The Ontario Library Association announces the nominees for the 2011 Forest of Reading Awards.

The OLA offers seven reading programs that encourage people of all ages in their love of reading. All Ontarians/Canadians are invited to participate via their local public or school library. More than 250,000 readers across Canada participate each year. The culmination of the program is an amazing two-day awards event attended by more than 8,000 guests and all of the nominated authors/illustrators called the Festival of Trees

For a complete list of nominees, please visit the OLA website.

Blue Spruce Award (Ages 4 to 7)

• Big Bear Hug, Nicholas Oldland (Kids Can Press)
• C'mere Boy!, Sharon Jennings and Ashley Spires (Kids Can Press)
• Have I Got a Book for You!, Melanie Watt (Kids Can Press)
• The Imaginary Garden, Andrew Larsen and Irene Luxbacher, (Kids Can Press)
• Jack the Bear, Christina Leist (Simply Read Books)
• My Think-A-Ma-Jink, Dave Whamond (Owlkids Books Inc)
• Perfect Snow, Barbara Reid (Scholastic Canada, Ltd.)
• Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion, Jane Barclay and Renné Benoit
  (Tundra Books)
• Violet, Tania Duprey Stehlik and Vanja Jovanovic, Second Story Press
• Willow's Whispers, Lana Button and Tania Howells (Kids Can Press)

Silver Birch Award (Ages 7 to 11)

Fiction

• Archaeolojesters, Andreas Oertel (Lobster Press)
• Branded, Eric Walters (Orca Book Publishers)
• Dunces Anonymous, Kate Jaimet (Orca Book Publishers)
• The Giant-Slayer, Iain Lawrence (Random House)
• Home Free, Sharon Jennings (Second Story Press)
• The Hunchback Assignments, Arthur Slade (HarperCollinsCanada)
• Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders, Kevin Sylvester (Key Porter Books)
• Ortega, Maureen Fergus (Kids Can Press)
• The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy, Jill MacLean (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• Zoobreak, Gordon Korman (Scholastic Canada, Ltd.)

Non-Fiction

• Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be, Daniel Loxton (Kids Can Press)
• Hoaxed!: Fakes and Mistakes in the World of Science, Editors of Yes Mag. (Kids Can Press)
• How Figure Skating Works, Keltie Thomas (Owlkids Books Inc)
• How to Build Your Own Country, Valerie Wyatt and Fred Rix (Kids Can Press)
• Kaboom! Explosions of all Kinds, Gillian Richardson (Annick Press)
• Not Your Typical Book About the Environment, Elin Kelsey and Clayton Hanmer (Owlkids Books Inc)
• Remembering John McCrae, Linda Granfield (Scholastic Canada, Ltd.)
• The Salmon Bears: Giants of the Great Bear Rainforest, Ian McAllister and Nicholas Read (Orca Book Publishers)
• Talking Tails: The Incredible Connection Between People and Their Pets, Ann Love, Jane Drake and Bill Slavin (Tundra Books)
• What's the Big Idea?: Inventions that Changed Life on Earth Forever, Helaine Becker and Steve Attoe (Owlkids Books Inc)

Express Titles

• 100% Pure Fake: Gross Out Your Friends and Family with 25 Great Special Effects!, Lyn Thomas with Cheryl Powers and Boris Zaytsev (Kids Can Press)
• Adventures of Rabbit and Bear Paws: True Hearts, Chad Solomon and Christopher Meyer (Little Spirit Bear Productions)
• The Ballad of Knuckles McGraw, Lois Peterson (Orca Book Publishers)
• Binky the Space Cat, Ashley Spires (Kids Can Press)
• A Coyote Solstice Tale, Thomas King and Gary Clement (Groundwood Books)
• A Different Game, Sylvia Olsen (Orca Book Publishers)
• It's A Snap! George Eastman's First Photograph, Monica Kulling and Bill Slavin (Tundra Books)
• Polar Bears, Norbert Rosing (Firefly Books)
• Thumb and the Bad Guys, Ken Roberts (Groundwood Books)
• Vanishing Habitats, Robert Bateman (Scholastic Canada, Ltd.)

Red Maple Award (Ages 11 to 15)

Fiction

• The Agency: A Spy in the House, Y. S. Lee, (Random House)
• Ghost Ride, Marina Cohen (Dundurn)
• Haunted, Barbara Haworth-Attard (HarperCollinsCanada)
• My Name Is Henry Bibb, Afua Cooper (Kids Can Press)
• Nieve, Terry Griggs (Biblioasis)
• Not Suitable for Family Viewing, Vicki Grant (HarperCollinsCanada)
• Only in the Movies, William Bell (Random House)
• POP, Gordon Korman (Scholastic Canada, Ltd.)
• The Summoning, Kelley Armstrong (Random House)
• Wounded, Eric Walters (Penguin Group Canada)

Non-Fiction

• Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road, Priscilla Galloway and Dawn Hunter (Annick Press)
• Bite of the Mango, Mariatu Kamara (Annick Press)
• Charlie: A Home Child's Life in Canada, Beryl Young (Key Porter)
• Green Careers, Jennifer Power Scott (Lobster Press)
• Guardian Angel House, Kathy Clark (Second Story Press)
• Journey to Mars, Jonathan Webb (Scholastic Canada, Ltd.)
• No Girls Allowed, Susan Hughes and Willow Dawson (Kids Can Press)
• Tell Me Why, Eric Walters (Random House)
• Watch This Space, Hadley Dyer and Marc Ngui (Kids Can Press)
• Whispers from the Ghettos, Kathy Kacer and Sharon McKay (Penguin Group Canada)

White Pine Award (Grades 9-12)

• Borderline, Allan Stratton (HarperCollinsCanada)
• Fear the Worst, Linwood Barclay (Random House)
• Fishtailing, Wendy Phillips (Coteau Books)
• Gravity Brings Me Down, Natale Ghent (Random House)
• Hearts at Stake, Alyxandra Harvey (Penguin Group Canada)
• The Monkeyface Chronicles, Richard Scarsbrook (Thistledown Press)
• The Second Trial, Rosemarie Boll (Second Story Press)
• Some Girls Are, Courtney Summers (HB Fenn)
• Swim the Fly, Don Calame (Random House)
• The Worst Thing She Ever Did, Alice Kuipers (HarperCollinsCanada)

Adult Literary Patrons

• The Brutal Telling, Louise Penny (Headline)
• Burmese Lessons, Karen Connelly (Random House/Vintage)
• Come, Thou Tortoise, Jessica Grant (Vintage)
• February, Lisa Moore (Anansi)
• The Heart Specialist, Claire Holden Rothman (Cormorant)
• The Mystery of Grace, Charles de Lint (Tor Books)
• Old City Hall, Robert Rotenberg (Touchstone)
• Oonagh, Mary Tilberg (Cormorant)
• Small Beneath the Sky, Lorna Crozier (Greystone Books)
• Underground, June Hutton (Cormorant)

Golden Oak Award (Adult Learners)

• The Barrio Kings, William Kowalski (Orca Book Publishers)
• The Children of Africville, Christine Welldon (Nimbus Publishing)
• The Christmas Tree: Two Tales for the Holidays, David Adams Richards (Penguin Group Canada)
• Courage and Compassion: Ten Canadians Who Made A Difference, Rona Arato (Maple Tree Press)
• Imagine a Place, Sarah L. Thomson and Rob Gonsalves (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
• The Middle Ground, Zoe Whittall (Orca Book Publishers)
• Stolen Child, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch( Scholastic Canada, Ltd.)
• Watching Jimmy, Nancy Hartry (Tundra Books)