Nelson nabs young readers’ top honours

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Young readers across Canada selected a book by Winnipeg’s Colleen Nelson this year as the top fiction book for grades 3 to 6.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/06/2023 (1193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Young readers across Canada selected a book by Winnipeg’s Colleen Nelson this year as the top fiction book for grades 3 to 6.

Nelson’s novel, The Undercover Book List, was selected for the Silver Birch Fiction Award in the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading awards. The novel is the story of two isolated kids in Grade 7 who bond through a secret book club.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

Other winning books in the annual reading program — in which kids in schools and community libraries across Canada vote on their favourites from lists of titles — were: Bear in the Family, by Eric Walters, illustrated by Olga Barinova; Are You a Cheeseburger? by Monica Arnaldo; Children of the Fox, by Kevin Sands; Daughter, by Kate McLaughlin; Fred & Marjorie, by Deborah Kerbel, illustrated by Angela Poon; Drôles de zèbres, by Mathilde Perrault-Archambault; La ligue des (pas si) champions 1 Basile, by Jocelyn Boisvert; and Seuls, by Paul Tom.

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Prairie writer Sharon Butala, author of 21 books of fiction and non-fiction as well as five produced plays, delves into family memories and secrets in her new novel, Leaving Wisdom (Thistledown Press).

The novel tells the story of a woman who slips on ice on the way to her retirement party and deals with a confusing whirl of memories while recovering from a serious concussion.

She launches the novel at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location Thursday at 7 p.m., co-presented by the Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

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A novel about trauma and family lore based loosely on Greek mythology is this year’s winner of the $60,000 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

Jasmine Sealy won the prize for The Island of Forgetting, announced at an event co-sponsored by the Walrus.

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The other shortlisted titles were A Minor Chorus, by Billy-Ray Belcourt; In the City of Pigs, by André Forget; Bad Cree, by Jessica Jones; Hollow Bamboo, by William Ping; and In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas. The other finalists each receive $6,000.

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From Manitoba Hydro’s newest dam to the Battle of Seven Oaks, books nominated for this year’s Margaret McWilliams Award for historical writing cover at least 200 years of Manitoba’s history.

The Manitoba Historical Society offers the award in two categories — scholarly and local history — and this year three titles are nominated in the former and eight in the latter.

Scholarly titles in the running are: Medicare’s Histories, by Esyllt W. Jones, James Hanley and Delia Gavrus and For a Better World: The Winnipeg General Strike and the Workers’ Revolt, by James Naylor, Rhonda L. Hinther and Jim Mochoruk (both from University of Manitoba Press); and The Fur Trader: From Oslo to Oxford House, by Einar Odd Mortensen with Gerd Kjustad Mortensen, edited by Ingrid Urberg and Daniel Sims (from University of Alberta Press).

Local histories are In Our Back Yard: Keeyask and the Legacy of Hydroelectric Development, edited by Aimée Craft and Jim Blaley (U of M Press); Taken from the Homestead: A History of Prairie Pioneers, by Sandra Rollings-Magnusson (Heritage House); Of Savages and Beasts: The Parson and the Carnage at Seven Oaks, by Lorren Pettit (self-published); Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Services: A History, by Allan Levine (Heartland Associates); Max Blankstein: Architect, by Murray Peterson (Winnipeg Architecture Foundation); Osborne Village, An Architectural Tour, by Susan Algie and James Wagner (Winnipeg Architecture Foundation); L’Université de Saint-Boniface: 200 ans d’évolution, by Michel Verrette (Editions des Plaines); and Flyway, by Sarah Ens (Turnstone Press).

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Organizers of the Manitoba Book Awards have decided to announce the winners of this year’s prizes in person tomorrow (June 11) rather than online, as they were doing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The gathering, which will take place at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location tomorrow starting at 3 p.m., is free to attend and will be an informal affair.

The event replaces the one slated to take place in the fall during the Thin Air: Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival.

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