Staff
In the spirit of Earth Day, the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre last week launched a new program to get adult patrons to “branch out” in their recreational reading.
As a participant in the Ontario Library Association’s annual “Evergreen Award” recreational reading program, the library is encouraging adults to read 10 books between now and October.
These books, chosen especially by Ontario librarians, include:
•Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill (Greystone Books);
•Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (Douglas & McIntyre);
•Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes by Kamal Al-Solaylee (Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.);
•Tell It to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami (Knopf Canada);
•The Deception of Livvy Higgs by Donna Morrissey (Viking Canada);
•The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott (Doubleday Canada);
•The Western Light by Susan Swan (Cormorant Books Inc.);
•The Winter Place: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva Stachniak (Bantam);
•Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer (Penguin); and
•Up and Down by Terry Falls (Douglas Gibson Books).
One copy of each of these books is on display in new glass cases purchased thanks to the “Friends of the Library.”
Copies of the books are available for loan in hardcover and e-book formats.
After they have read all of the books, readers here then can vote along with book-lovers across the province for which one they thought was best.
Their vote will help determine the winner of an award.
Voting happens in October during Ontario Public Library Week, with the winning author to be presented with their Evergreen Award during the Ontario Library Association’s “Super Conference” next February.
The books to be read in the Evergreen Awards program are chosen each year by a selection committee.
It reviews a long list all of the suggested titles received by the OLA and submitted by publishers, and come up with a short-list of 10.
These books may be fiction, non-fiction, a biography, a memoir, a travel book. or a graphic novel; the only stipulation is that they have been written by a living Canadian author.
Each February, a new list of books is revealed at the OLA’s “Super Conference.”
The Evergreen Awards program is part of a more comprehensive “Forest of Reading” program, which includes eight categories in total aimed at children and young adults, as well as adults.
The purpose of the program is to foster the love of reading and spark discussion amongst library patrons, as well as expose them to Canadian authors and publishers.
“Forest of Reading” is Canada’s largest recreational reading program, with more than 250,000 readers participating annually through their school and public libraries.
