The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award
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The 2017 winner of the IODE Violet Downey Book Award
for Canadian Children’s Literature Sea Change by Frank Viva
Frank Viva, author of Sea Change, has been awarded The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award for 2017. The $5,00 prize was presented at the time of the117th National Annual Meeting of IODE Canada on 26 May 2017 at the Blue Horizon Hotel Vancouver in British Columbia. Published by Tundra Books, this book is suitable for children over eight.
Frank was born in Toronto and still resides there. He is not only the author, but also the illustrator of the book. Sea Change... is a step back into Frank's childhood. Point Aconi is a rural community on the tip of Bouladerie Island, off the eastern coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where he visited as a kid. He lived with his great-uncle Purvis, a commercial fisherman, helping him haul in lobster traps and jig cod. "I have vivid memories of going in and out from the wharf on the boat, and looking at the sea bottom and seeing all kinds of things - I saw sunken boats, I saw skate fish, and things like that. It just seemed all magical to me." (Globe and Mail, 05 January 2017) Eliot, the main character, is thirteen years old and shipped off to the very edge of the world for the summer. He is not happy with the arrangements. As the summer progresses, Eliot changes and discovers many things - a hidden library, starry nights and a mysterious girl named Mary Beth. Frank said, "I wanted to do a book that combined, in a somewhat intimate or unique way, illustration, words and design." Sea Change has been described as "concrete poetry". Words swirl and wave across the pages, turn on their side and move in and around the illustrations. IODE Members attending the 117th National Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia were delighted to meet Frank Viva in person at the author signing. |
Award winning author, Frank Viva spoke to IODE members attending the 117th National Annual Meeting.
Through the generosity of an IODE member, the late Mrs. Violet Downey, IODE Canada established The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award in 1984. The first award was presented in 1985.
The award is offered annually for the best English language book containing at least 500 words of text (preferably with Canadian content) in any category, suitable for children aged 13 and under. To be eligible, the book must have been written by a Canadian citizen and must have been published in Canada during the calendar year immediately preceding the National Chapter Annual Meeting held in May. Fairy tales, anthologies and books adapted from another source are not eligible. A ten-member panel of judges, including IODE members and specialists in the field of children's literature, annually select the award-winning book. Winning authors are presented with The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award of $5,000. All books submitted by publishers become the property of IODE Canada. These books are sorted and shipped to school libraries in Labrador that are part of the IODE Adopt-a-Class Program. |
The complete list of authors and books awarded the
IODE Violet Downey Book Award is available online
at this link on our website.