Peace Dancer wows the book crowd
First Nations children's tale a double finalist for B.C. Book Prizes
Thirty-five B.C. authors and books have been announced as vying for coveted B.C. Book Prizes.
Artist Roy Henry Vickers and author Robert Budd are shortlisted twice for their children’s book Peace Dancer, one in a series of beautifully illustrated First Nations stories. Peace Dancer tells the West Coast Aboriginal version of the great flood story.
“This story is as old as the tides that rise and fall on our shores, yet the lessons taught may be more important now than they were thousands of years ago,” Vickers says in the book.
Peace Dancer is shortlisted for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature prize and the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice award.
Other shortlisted books for the children’s prize include My Heart Fills with Happiness, by Monique Gray Smith, illustrated by Julie Flett; Today, by Julie Morstad and also illustrated by Morstad; Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey, by Margriet Ruurs, illustrated by Nizar Ali Badr; and Deep Roots: How Trees Sustain Our Planet, by Nikki Tate.
Other books shortlisted for the booksellers’ prize are The Last Gang in Town, by Aaron Chapman; Wade Davis: Photographs, by Wade Davis; A Perfect Eden, by Michael Layland; and Embers, by Richard Wagamese.
Mark Leiren-Young, who was a freelance writer for The Vancouver Sun’s entertainment section, is shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize for his book, The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, published by Greystone Books. Other books shortlisted for this prize include Mexican Hooker #1, by Carmen Aguirre; A Disappearance in Damascus, by Deborah Campbell; The Marriott Cell, by Mohamed Fahmy with Carol Shaben; and Gently to Nagasaki, by Joy Kogawa.
The Ethel Wilson Fiction prize nominees include Joan Haggerty, for The Dancehall Years; Anosh Irani, for The Parcel; Ashley Little, for Niagara Motel; Jennifer Manuel, for The Heaviness of Things That Float; and Jen Sookfong Lee, for The Conjoined. Books shortlisted for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize to recognize the author of the book that contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia include The Recorded History of the Liard Basin 1790-1910, by Anthony Kenyon; A Perfect Eden, by Michael Layland; Crossing Home Ground, by David Pitt-Brooke; The Peace in Peril, by Christopher Pollon, with photos by Ben Nelms; and Mapping My Way Home, by Neil J. Sterritt.
The winners, who will receive $19,000 in cash prizes, will be announced April 29 in Vancouver.