The Silver Birch Award is part of the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading programme. (for last year’s winner, see here.) The books are aimed at kids in grades 3 – 6, and the nominees are read and voted on by kids, who ultimately select the winner.
This year’s winner will be revealed very shortly, so in the run-up, I thought I’d share some of the nominees with you – I’ve been reading like crazy, trying to get through as many of the ten titles as I can before the big announcement! I can tell you that so far, these are some great books, many of which feature kids with Big Plans, always a favourite.
Zoobreak
by Gordon Korman
Apple Books
ISBN: 978 0 545 12500 0
When a classmate’s monkey is abducted and subsequently spotted in a crummy floating zoo, the kids from Swindled get started on a new plan to outwit unscrupulous adults. This time, they decide they need to plan a zoobreak after proper channels have utterly failed.
These kids have some mad skills, and put together, they form a dream team for a break-in, Ocean’s Eleven style. Things go a little awry, however, and soon they find themselves up to their ears in secondary problems, including what to feed a beaver and how to hide a loon in plain sight. Added to these problems is the impending loss of one of their number to a sleep academy, in hopes of solving his narcolepsy.
In classic Korman style, there are some great comedic moments, some mad scrambles, and an ending that is ultimately satisfactory on all counts. This is a trio of stories, so if kids enjoy this, they can always come back for more.
Dunces Anonymous
by Kate Jaimet
Orca Books
ISBN: 978 1 55469 097 8
Josh has a problem – his mom has big plans for him, but they are not at all what he wants. Frustrated, he starts a club for kids with similar parent trouble: Dunces Anonymous.
Soon, the three members are hatching plans to solve each others problems, and things are starting to get complicated. They weren’t counting on the wild cards of other kids and other parents throwing wrenches in the works, so there is soon some fancy footwork involved in just keeping their plans afloat! In the end, there are successes and failures, but best of all, some adjusted expectations on everyone’s part.
These kids are smart and resourceful, and the plans are mostly pretty realistic, hinging on what they know about their parents and their priorities, rather than relying on over-the-top stuff. In most cases, the plans are pretty harmless, too, and the kids aren’t getting themselves in big trouble except in one case, sand there is a definite lesson learned. This would be a great one to read together, especially as it might lead to some good open discussion about just this sort of thing!
The Archaeolojesters
by Andreas Oertel
Lobster Press
ISBN: 978 1 897550 83 0
When a dry summer threatens to shut down tourism in sleepy Sultana, Manitoba, it puts Eric and Rachel’s mother’s restaurant job in jeopardy, so they and their friend Cody hatch a plan to not just save the restaurant, but bring it booming business, making their mom indispensable.
The three start figuring out how to create a fake archaeological artifact and plant it so it will be found by a man with some credentials, and soon, the town in overrun, as they had hoped. Now the question is, will they figure out it’s a hoax, and who did it? Oh yeah, and who’s that strange man they keep seeing skulking around, who seems to know what they’re up to?
This trio is preternaturally clever and resourceful, and certainly there are a few leaps made, but the explanations and near misses keep it from being too unrealistic as they create something they hope will fool the experts. I like that their motive is unselfish (mostly), and that their hoax is not intended to hurt anyone. The edge of danger appears, but isn’t too taut with suspense, so it wouldn’t be too much, even for a child who shies away from tension. (The 2nd book is a little more tense, and further from reality, involving time travel – it was still fun, but I can’t say I loved it as much as this one.)
The Hunchback Assignments
by Arthur Slade
HarperCollins
ISBN: 978 1 55468 355 0
A small, malformed boy with a strange talent is bought by a mysterious man and raised by teachers of history, languages, and martial arts to be the perfect spy tool. As he turns to a young man, the time comes for him to help defeat an evil group with a mad genius in its midst and at the heart of its plan for destroying Britain’s power structure.
This book is full of nefarious characters with unmistakable characteristics, men and women with bold plans and steely determination, and fantastical flight of imaginary science. It is solidly steeped in steampunk, with the genre’s trademark blending of Victorian atmosphere and technology with an imagining of what the future looked like back then. This is a book for a kid who handles fantasy and suspense easily, as there is plenty of both of those, as well as some darker emotional territory around children being used for purposes of fighting adult battles.
Branded
by Eric Walters
Orca Books
ISBN: 978 1 55469 267 5
Ian isn’t too worked up about the new school uniforms, despite his friend’s outrage. He mostly enjoys school, and is getting really into the principal’s class on social justice. When he actually g
oes to pick up the new outfit, though, he notices that it is made by one of the world’s worst offenders in terms of labour violations, and brings it to the principal’s attention, hoping for action. He find that he has a decision to make about how to handle this information and try to effect the kind of change he’s been learning about while balancing his own academic future.
This book is by far the shortest of the bunch I’ve read and the easiest read, but it still requires some thinking and opens up some interesting questions for kids to chew on. For a reluctant or less proficient reader, this would be a great pick.
Neil Flambe and the Marco Polo Murders
by Kevin Sylvester
Key Porter
ISBN: 978 1 55470 266 4
This murder mystery stars a a boy prodigy in the culinary world, who relies heavily on his incredibly and accurate sense of smell to both perfect his dishes and aid the police in solving crimes. He is an arrogant, obnoxious character, but does learn a little along the way, as he tries to help solve a string of bizarre murders felling the city’s great chefs one by one.
That the murders all tie to a legendary text and voyage of Marco Polo gives this more interest, and the road to the answer is littered with false starts, misinterpreted patterns, and clues left by the killer to confuse the trail and throw suspicion on Neil himself.
This is a fantastic book – perhaps my favourite of the six I’ve read – but also more complex than the others both in plot and in the kind of references and jokes being made, many of which I suspect will be missed by kids, but enjoyed by any adults who are reading this aloud with them. While I read the followup to Archaeolojesters, this is the only one for which I am really excited about a sequel – and yes, there is one, and I’ll be going out and buying it.
And now, to wait for the winner to be announced – I’ll share it with you later this week!