Story Planet

Congratulations to Shane Peacock and Jane Barclay, winners of this year’s Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards for their books; Vanishing Girl: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Third Case and  Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion

I recently met Shane when he was doing a mystery workshop for kids at Wychwood Barns with Small Print (http://www.smallprinttoronto.org/).  I have to say, he was just wonderful with the kids.  His generosity of spirit, good humour and clear passion for his writing, created an atmosphere of collegial fun and creativity that warmly inspired the kids.  We’re looking forward to the next instalment of the Young Sherlock Holmes and, even though Shane shared the potential title of his next book, I’ve decided to keep it a mystery!  Check out Shane at http://www.shanepeacock.ca/

For more info on the award, check out: http://www.arts.on.ca/Page3790.aspx

We’re enjoying a fab workshop at Wilmington School.  The students got creative with artist Gwen McGregor and here’s the evidence to prove it!

We’re creating stories about aliens and we’re going to illustrate our books using collage – here’s a taste of some of the practice exercises; making flowers and houses using magazines, hands (no scissors allowed!) and imagination!

Day 2 – The Aliens have landed…stay tuned!

I spent yesterday down at the Forest of Reading awards and events at Harbourfront along with 4000 students in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 – not an intimate affair!  This is OLA’s (Ontario Libraries Association) yearly chance for kids to vote on and then come and see authors bidding for the Blue Spruce, Silver Birch, Red Maple, White Pine and Le Prix Tamarack titles. Robert Weston (winner of the Silver Spruce award) put it best when he said even though people told him what to expect, seeing all the kids in front of him cheering, was overwhelming and he literally got choked up…It made me think, these people truly are worthy celebrities.  They connect with kids in a deep and lasting way; they open kids’ minds and hearts to new ways of thinking, feeling and describing the world, and they introduce them to characters, situations and places they might otherwise never see.  What further stuck with me was their love of the kids themselves.  Watching Natalie Ghent chatting with such humour and genuine interest to kids about ghosts, Cyndi Sand-Eveland making the kids laugh as she got them digging into how one word can describe so much, or Robert Weston playing a game with over a hundred adoring and loud fans, for an HOUR, and never losing his calm and warm composure.  Remarkable, really.  Ok, drum roll brrr, brrr, brrr, brrr… and the winners are:

Blue Spruce Award (Kindergarten–Grade 2):
Jeremy Tankard, Boo Hoo Bird (Scholastic Canada Ltd.)

Silver Birch Express (Grade 3–4):
Cyndi Sand-Eveland, Dear Toni (Tundra Books)

Silver Birch Fiction (Grade 4–6):
Robert Paul Weston, Zorgamazoo (Penguin Group Canada)

Silver Birch Non-fiction (Grade 4–6):
Larry Verstraete, At the Edge: Daring Acts in Desperate Times (Scholastic Canada Ltd.)

Red Maple Award (Grade 7–8):
Susin Nielsen, Word Nerd (Tundra Books)

White Pine Award (Grade 9–12):
Pam Bustin, Mostly Happy (Thistledown Press)

Le Prix Tamarack (French Language Initiative Program):
Sylviane Thibault, Haut les pattes, Twister! (Pierre Tisseyre)

For way more info: http://www.accessola.com/ola/bins/index.asp

Came across this hugely talented man thanks to twitter (yep, I said, thanks to twitter!)  Talk about the ability to express himself!  Paul Dateh learnt violin at age 4 and was classically trained for 15 years before switching to jazz.  Now he’s turned his sights to Gaga, sans the wardrobe.  He’s so comfortable and at ease with the violin, its like an extension of himself making it a total delight to watch and listen to.  Check him out  http://pauldateh.com/

On May 4th we held a Discuss and Plan get together to figure out where we are and where we’d like to be.  It was a great meeting and I’d like to thank everyone that battled the traffic to come  out!  From talking about creativity, brain research and boys reading, to planning an alien truck stop store front, and school funds, the conversation was rich, the ideas flowed and the sense of what the centre could be grew.  A big part of the start up of this venture is funding and we talked about sustainability as a goal.  But what heck does that mean in practical terms!  Partly, its about diverse funding – we’ll always be partly dependant on government support but its balancing that with finding tangible ways to make money (while keeping our core activities at the centre free) and ensuring we attract a wide array of donors, private and corporate.  So, if any of you out there have ideas and time you’d like to volunteer  to help build a strong funding base, give us a shout!

Next meeting will be in June with a strong 826 focus!  Stay tuned…!