FIREFLY is an OLA Best Bets Selection 2021!

Thank you to the Ontario Library Association! Their expert nominating committee has chosen FIREFLY as one of their BEST BETS 2021, in the Junior Fiction category. 

This is an incredible honour, since it means that librarians, teachers and parents across the country will choose FIREFLY for their library, classroom and to read at home, too.

Here is the entire list, including best picture books,
teen fiction, non-fiction and adult fiction: OLA Best Bets 2021

The author as Firefly,
in a WWII Flyboy costume
Courtesy Thunder Thighs Costumes 

And KUDOS to my wonderful publisher, DCB Young Readers, for having THREE books on this list! Honestly, to have three of the top ten OLA books of the year chosen, cornering 30% of the selection ... well that's just mind-boggling. Kudos to all the authors, but also to publisher-siblings/authors Leslie Gentile and Valerie Sherrard! 

FIREFLY is having a great run, (it won the Governor General Literary award and is an OLA Red Maple nominee), and is getting a lot of really wonderful and appreciated attention. If the book makes a difference for a reader, if a child learns even just a little more about PTSD or reaches out for help, then my job is done.

BONUS: the wonderful librarians at an Ontario public school

set up a free online QUIZ about Firefly. They gave me permission to share it, enjoy!

All posts about FIREFLY on this BLOG

 

FIREFLY gets a Starred Review and is a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book!

"This fantasy specialist's shift into realism is a triumph."

The Globe 100: The Books we Loved in 2021 
The Globe & Mail, December 2021
Full list also available in the newspaper print edition,
Saturday, Dec. 4th, 2021

The great news for FIREFLY just keeps coming, and it's been an amazing month. In this space I've shared that FIREFLY won the Governor General's Literary Award for Young People's Text, and that it's an OLA Red Maple 2022 nominee.

The book has also just received a Starred Review in the Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Books of 2021 (Fall Edition). The book was also named one of 9 Great Holiday Reads for Kids by CBC's The Next Chapter in December.

Author and her publisher, Nov. 17/2021

AND, the Globe and Mail newspaper chose the book as one of its top 100 books of the year, in the Young Adult Fiction section. 

The quote above is astonishing: a triumph.

I'm deeply moved by that, and couldn't be more honoured that Firefly's story is resonating with so many people. I hope that it resonates with you, too. 

Please, this year support your local bookstore, and as always, read Canadian (then tell the world what you thought)! 

Keep reading everyone, and shine bright, Firefly!

Signing with my beautiful new pen,
 a gift from my wonderful publisher

More about Firefly:

Author Reading, YOUTUBE

Book Launch, YOUTUBE

All Posts about FIREFLY on this BLOG

FIREFLY is a Governor General's Award Finalist AND an OLA Red Maple Nominee

I've never had a week like this before. I don't think that as a writer, you can have a better week. Certainly, you would never expect a week like this. I'm still in shock. 

On Thursday, October 14th, I woke up to the news that FIREFLY was a Governor General's Literary Award Finalist, Young People's Literature (text). It is an incredible honour, one that I would never have expected. I've cheered on my friends, many times, and clapped with joy from the sidelines when they were nominated. But to be a Finalist myself? Never, not EVER, did I ever think that would happen. Tears of joy, wept along with my inner 9-year-old who used to dream of being an author one day.

I'm also incredibly honoured to be among the first group of Finalists with Mary May Simon, the first Inuk Governor General, in Rideau Hall. Here is a CBC article by Inuk journalist Pauline Pemik, Oct. 21/2021: Interviewing the Governor General in my Language felt like reconciliation.

Winners are announced on November 17, 2021. Stay tuned for that. Here's a video of me reading from FIREFLY:

The next day, October 15th, was the day that FIREFLY was shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association Red Maple Award. 

An incredible honour, this means that young readers in Ontario in grades 7 and 8 will be introduced to Firefly, an indomitable, funny, wise 13-year-old living in a park in downtown Toronto. I will be talking to kids (probably via Zoom etc) across the province about the book, then the young readers choose their favourite book out of the ten nominees. Next spring, 2022, the winners are decided in a big celebration. Stay tuned! 

Here is a post from 2014, about being a Red Maple nominee. That year I was nominated for The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden.

Shine bright, Firefly!

All posts about Firefly on this blog.