2016 Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards
By 49thShelf
Missing Nimama
Kateri is a young girl, growing up in the care of her grandmother. We see her reaching important milestones her first day of school, first dance, first date, wedding, first child along with her mother, who is always there, watching her child growing up without her.
Told in alternating voices, Missing Nimama is a story of love, loss, and acceptance, showing the human side of a national tragedy. An afterword by the author provides a simple, ageappropriate context for young readers.
Nôhkom is teaching me to make fry bread. I stand on a chair at the kitchen counter and measure flour into her green mixing bowl.
"Your mother loved to cook with me when she was your age," she says.
"Does my mother speak Cree?" I ask.
"She does," nôhkom says. "Just like you."
"Did you tell her trickster stories, like you tell me?"
"Of course, kamâmakos. She liked Wisahkecahk stories best."
"Just like me!" I say. "Did you teach her beadwork and shawl dance?"
"I did." Nôhkom smiles at me. "Your mother is a beautiful dancer, Kateri. Just like you."
"Can we look at your photo albums, nôhkom?" I ask. She smiles as she takes one off the shelf. I climb off my chair and onto her lap and turn the pages, looking at my mother. When she was little, she looked just like me.
Thank you, nimama. Thank you for taking care of my child after raising your own.
Thank you for cooking and cleaning and doing laundry and buying birthday gifts and drying tears.
Thank you for telling Kateri about me.
For sharing stories about her mother with her.
For reminding her how much very I love her.
For not letting her forget me.
The Nest
A New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Best Book of the Year in the Globe and Mail, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, School Library Journal and The Wall Street Journal, called “a masterpiece” (Globe and Mail) and now in paperback
She was very blurry, not at all human looking. There were huge dark eyes, and a kind of mane made of light, and when she spoke, I couldn’t see a mouth moving, but I felt her words, like a breeze against my face, and I understood her completely.
”We’ve come becaus …
The Wolf-Birds
In a story set deep in the wild winter wood, two hungry ravens fly in search of their next meal. A pack of wolves is on the hunt, too. Food is scarce, but, if they team up, the ravens and wolves just might be able to help each other.
The ravens follow a pack of starving wolves on the hunt. The wolves come up empty handed – and even lose one of their own in the chase – but the ravens have better luck. The wolves hear the ravens cawing and investigate only to find an injured deer, the perfec …
A Year of Borrowed Men
When World War II "borrows" the men in seven-year-old Gerda's family, the German government sends them three new men in return: Gabriel, Fermaine, and Albert, French prisoners of war who must sleep in an outbuilding and work the farm until the war is over. Gerda knows they are supposed to treat the men as enemies, but it doesn’t seem fair. Can't they invite them into the warm house for one meal? What harm could it do to be friendly?
World War II was a time of great suffering in Europe and beyon …
I was seven when the French prisoners of war arrived at our house. It was 1944. Mummy told us the government had sent them because all our men were gone to war, and someone needed to keep the farms running. She said we were just borrowing the French men. When the war was over, we would give them back.
In a Cloud of Dust
In a Tanzanian village school, Anna struggles to keep up. Her walk home takes so long that when she arrives, it is too dark to do her homework. Working through the lunch hour instead, she doesn’t see the truck from the bicycle library pull into the schoolyard. By the time she gets out there, the bikes are all gone. Anna hides her disappointment, happy to help her friends learn to balance and steer. She doesn’t know a compassionate friend will offer her a clever solution—and the chance to r …
InvisiBill
Bill just wanted someone to pass him the potatoes.
Unfortunately, no one even noticed--not his mother (a very busy woman with an important job), not his father (a very important man with a busy job), not his very intelligent older brother, not even his very athletic little sister.
If someone had noticed, the wonderful, terrible thing that happened might never have happened.
But it did.
InvisiBill is the hilariously absurd, tongue-in-cheek story of an ordinary middle child who f …
Sidewalk Flowers
Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustrated Book
A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year
In this wordless picture book, a little girl collects wildflowers while her distracted father pays her little attention. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter.
“Written” by award-winning poet JonArno Lawson and brought to life by illustrator Sydney Smith, Sidewa …
Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox
In this introduction to the Anishinaabe tradition of totem animals, young children explain why they identify with different creatures such as a deer, beaver or moose. Delightful illustrations show the children wearing masks representing their chosen animal, while the few lines of text on each page work as a series of simple poems throughout the book.
In a brief author’s note, Danielle Daniel explains the importance of totem animals in Anishinaabe culture and how they can also act as animal guid …
