The votes are in!

We had a great week last week at the library, ending all our Forest of Reading® voting!  The kids arrived on Thursday night nice and early and had their chosen books decided.  We have a very official vote, with a secret ballot and everything. The kids waiting their turn, got into the polling station and then placed their ballots in the box. While we enjoyed a party and some rewards, Janet tabulated the votes and presented us with the official winners from our library!

Here were the winners:

Silver Birch Non-Fiction

Blue Spruce

Silver Birch Fiction (part of a 3-way tie)

Silver Birch Fiction (Part of the 3 way tie)

Silver Birch Fiction (Part of the 3 way tie)

Silver Birch Express

We’ll send all of our votes along to Toronto where they’ll be compiled with the other votes from libraries and schools across Ontario.  And once the official votes are in, I’ll make sure to let everyone know how we did this year! Congratulations to everyone who read books this year, to those who completed all ten books in their category, and especially to those who read in TWO categories (that’s 20 books!).

And a HUGE thank you to Janet for taking care of the vote, to Sheila (and Bronte) for pouring drinks for an hour, and to Judi and the girls at the front desk for taking care of the extra crowd of people. We’re looking forward to next year already!

Voting Week!

Yes, it’s that time again.  Forest of Reading® voting week!  Specifically, we’re voting on Thursday, April 18th from 6 – 7 pm, but if you can’t make it that day, feel free to drop by the library anytime this week before then.

The voting list has been posted in the library.  If your name is on it (meaning…you’ve read at least 8 – 10 books & you’ve checked them off in our book), you are eligible to vote.  If you haven’t read enough books (but you’ve read at least 5), you’re invited to the party anyway.

We’ll post the list of winners that our library readers voted for later this week. And in May, we’ll let you know the official winners.  This is going to be exciting!

A Brush with Fame

One of the things we most anticipated at the Super Conference this past week was the chance to hear Canadian authors speak. I’ll admit, while Janet was eagerly anticipating the spotlight session with author Louise Penny, I was also looking forward to hearing nominated Forest of Reading authors talk about their experiences with the program. Both sessions took place at the same time, so we parted ways and found seats in our packed session rooms.

It’s funny how “regular” these people seem when you sit in a room with them. At my Forest session, the panel included picture book author/illustrator Rebecca Bender, charismatic author Jan Andrews, the funniest speaker of the morning–Kevin Sylvester, uber-famous juvenile fiction author Kenneth Oppel, Young Adult author extraordinaire Kelley Armstrong, French author Maxim Cyr and non-fiction author Cindy Watson.

They each talked about how they got started in the program, their experiences with writing and lots of stuff in between. The session was pretty full and everyone had a chance to ask questions at the end. It was also fun later on at the Expo running into Kelley Armstrong who was busy editing her latest manuscript in between signing books and bookmarks. (She’s learned to edit anywhere, she said, due to her insanely busy deadlines.)

After my session, I raced  over to hear the last of Louise Penny’s talk. Janet had a great seat and enjoyed the talk VERY much.  But we were both looking forward to seeing her up close after the session during the book signing. Janet, thinking ahead as usual, purchased one of her books the night before to avoid the lineups and was only about ten or so people from the start of the line. Ms. Penny was gracious and pleasant, taking time to speak with each person who was having a book signed. And while she couldn’t divulge any secrets about her upcoming books (darn!), we managed to get a great shot of Janet alongside her favourite author. (Yes, she probably could have left the conference right then, completely happy.)

But the thing we laughed about the most was my paparazzi skills later on. It seems that I always get the most flustered with visiting picture book authors (I am a children’s librarian, after all!).  When we heard that one of my absolute favourite authors, Oliver Jeffers, was going to be there the next day to sign books, we made a special point of coming back to the Expo. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, they’d run out of books.  Yes, we got to see him signing books, but it was a little disappointing.  Never fear, however, Janet happened to notice him a while later looking at picture books at one of the displays. I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick shot. Yay!  (No, I wasn’t stalking. Honest.) It was a great moment, nonetheless.

We came home happy we’d attended the sessions we wanted, and got a few extra moments of excitement by brushing with fame!

It’s a Forest in here!

(Getting ready for Forest of Reading®)

It’s back….Forest of Reading® at the Carleton Place Public Library!  This is one of our favourite reading programs and we’re excited to begin in December so that the kids have a head start. It runs now through the end of April, so there’s plenty of time, but why not drop in, sign up and get reading now?

What exactly is Forest of Reading®?  It’s a wonderful annual program where kids from Kindergarten through Grade 6 aim to read TEN Canadian books from a selection based on their grade level, and then they get to vote on their favourite book! Once all the winners are tabulated, the Canadian authors/illustrators with the most votes win an award. What’s so unique about this?  It’s the only award given to a Canadian author that is only chosen by children!

This year, we’re planning something special with our display wall, so watch for more on that soon. In the meantime, the books are ready to go, and this year, we’re participating in the following categories:

Blue Spruce™ — Kindergarten to Grade 2

Silver Birch Express™ –  Grade 3 & 4

Silver Birch Fiction™ and Silver Birch Non-Fiction™ — Grades 5 & 6

And this year, we’re trying something new…..a French category for children in Kindergarten to Grade 4 called Le Prix Peuplier™!

In January, we’ll have more detailed information about the books and the categories and how the program runs. In the meantime, if you think your young reader would like to participate, drop by the library later this week to register and get started!

It’s a Jungle out there. No, wait, it’s a FOREST!

This week, we registered for the wonderful Forest of Reading® Program once again. This year is going to be even more exciting, with a new category and of course, lots of new books! While it doesn’t officially start until December here, I’m going to give you a little preview and explain the new category as well.

First, what is Forest of Reading®? It’s the largest recreational reading program in the country, where kids get to pick the winning books! They read from a selection of ten books in their age category and then vote at the end of the session. Once the child registers, all they have to do is come in and take out a book and get reading.

It’s a great program because there’s plenty of time to finish all ten books. We’ll start in December and run this through April. At the very end, we’ll have a special voting night and party to celebrate, and post “our” winning books. It’s usually lots of fun and the kids get to read a great selection of amazing Canadian books. Plus, it’s free!

This year, we’re running three different categories, including one in French! For kids in Kindergarten to Grade 2, we’re offering The Blue Spruce™ Award and Le Prix Peuplier. For children in Grades 3 & 4, it’ll be the Silver Birch Express™ Award, and for the slightly older set (Grades 5 & 6), we’re offering the Silver Birch Fiction™ category as well as the Silver Birch Non-Fiction™ Award category. In order to be able to vote in April, participants at our library will have to read at least seven out of the ten books in their category. Often, we have many readers who finish all ten books, however, and some who even move on to try the next category!  It’s very exciting.

Don’t worry, we’ll have lots more information closer to the start date in December, but you can read more about the program here if you’re interested. Right now, we’ve ordered the books and we’re going to start reading right away! We’ll also visit the schools in the coming months to get kids involved.  This is one of our most popular programs, so if you’re looking for a way to motivate your young reader, this is it.  Stay tuned!

They came, they voted, they ate cake!

Last night was our Forest of Reading® voting night at the library and what an exciting night it was! We had plenty of voters this year, many who had read all 10 books in their category. They registered with Janet, who handed out the ballots and then the kids went into the voting booths and made their decisions.

There were plenty of tough choices for the kids. For some, it was down to the wire on which books they’d choose as their favourites. But after much thought, the winners in our library were as follows:

Blue Spruce – A Flock of Shoes

Silver Birch Express – Banjo of Destiny

Silver Birch Fiction -  That Boy Red

Silver Birch Non-Fiction – Don’t Touch That Toad

Everyone had a great time after the vote, eating cake and looking at their prizes.

Now, we’ll send our tabulations to Toronto, where they’ll be added to those of all the other participating libraries and schools. We’ll wait for the official announcement after May 15th and then let all our readers know which books won. It’s always exciting to see if our readers pick the same winners.

Thanks to Janet for all her voting help and a BIG thanks to everyone who read books this year and came to vote. Great job everyone!