Since October, students in the Junior School at Trinity College School have been reading the Forest of Reading books. Students all across Canada participate, read the books and vote on their favourites. We read books in the Silver Birch (Grade 5 & 6 fiction), Red Maple (Grade 7 & 8 fiction) and Yellow Cedar (Grade 5 & 6 non-fiction) programs. There are 10 books in each program and we tried to read as many as possible. We all voted on our favourite book. Our Silver Birch favourites were Swept Away, Berani, Umbrella House and Apartment 713. Our favourite Red Maple books were The Fort and Squire.
Silver Birch Award Ceremony
On May 14th, 19 Grade 5 and 6 students went to Toronto to attend the Silver Birch Festival and award ceremony where the winner was announced. While at the festival we waited in line to get our books signed by the authors. It was super fun to meet them in person and talk to them. We also went to some workshops offered by some of the authors. Kevin Sylvester showed us how to doodle and draw, as well as telling us about how he wrote his books.
The ceremony was so exciting. It was like a rock concert for readers! There were about 800-1,000 kids there, all screaming for books and authors! Each author was introduced by a student and then the author spoke to us about their book. Then the finalists were announced: Swept Away by Natalie Hyde, Paws by Nathan Fairbairn and Illustrated by Michele Assarasakorn, and Apartment 713 by Kevin Sylvester. The final winner was...drumroll...Apartment 713 by Kevin Sylvester. The crowd went crazy, cheering, clapping and waving books in the air!
Highlights for us were:
- Getting my book signed by Swept Away author Natalie Hyde
- Getting a photo with the author of Berani, Michelle Kadarusman
- Meeting students from other schools while waiting in line
- Attending a workshop by Kevin Sylvester
- Cheering at the ceremony
Red Maple Ceremony
On May 15th, a group of Grade 7 and 8 students travelled to Toronto to attend the Red Maple festival and award ceremony. It was exciting. We loved getting our books signed by authors. Meeting Kevin Sands and Gordon Korman was amazing. The lines were so long but it was worth the wait to meet them. It was also a good chance to meet students from other schools and chat with them about the books.
At the ceremony, each author was introduced by a student and they shared some interesting information about each author. The crowd was super excited and screamed and yelled to show their support. The finalists were announced: The Fort, The Last Saxon King and Squire. The winner was...drumroll...The Fort by Gordon Korman! That was our favourite too!
Highlights for us were:
- Meeting Gordon Korman
- Getting our books signed by Nadia Shammas
- Shaking Kevin Sand’s hand
- The churros!
- By Sarah Torrible, teacher librarian
