• Age: 5 to 8
• Grade: k to 3
• Reading age: 6 to 8

Gita’s family has recently emigrated from India, but she has already made friends in her new home. Today, she is looking forward to her favourite holiday – Divali, a festival of lights. But Gita’s plans soon fall apart and she becomes homesick.

Rachna Gilmore is the critically acclaimed Governor General's Award winning author of numerous books with multiple honours and awards. Her publications include picture books, early readers, middle grade and young adult novels, as well as adult fiction. Her books are sold internationally with translations in French, Danish, German, Korean, Dutch, Spanish, Urdu, Bengali, Chinese as well as several other languages.
Rachna's fantasy novel, The Sower of Tales, won the National Chapter IODE Violet Downey Book Award, and was nominated for the Red Maple Award and the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award. Her YA novel, A Group of One, (published by Henry Holt, and now available in paperback in Canada, published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside) received a Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor citation and was included in the New York Public Library's Best Books for the Teen Age list.
A student of life, Rachna loves to explore the ideas that spark and seize her imagination, as well as to play with words. She calls the process of creating books plarking - work, she says, is too tedious and grinding a word to describe the delight of the creative process, and play doesn't quite convey the real time and effort that goes into completing a book, whereas plarking covers it all, especially as it also reflects the joy and song of larking about.
Born in India, Rachna has lived in London, England, Prince Edward Island, and now lives in Ottawa. A skilled and experienced presenter, Rachna loves to share her enthusiasm for reading and writing; she has given readings and workshops in schools, libraries and conferences across the country as well as internationally.
Website: www.rachnagilmore.ca.

Rachna Gilmore's profile page

Alice Priestley has illustrated numerous books including five other children’s stories. Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay was shortlisted for a Mr. Christie Book Award and the Amelia Frances Gibbon Award. Her other books include Winning the Girl of the Sea, The Watcher, Clouds on the Mountain and Someone’s Reading This Book. She lives in Toronto with her husband and children.

Alice Priestley's profile page

• Commended, Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Book