Press Release

For Immediate Release

Canadian Library Association Announces 2010
Young Adult Book Award Winner and Honour Books

(Ottawa, April 15, 2010) The Canadian Library Association / Association canadienne des bibliothèques is pleased to announce the 2010 Young Adult Canadian Book Award winner and Honour Books for books published in 2009. The award is generously sponsored by Library Services Centre in Kitchener, Ontario.

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston, published by HarperCollins, is the winner.  The Honour Books are The Gryphon Project by Carrie Mac, published by Puffin, and The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade, published by HarperCollins.

In Wondrous Strange, seventeen-year-old Kelley Winslow finally lands the lead role of the fairy queen Titania in a community production of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, if only she could stop messing up during rehearsals! While rehearsing her lines privately at Central Park, she meets Sonny Flannery, a guard of the Samhain Gate, the doorway between the mortal world and the Faerie’s Otherworld. Sonny opens Kelley’s eyes when he discovers that she is the target of the dark but powerful forces from the Faerie realm.

In Carrie Mac’s The Gryphon Project, Mac describes a place where death no longer exists as long as you still have a recon left. But reconning can only take place if the death is deemed an accident and approved by the governing body, Chrysalis. When Phoenix’s popular daredevil brother Gryphon dies in a horrifying incident that is deemed a suicide, she must find a way to secure his recon.

Arthur Slade’s The Hunchback Assignments tells the story of Modo, a hunchback who has the ability to transform his appearance. He has been raised as a secret agent by Mr. Socrates, his benefactor. Modo does not experience the outside world until he turns 14, when Mr. Socrates leaves him at a corner of London one afternoon. In order to survive, Modo applies the skills he has learned and finds himself involved in uncovering a monstrous plan like no other.

A complete list of the 2010 finalists, as well as information on past winners, is available on the CLA web site here.

The Young Adult Book Award was established by the Young Adult Caucus of the Saskatchewan Library Association in 1980. The award recognizes an author of an outstanding Canadian English-language work of fiction (novel or collection of short stories) that appeals to young adults between the ages of 13 and 18. Previous winners include Martha Brooks, William Bell, Shyam Selvadurai, Miriam Toews, and Polly Horvath.

The award will be presented at this year’s Book Awards reception, on June 3, 2010, in Edmonton, Alberta, during the CLA 2010 National Conference & Trade Show.

The Canadian Library Association / Association canadienne des bibliothèques is Canada’s largest national and broad-based library association, representing the interests of public, academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library workers, and all those concerned about enhancing the quality of life of Canadians through information and literacy.  

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the 2010 CLA Young Adult Book Award Committee:

Elsa Ngan, Toronto Public Library
Lisa Doucet, Woozles Children’s Book Store, Halifax
Carol Rigby, Contract Cataloguer, Iqaluit, Nunavut
Barb Janicek, Cambridge Libraries
Kim Hebig, Wheatland Regional Library

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Media Contact:  Elsa Ngan, 416-395-5784