocietyAnn Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature: The End of the Line by Sharon E. McKay (Annick Press).Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration: Music is for Everyone illustrated by Sydney Smith and written by Jill Barber (Nimbus Publishing) http://atlanticbookawards.ca/awards/Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award 2015:English fiction: Scare Scape by Sam Fisher.English non-fiction: WeirdZone: Sports by Maria Birmingham.French fiction: Toxique by Amy Lachapelle.French non-fiction: Au labo, les Débrouillards! by Yannick Bergeron. http://hackmatack.ca/en/index.htmlFrom the 2015 BC Book Prizes for authors and/or illustrators living in British Columbia or the Yukon:The Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize was awarded to Dolphin SOS by Roy Miki and Slavia Miki with illustrations by Julie Flett (Tradewind).The Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize for “novels, including chapter books, and non-fiction books, including biography, aimed at juveniles and young adults, which have not been highly illustrated” went to Maggie de Vries for Rabbit Ears (HarperCollins). http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners/2015The 2015 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award (MYRCA) was awarded to Ultra by David Carroll. http://www.myrca.ca/Camp Outlook by Brenda Baker (Second Story Press) was the 2015 winner of the SaskEnergy Young Adult Literature Award. http://www.bookawards.sk.ca/awards/awards-nominees/2015-awards-and-nominees/category/saskenergy-young-adult-literature-awardFor more information on Canadian children’s book awards check out http://www.canadianauthors.net/awards/. Please note that not all regional awards are included in this list; if you are so inclined, perhaps send their webmaster a note regarding an award that you think should be included.Happy reading and exploring.Yours in stories (in all seasons and shapes and sizes)Gail de VosGail de Vos is an adjunct professor who teaches courses on Canadian children's literature, young adult literature, and commic books and graphic novels at the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at the University of Alberta and is the author of nine books on storytelling and folklore. She is a professional storyteller and has taught the storytelling course at SLIS for over two decades.