Festival of Trees 2011

The Ontario Library Association hosted another successful Forest of Reading Festival of Trees at the Harbourfront Centre on May 11 and 12th. It is always one of our highlights of the year to see hundreds of readers cheer for their favourite books.

As usual, the yellow school buses line up along Queens Quay West after delivering students from all over Ontario to the festival.

Tundra went in with four nominated titles this year. In the Blue Spruce category, we have Jane Barclay and Renné Benoit’s Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion. Can you spot Jane Barclay on stage? She’s the author taking a photograph of the audience.

Congratulations to Dave Whamond, My Think-A-Ma-Jink was named the winner of the Blue Spruce Award.

Another rewarding parts of the festival are the author and illustrator signings. Just look at the number of readers lining up!

We found Monica Kulling signing autograph sheets and copies of It’s a Snap! George Eastman’s First Photo, illustrated by Bill Slavin. Bill wasn’t able to attend, but he and Esperança Melo lent Monica their Brownie camera (made by George Eastman) to show all the kids.

Congratulations to Ashley Spires, Binky the Space Cat won the Silver Birch Award – Express category!

Ann Love and Jane Drake were there to sign Talking Tails: The Incredible Connection Between People and Their Pets. Their book was nominated for the Silver Birch Award – Nonfiction.

Congratulations to Valerie Wyatt and Fred Rix, their book How to Build Your Own Country was named the winner!

S&B Books also had a tent to sell all the nominated titles. They are the official sponsor and wholesaler for the Forest of Reading program.

We also noticed that the children could leave little notes and messages for their favourite authors and illustrators. Very cool idea!

Thank you to all the organizers, volunteers, authors, illustrators, teachers, and students for all their work! Again, congratulations to all the authors and illustrators! Until next year!