The Silver Birch Award

The Silver Birch Award debuted in 1994 under the umbrella of the Ontario Library Association. Honouring books geared to Grades 3 to 6, this award recognized both Fiction and Non-Fiction books. Registered classes and/or groups read at least five books from an Official Selections List. They cast their votes in the Spring.  The first winner was Daniel's Story, written by Carol Matas.  Here are some of the titles that stand out for me:

1995 Polar:  The Titanic Bear (Daisy corning Stone Spedden)

The true story of a Steiff bear that, along with his owner, a 7 year old boy, survived the sinking of the Titanic.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2157716.Polar_The_Titanic_Bear

2000 The Secret of Gabi's Dresser (Kathy Kacer)

When the Nazis conducted house searches for Jewish children in Eastern Europe during WWII, Gabi hid in a dresser in her dining room.  The only piece of furniture that survived the war, it now sits in her daughter Kathy Kacer's Toronto home.

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/015020/f1/nlc000500-v6.jpg

2003 Hana's Suitcase (Karen Levine)

Holocaust education centre operator Fumiko Ishioka received an empty suitcase from Auschwitz. Children visiting the centre asked her about the owner, whose name was written on the suitcase.  A year of research revealed that Hana Brady, born in Czechoslovakia in 1931, was deported along with many other Jews in her town, to Auschwitz during WWII.

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/m/episodes/inside-hanas-suitcase

2008 The Secret of Grim Hill (Linda De Meulemeester)

Cat Peters wins a soccer match and accepts the prize of going to a private school.  However, inside the halls of the old school, a mystery waits to be revealed about what happened to the last soccer team that attended the school and then disappeared.

http://grimhill.com/the-books/

2010 At the Edge:  Daring Acts in Desperate Times (Larry Verstraete)

Over twenty stroies about ordinary people who show extraordinary courage during the Halifax Explosion, the Tianamen Square protests, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/At-Edge-Daring-Desperate-Times/dp/0545273358

2012 Undergrounders (David Skuy)

Twelve year old Jonathon's mom dies and his landlord kicks him out.  Facing life on the streets, he finds a group of kids living underground who steal to survive.  Jonathon steals hockey gear, suits up and is welcomed by his new "family", a hockey team.  How does he keep his homelessness a secret?

http://fernfolio.edublogs.org/2011/12/14/undergrounders-by-david-skuy/

2013 Making Bombs for Hitler (Marsha Skrypuch)

Lida is kidnapped by the Nazis during WWII and forced to work as an Ostarbeiter in a German munitions factory making bombs.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12524125-making-bombs-for-hitler

2014 One Step at a Time:  A Vietnamese Child Finds Her Way (Marsha Skrypuch)

Brought up in a Vietnamese orphanage, Tuyet is rescued during the last airlift out of Saigon. Adopted by a Canadian family, she now faces surgery to correct her leg, crippled by polio.

http://pajamapress.ca/news_reviews/?page_id=983

For more information, visit http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/silver_birch_award.

Congratulations, Cassandra!

http://www.beckishort.co.uk/marriage-proposal-ideas.php

I remember the day my niece, Cassandra, was born.  She had dark eyes and dark hair.  Her hair stuck straight up on her head like a porcupine.  I remember the flowered dress she wore to my wedding, still a babe in her mother’s arms.  I remember her running around double fisting bologna at the Germania Club after my mother-in-law passed away.  "Go! Go! Go!" was the toddler’s motto.  

Cassandra made beautiful music with the Hamilton Children's Choir.  She and her sister Amanda filled the old St. James Anglican Church with song.  Cassandra helped her sister blow out the candles on their birthday cake at their double birthday party.  Around the time she turned seven, she had just learned the formula for a joke and she made up one herself:  “What do you call a girl standing on a cat? --  A statue.”  Rob and I got a kick out of that one. 

Cassandra and her sister munched on chocolate Easter bunnies at my house on Thanksgiving Day 1998.  I wondered how they lasted for six months in their fridge without being gobbled up.  Later that year, when Rob and I were in the process of adopting our newborn son, Cassandra suggested that we take Thomas to Grandma and Grandpa's house for three weeks to hide out, just in case his birth parents changed their mind.  That's how much she wanted a new cousin!  

Cassandra used to come for sleepovers at my house with her sister.  Rob used to take them to Lynden Park Mall shopping sometimes.  Their favourite store was Claire’s.  Cassandra always did have a flair for fashion. 

I remember Cassandra’s first communion, dressed in a pretty white gown, her dark hair in ringlets.  I remember her grade 8 Graduation.  I remember her Grade 12 Graduation.  She was the life of the party! 

Tonight, to the strains of a pianist, cellist, guitarist and three violinists, Cassandra got engaged.  An ensemble of Kyle's friends played her favourite song, "Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die".  

What happened to the past 23 years?  Congratulations, Cassandra!  May God bless you and Kyle in your forthcoming marriage!

                                

"Heroes get remembered, but legends never die" quote by Babe Ruth courtesy m1.behance.net.