With the 2016 Red Cedar Gala just around the corner, we’re taking a look back at some of the highlights from the 2015 Red Cedar Gala! From fantastic guest speakers to yummy treats, last year’s gala had something for everybody. We can’t wait for this year’s gala!
Stay tuned to the Red Cedar blog for highlights from this year’s Gala!
For the past two years or so, Red Cedar’s dynamic volunteer duo, library technician Deepika Thaman, and librarian Sylvia Nurse, both based in the Lower Mainland, have enjoyed helping to review and publish reviews of Canadian nominated books from children across British Columbia. Students can read and review books in either the fiction or non-fiction category (or both if they’re really avid readers!) Deepika and Sylvia are delighted and amazed by the high volume of reviews received. To date, the results are absolutely fantastic as 200+ Red Cedar Award book reviews have been submitted so far. This definitely proves that in this high-tech digital age, children still love reading print books.
Have you checked out the reviews on our Red Cedar blog? The blog is a great activity to get students between grades 4 and 7 across the province excited about Canadian authors and books. A really neat touch to our website this year has been the posting of great interviews with authors like Charis Cotter and David Smith. A big thanks to all the teachers and teacher-librarians who shared their student’s thoughtful interviews with us.
Voting takes place in April, and once group leaders collect their group members’ votes they will be submitted through our website the week of April 18-22.
Stay tuned — the award winners will be announced at our Gala in early May! Is your reading group planning on coming to the Gala? Please RSVP at redcedaraward@gmail.com with the number of people that are planning to attend. More information about the Gala can be found on our website.
Interested in volunteering with Red Cedar? Check out our website for more information and to apply! We’re always happy to welcome enthusiastic volunteers,
This time we’ve got an interview with Charis Cotter, author of The Swallow. Ms. Cotter was interviewed by the kids at Garibaldi Highlands Elementary.
Dear Ms. Heikoop and Red Cedar students,
Thank you for writing to me and thank you for reading The Swallow. It’s very exciting for me to be on the east coast of Canada looking out over the Atlantic Ocean and thinking about children on the west coast of Canada, so many thousands of km away, reading my book. I get lots of good reading weather in Newfoundland too, and a rainy, windy day with the fire on is the best time to read a good book.
It is a great honour for my book to be chosen for the Red Cedar Awards program. I will do my best to answer your questions, below in red font.
Dear Charis,
Thank you so much for agreeing to take part in this interview with us. We were so excited to be linked up with you! Congratulations also on having your novel, The Swallow, in the Red Cedar Book Club. We have a keen group of grades 4-6 students who are reading through the club books. We attend Garibaldi Highlands Elementary School (K-6) in Gar. Hlds which is half way in between Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.. We have been having “perfect reading weather” – cold, wet and windy lately, and we are staying cozy with all of these great new books.
When you were our age, what was your favourite book? Out of your own books, which one is your favourite?
When I was twelve, my favourite book was The Lord of the Rings. But I also loved all the Narnia books, The Secret Garden and The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery.
The Swallow is my favourite of all the books I’ve written so far. It was the most fun to write.
What do you think makes your stories unique and what makes them such good stories?
I think my stories are unique because I write about how children really feel and how life can be hard when you’re a kid, even if you have a regular family. I also think they’re unique because I write about ghosts as if they were really part of our world, not a fantasy.
I hope my stories are good stories because they have lots of mysterious things happening and there’s lots of suspense. I like to keep readers wanting to find out what happens to the characters. I also like to think that my readers can relate to the experiences and feelings my characters have, and that makes a good story, if you can really imagine it all happening to you.
When you were young, did you and your family tell ghost stories at night? Do you still do it now?
My family didn’t tell ghost stories, but I went to a camp and we used to lie awake at night in the dark when we were supposed to be asleep and tell really scary ghost stories, like the story of the Green Hand. It was fun to be scared, but we had all the other kids in the tent with us so it was deliciously scary but we thought maybe we would be saved by the other kids if the ghosts actually came. I still tell ghost stories to friends but I try not to do it too much at night because I scare myself.
True! I’m a big chicken.
What project are you currently working on?
I am working on two projects: one is my next novel, called The Painting, which is about a girl who can walk into paintings in Toronto and find herself in Newfoundland. I’m just finishing that one up. I’m also starting my third novel, called The Ghost Road, which is about two cousins who find a mysterious road in Newfoundland that only they can see, and it leads them to discover a tragic curse that has been put on their family. The Painting will be published in 2017 and The Ghost Road in 2018.
What part of writing a book is the hardest for you?
Once I get to the middle of a book, I often get stuck with the plot. It’s hard to figure out what will happen next that will lead me to the end of the book. I usually know the beginning and the end of the story, but the middle is challenging. I also have a hard time with the endings, making them just right. I rewrote the end of The Swallow five times.
Thanks again for your this wonderful opportunity!
Thank you for all your thoughtful questions. I enjoyed answering them. Have a great spring and happy reading!
Charis
Thank you Ms. Cotter, Teacher-Librarian Sue Heikoop, and the kids at Garibaldi Highlands Elementary for this great interview!
With Red Cedar voting just around the corner, and our amazing Gala coming up soon, we’ve got another great author interview to share with you today! The kids at Manoah Steves Elementary in Richmond interviewed If? author David Smith.
Can you tell us about the other books that you have written?
I have 4 children’s books, and 1 book for teachers; the curriculum is called “Mapping the World By Heart”, and it helps teachers give their children the tools they need to create a usable mental map of the world for their own use. The other children’s books, besides “If”, the new one, are: “If the World Were A Village”, “If America Were A Village”, and “This Child Every Child” which is a look at children’s rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and which is endorsed by UNICEF.
Did you have a career before writing books and what was it/were they?
I taught grade 7 for 26 years, in Hawai’i, and then in the Boston area.
Where do you get your ideas from for your books?
Most of the ideas for my books come from my work with grade 7 students, and what I learned from them about the things that middle-school students want to know about.
When you write a book, do you get to choose who the illustrator(s) will be?
Yes and no; my publisher hires the illustrator, but I get to advise them. For the first three books, my illustrator was Shelagh Armstrong; for “IF”, it was Steve Adams. I haven’t been disappointed at all.
What made you want to or what inspired you to write this book?
“IF” grew out of several requests I have had since the release of “If the World Were A Village” to consider other things that can be scaled down, the way “If the World” scales down the world population of 7.2 billion into a village of 100.
Why did you name this book “iF”?
I thought it was fun and interesting and provocative. My publisher added “A Mind-Bending New Way Of Looking At Big Ideas and Numbers”, and this hasn’t worked for some of the foreign publishers — the French edition is simply entitled “The World In Your Hand”, and the Catalan edition is called “The World Brought Down To Your Size”
Where and when did you get the inspiration to write a book like this?
This topic was one that my grade 7’s and I had fun with — how big is a hectare, how big is the universe, and so on. For this book, I used some of the ideas I had my students play with, and also created new ones.
What was the best part of writing this book?
I had a truly brilliant editor, who was both incredibly supportive and a real task master, making sure every word I wrote was supportable by facts from several different sources. Her name is Val Wyatt; She worked with Kids Can Press for many years, but retired after the publication of “If”, so she won’t be working with me on the next project.
Is there going to be an “iF” 2?
There probably should be, but the next project is about water and sanitation around the world — again, with the support and help of friends at UNICEF.
If you rewrote this book in 10 years, how would the population change?
“IF the World Were A Village” was first published in 2002, and at that point, the population of the world was 6.2 billion; now, 14 years later, it’s 7.3 billion; 10 years from now, I’d expect it to be around 8 billion, and India’s population will surpass that of China.
Why did you want to write about the events of the last 3000 years?
One thing people have trouble understanding, sometimes, is the order and timing of how and when things happen; today’s grade 7’s have never seen a rotary-dial telephone, and may never have seen a typewriter, and so I thought it would be helpful to take a look at when important tools and ideas and events really did happen.
If a person wanted to write a picture book, what advice would you give to that person?
First, go to a children’s book store and ask “do you have anything about…” your idea; see what else has been done on the same topic. There are very few topics that haven’t been done by others, and you want to make sure your idea will add something new to the topic. Note who the publishers are.
Then, prepare a table of contents and three or four pages, mark each with a copyright statement, and go to the library and refer to a copy of The Writer’s Market and get the names and addresses of editors at the publishing houses you want to try. Send them a query letter with your materials, and with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Don’t hold your breath; it may take weeks or months, and you may get nothing but rejection letters, but do not be discouraged — every successful author has a file of rejection letters from their first efforts.
And finally, join some of the authors’ organizations, such as CANSCAIP or SCBWI, and attend their programs.
A big thank-you to David Smith, Teacher-Librarian Lauren Craze, and the kids at Manoah Steves Elementary for this great interview!
We’ve got a very exciting author interview to share with you on the Red Cedar blog today – Sara Westerholm is a Grade 6 French Immersion student at Signal Hill Elementary in Pemberton, B.C., and she interviewed Audrey (Cow) author Dan Bar-el.
Hello Mr. Bar-el,
My name is Sara and I am interviewing you for the Red Cedar Award, so before I get started I just wanted to say that your book “Audrey Cow” was one of the best books I have ever read! I loved Audrey so much, she was so loving and strong, which leads me into one of my questions,
It all started with the cow, Audrey, which was based on the actual Charolaise cow from Cincinnati, Ohio who escaped from the slaughterhouse. I began by asking myself questions. What was so unique about her in character, in intelligence, in willpower and fortitude, in how she viewed life, that would compel her to escape and stay uncaptured for so long, when most cows do not do that? From the answers I came up with, a character started to take shape.
With the other animal characters, part of my process was to look at each animal’s behavior or the typical traits we associate with those animals, and then apply human qualities to them. For example, we know that pigs are very intelligent creatures, so how would a “brainy” pig interact with the world? Would he be more interested in facts and information than making emotional connections with others? Would he feel somewhat superior to others because of his smarts?
It feels great! This is the first time I’ve been nominated for a Red Cedar, so that makes it particularly special. I like that this is an award determined by the readers. It means that students are engaged with the books they are reading. At some point, each voter has to make a choice and decide that this book means more to me than that book. It’s not even so much about the book that wins. It’s about each individual student learning something about themselves as readers. The choice they make will reflect their tastes, it will underline what’s important or meaningful to them, and what stories resonate inside their mind and heart. Authors love when readers tell them that they like their books, and authors can handle when a reader says they don’t like their books. What hurts an author the most is when their stories are ignored or the reader is indifferent. That’s why an award like Red Cedar is important. It makes the books matter.
Although I wasn’t working on it exclusively, Audrey (cow) did take five or six years to come together. I always knew that I wanted it written in 1st person, from Audrey’s point of view, and so every year I’d take out my latest draft and work on it for a bit, but the story would never take shape and I’d lose interest and put it away. It wasn’t until I decided to have not just one narrator but thirty narrators that I became really involved in telling the story and for a year, it was my main focus. But consider that even after my publisher, Tundra Books, accepted my story, I still had several additional drafts to work on with my editors before it became the book that you read.
That’s an interesting question. I’ve never been asked that. Some of the characters are kind of based on old Hollywood actors and actresses, like Oliver and Stan, Greta, and Torchy, but, of course, I’d never met them personally. I would say that there was no one particular in my life that I based these characters on, but I would say that in their creation, I got to know each of them very well, and had grown to care deeply for them. Eddie and Boris touch my heart as does Audrey and her mother, Jeannine. Doris makes me laugh and I also feel protective of her. I feel a bit sorry for everything that goes wrong for Kasey. And I could go on about Agnes and Norma and all the others too. Maybe, because this is a story told in voices, I’ve brought each of the characters deeper inside me in order to hear how they speak.
I wouldn’t say this about a lot of my books, but with Audrey (cow), I have a lot of satisfaction in its finished form, not just the writing, but the illustrations, the cover, the way it’s told in five acts rather than chapters, the fake quote at the beginning, all of it was what I had envisioned. With the writing specifically, I was fortunate to have had two amazing editors who worked very hard with me to make the writing as strong as possible.
However, if there is one loose end, it’s with Buster, the pig. Audrey’s situation at the end of story in much better than it was at the start, but Buster shares the same fate as Audrey, and nothing has changed in his life. If there’s a sequel to this Audrey (cow), then maybe it needs to address Buster’s future.
Thank you so much for this great interview, Sara, and a thank you to Ms. Benes, the Teacher-Librarian at Signal Hill Elementary! Stay tuned to the Red Cedar blog for more author interviews coming your way!
It is now officially April, the month young readers vote for the winners of the Red Cedar Book Awards!
Group leaders – please gather your group members’ votes over the next two to three weeks. We will collect the votes the week of April 18-22, through our website www.redcedaraward.ca.
To help you collect your group’s votes, we have created a Voting Tally form that can be found at:
https://redcedaraward.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RC201516_VotingTally.pdf
We will be sending the URLs for submitting your group’s votes prior to April 18.
The Red Cedar Award winners will be announced LIVE at our Gala , noon-3pm May 7th at the Vancouver Public Library (Central Branch). We hope to see you at this fun and free event! If members of your reading group are able to attend, please RSVP to redcedaraward@gmail.com
Happy reading & voting!
Cathy Mount
President, YRCAS of BC
The kids from École South Sahali in Kamloops are at it again, bringing us another fantastic interview, this time with Maria Birmingham, author of the nonfiction nominee Tastes Like Music.
1. Why did you want to call your book Tastes Like Music?
I actually had a different title in mind for the book. But the editors sat down and did some brainstorming to see what else they might come up with. They thought the topic of synesthesia was so interesting and especially liked the idea that some people can actually taste music. That inspired them to come up with the book’s title. When they told me their idea for the title, I was excited. I love it because it grabs your attention and makes you wonder just what the book is about.
2. How did you become interested in different ways that humans work?
I was watching a TV show and saw a woman talking about her extreme memory. (She had a condition called Superior Autobiographical Memory — which became the first topic in my book.) I was intrigued and began to think there must be many other unique conditions that we don’t hear much about. So I did some research and found there are quite a few! I got in touch with my editor and proposed this book to him. He got back to me and said they wanted me to write the book!
3. Do any of the topics in the book relate to your life? We just found the answer on page 39!
I have a funny story about this. I didn’t even include my condition — anosmia — in the original list of ideas I submitted to my editor. But he asked me if I could find a few more conditions to include in the book. While I was doing some additional research, I came across an article about anosmia and realized it would be a great topic to cover. The fact is that anosmia is a normal part of my life and something that I rarely think about, so it never dawned on me to include it in the book. But I’m sure glad I did!
4. How long did it take you to do the research for this book before you sent it off to be published?
It took about 6 to 8 weeks to do the research. And then it took another 6 to 8 weeks to write the book. I also sent each topic to an expert to look over what I’d written and then made the changes they suggested. I really wanted to make sure all of the scientific information was accurate. I also wrote second and third drafts. Writing can be a long process!
5. Have you ever written a novel?
I haven’t written a novel… yet! But I am working on a few picture books. I really hope to see one (or more!) of them published in the future. Fingers crossed!
6. Did you study to be a non-fiction writer?
I studied English and History in university. And then I went to college and studied journalism. I started writing non-fiction there, but got even more experience in writing in my first job, which was as managing editor of the Canadian kids’ magazine, OWL. After several years working there, I learned a lot about writing non-fiction for kids.
7. When did you first start writing?
I wrote when I was a kid. But I starting writing as a career when I worked for OWL. I wrote articles about animals and science. And I loved to do it. When I left OWL, I started to write a monthly feature in the magazine called the Weird Zone, as well as other articles. And after a few years, the editor of the book division at OWL asked if I was interested in writing a book. I was thrilled! It’s hard work, but lots of fun!
8. Do you have any other non-fiction books that you are working on?
My third non-fiction book called A Beginner’s Guide to Immortality came out in October. And I just finished a second draft of my fourth book that’s set to come out in 2017. Its topic is a bit of a secret right now, but I can tell you that it’s a technology book with a twist. Hopefully, you’ll keep your eyes out for it!!
A big thanks again to École South Sahali and their Teacher-Librarian Ms. Hunter!
We’re back with another great Red Cedar Award author interview! The Red Cedar Club at Ecole Heather Park Elementary in Prince George, Summer, Torrin, Erin, Trista, Mya, Leila, Megan and Maya, and their Teacher-Librarian Ms. Maria Weisgarber, interviewed Sarah Ellis, author of Outside In.
Questions about Outside In
What inspired you to write Outside In?
Every day I walk in a big park near my house, Queen Elizabeth Park. There is a reservoir at the top of this park. I often go “off-road” into the trails where the gardeners have their compost boxes and the maintenance workers keep their tools. One day I noticed a metal door in the side of the reservoir. I wondered what was behind it. I started to think about living under the reservoir. Then I started thinking about living entirely off the grid. How could you manage it? Where would you get food? Clothing? Education? Could you live without money? What kind of a family might live that way?
Where did the idea of Underlanders come from? Do you know any people who live like the Underlanders in the story?
I don’t personally know any Underlanders but once I invented them I started to notice magazine articles and documentary films about people who live in our society in different ways. There are people who grow all their own food in their own gardens. There are people who trade skills and goods, rather than using money. There are people who make art out of junk. There are people who live in the subway. There are people who “glean,” going over harvested fields and picking up the produce that the machines missed. There are people who live in city parks.
How did you come up with Lynn’s nickname “Sixer”?
Ha! That’s a good question. When I was a kid I was a Brownie and then a Girl Guide. Sixers were the leaders of the little groups. Was this Brownies or Guides, I can’t remember. Was I ever a sixer? Can’t remember that either.
Does the tall building Tron jumps from really exist?
Not that I know off. The kind of jumping Tron does is called “Base Jumping” and you can see it on youtube. But I made up the actual location. (Do I need to say this? Base jumping from buildings is illegal for good reason. It’s hugely dangerous. A young Vancouver man was killed just last year. But my characters sometimes do things that are foolish and I figured that this is exactly the sort of thing that Tron would do.)
Questions about writing
Why do you write?
I’m a reader and I’ve had such pleasure from reading my whole life that the idea of giving somebody else that pleasure makes me feel that writing is a worthwhile thing to do. I also just plain like doing it. I enjoy getting the words right. I like going out in the world and seeing something or hearing something and thinking “Hey, that would make a good bit in a story*.” Being a writer makes you notice things and pay attention. It makes the world a more interesting place. And I like the feeling at 5 p.m. that I’ve created something that didn’t exist at 9 a.m. Just our of my own head!
*For example here’s something I just found out about: There are adults who love Disneyland so much that they go there at least once a month, just by themselves, without kids. Now, I went to Disneyland once with a couple of kids and I had fun, but ONCE A MONTH?! Are you kidding me? What’s that about? The question, “What’s that about?” is a very good story starter.
When did you write your first book?
My first book was published in 1986. (Back when dinosaurs walked the earth.)
Are you writing any books right now?
Yes, I’ve got a short chapter book for little kids about a boy and his new baby sister. That one will be illustrated and it is pretty much done. I think the title will be Liam and Sophie. And I’m working on a novel for you folks about a family that takes in an American draft dodger in 1970. It is going to be about war and friendship and (yikes) love. (That one is a little bit autobiographical.) I’ve got 50,000 words and I keep adding more and so far it is a BIG MESS. I’m working on sorting out the mess. Believe it or not, that’s fun for me.
By the way, if you’ve got some time, could you do me a favour and tell me what the title “Square Five” might suggest to you? Anything? Hint: did any of you used to play hopscotch?
Questions about Sarah Ellis
Are you married and do you have kids or pets?
I’m not married and I have no kids of my own (nieces, nephews, step-daughter, foster grandchildren, there are important kids in my life)
As for pets: Memo the cat has just arrived from Catfe. She’s called Memo because as soon as she arrived at my place she jumped into the in-tray in my office. She is sociable and funny. Here she is:
Do you have siblings?
Yes, two older brothers. One is a retired policeman and one is an artist. We all like to make things.
A big thank you to the Red Cedar Club at Ecole Heather Park Elementary in Prince George for this great interview!
Stay tuned to the blog for more great interviews with Red Cedar Award nominees!
We’ve got another great interview on the blog today! The students at Spring Creek Community School in Whistler interviewed Zomboy author Richard Scrimger.
Teacher-Librarian Sara Leach says, “due to a technical glitch the recording of the interview didn’t work, so it is our best collective memory of his answers, rather than a direct transcript. He sounded much more eloquent live than we make him sound!”
1. What inspired you to write Zomboy?
My son liked zombies and I wanted to write one about friendly zombies.
2. What’s your process? How long does it take you?
It starts with an idea and I write them down. Then I write a draft. It takes about one to two months to write a draft of a book, and a year to get it out in published form. Writing is all about rewriting until you get the best draft possible. I’ve written 20 books in 20 years, so it works out to about a book a year.
3. What are you working on now?
I have three books coming out this year. One of them is a book call Lucky Jonah about a magic camera. When you take a picture you switch places with the person in the picture. It’s about a boy who is being bullied by his brother. He lives twelve lives in a day.
I’m also working on another book that’s a cross between Through the Looking Glass and Old Yeller. This guy falls through the world because he’s sad about his dad dying.
4. What are your hobbies?
Squash, running, playing with my kids, going to the coffee shop and the bar. I don’t watch many sports except baseball. We have a good baseball team in Toronto but our hockey team has been really bad for a very long time.
5. What books do you like to read?
I like to read fiction. I don’t like non-fiction. I like Gordon Korman. It doesn’t matter too much what kind of book, it just has to have a good story.
6. What will happen after Zomboy?
If I write a sequel the characters would go to Toronto and problems would happen to them. [spoiler deleted]
7. If we liked Zomboy what else might we like to read?
Arthur Slade, Martha Jocelyn, Kenneth Oppel.
A big thank you to Teacher-Librarian Sara Leach, the students at Spring Creek Community School, and Richard Scrimger for this great interview!
