Susan Keeping

The Trillium Book Award/Prix Trillium encourages excellence in literature through its significant investment in Ontario-based writers. Award recipients for both English and French works receive $20,000. Their respective publishers also receive $2,500 to promote the winning titles. All finalists receive a $500 honorarium.

Three English titles and two French titles and are short-listed for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, which recognizes literary achievement for a first, second or third published work of poetry. The winner for each of these awards receives $10,000 and their publisher $2,000 for promotion of the titles. Finalists for these awards also receive a $500 honorarium.

The winner will be announced on June 12, 2008.

The White Pine Award™ reading program offers high school-aged teens at all grade levels the opportunity to read the best of Canada's recent young adult fiction titles. All of these 10 books for Young Adults on this list are accessible and will allow all readers to be successful participants/voters. As in all of the independent reading programs, a reader only needs to read 5 books out of a list of 10 to qualify to vote. Based on student voting across the province, the most popular book is then selected and author is honoured with the White Pine Award™.

The Blue Spruce Award™ is a provincial primary reading program which brings recently published Canadian children's picture books to Ontario children ages 4 to 7 in kindergarten through to grade two. For many children, this is their first introduction to the world of books; it is a very exciting time for everyone.

The students will peruse 10 nominated Canadian picture books and then vote for their favourite book. Based on student voting across the province, the best picture book is then selected and the author/illustrator is honoured with the Blue Spruce Award™.

The Blue Spruce and Silver Birch programs were realigned in 2007. Blue Spruce now is geared to Kindergarten to Grade 2, with Silver Birch covering Grade 3 to Grade 6. In order to appeal to all of the readers from Grade 3 to 6, a third list has been created, the Silver Birch Express. This list is a combination of fiction and non-fiction, aimed at the Grade 3 - 4 reading level. The idea is to offer this option to all Silver Birch readers, allowing the ESL student, reluctant reader, special need student and the younger students in the group a list that will encourage reading both fiction and non-fiction. All of the books on this list are accessible and will allow all readers to be successful participants/voters. As in all of the independent reading programs, a reader only needs to read 5 books out of a list of 10 to qualify to vote.

The Red Maple Award™ reading program is offered for the enjoyment of students in Grades 7 and 8. The program, like the Association's Silver Birch Awards™ reading program, gives students who have read a minimum number of nominated titles the opportunity to vote with a large group of their peers for thenominated title that they feel should win the Red Maple Award™ each year.