trophies on yellow background

Awards

Here you’ll find notable Canadian book awards celebrating:
Canadian writing, literary talent, the joy of reading, and the support of local Canadian content. 

Click on the logo beside each award to be directed to the award’s website.

Five books, five champions, one winner: CBC’s annual Battle of the Books has been getting people listening, watching and, of course, reading, for the past 18 years.

Canada Reads is a “literary Survivor,” with celebrities championing books. Each day, panellists vote to eliminate one book, until a single title is chosen as the title the whole country should read this year. 

This year’s Canada Reads nominees are:

The Scotiabank Giller Prize award recognizes excellence in Canadian fiction – long format or short stories – with a cash prize, annually. 

This year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize nominees are:

The Canada Council for the Arts is responsible for administering and promoting the Governor General’s Literary Awards (GGBooks), which recognize Canada’s best English-language and French-language books in seven categories: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Drama, Young People’s Literature – Text, Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books, and Translation.

The awards promote Canadian literature and encourage Canadians to read. They provide finalists and winners with valuable recognition from peers and readers across the country.

First Nation Communities READ (FNCR) celebrates the very best of Indigenous literature across Turtle Island. The program encourages family literacy, intergenerational storytelling as well as intergenerational knowledge transmission. FNCR also helps to increase awareness of the importance of First Nation, Metis and Inuit writing, illustration and publishing.

Launched in 2003 by the First Nations Public Library Community in Ontario with support from the Ontario Library Service, it promotes a community-based approach to reading.

Run by the Ontario Library Association, the Forest of Reading champions a love of reading for individuals of all ages. Goals for this program include: developing recognition for Canadian authors and books, contributing to the financial stability of the Canadian publishing industry, and providing meaningful materials to improve literacy across Canada.

To borrow Forest of Reading books, select your category below and then click on the book covers to visit the library’s catalogue. 

The Blue Spruce program introduces children ages 4 to 7 (kindergarten to grade 2) to recently published Canadian picture books.

This year’s Blue Spruce nominees are:

The Silver Birch Express Award is comprised of fiction and nonfiction titles and is geared to readers ages 8-10 (grades 3-4).

This year’s Silver Birch Express nominees are:

The Silver Birch Fiction Award

The Silver Birch Fiction list provides fiction books for readers aged 8 to 12 (grades 3-6). 

This year’s Silver Birch Fiction nominees are:

For the 2020 program year, the Forest of Reading consolidated our two school-aged nonfiction programs, the Silver Birch Nonfiction Award and the Red Maple Nonfiction Award, into one award program – the Yellow Cedar Award. This award provides nonfiction books for readers aged 9-14 (grades 4-8). 

This year’s Yellow Cedar nominees are:

 The Red Maple program is for grade 7 & 8 students aged 12 to 13. 

This year’s Red Maple nominees are:

The White Pine program offers high school-aged students, of all grade levels, the chance to engage with Canadian books and authors of fiction.

The current White Pine nominees are:

A group of experienced librarians come together each year to share their favourite Canadian books with adult readers. The Evergreen program is designed for adults of any age and includes both fiction and nonfiction titles.

This year’s Evergreen nominees are:

Le prix Peuplier is a reading program that invites young people to participate in read-alouds of French books written by Canadian authors.

This year’s Le prix Peuplier nominees are:

Le prix Mélèze is a French reading program that focuses on shorter chapter books and/or mature picture books to encourage young readers to read the best Canadian fiction and nonfiction books written in French.



This year’s Le prix Mélèze nominees are:

Le prix Tamarac is a program that invites young people to read by allowing them to vote for their favourite books (fiction and nonfiction) from a selection of the best Canadian books written in French.

This year’s Le prix Tamarac nominees are:

Elgin County Library Holiday Hours

Saturday, December 23 at 1pm, all ECL branches are closed

December 24 – January 1, all ECL branches closed

Tuesday, January 2, all ECL branches open for regular hours

Our digital library is open all day every day!