We are excited to share that two Transatlantic clients have been shortlisted for the Canadian Children’s Book Awards!
THE SECRET DIARY OF MONA HASAN by Salma Hussain is up for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. The middle grade novel is published by Tundra, THE SECRET DIARY OF MONA HASAN takes readers along as Mona learns to find her voice over the course of a year that sees her immigrating from Dubai to Canada in this novel for fans of Front Desk by Kelly Yang.
Mona Hasan is a young Muslim girl growing up in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, when the first Gulf War breaks out in 1991. The war isn’t what she expects — “We didn’t even get any days off school! Just my luck” — especially when the ground offensive is over so quickly and her family peels the masking tape off their windows. Her parents, however, fear there is no peace in the region, and it sparks a major change in their lives.
Over the course of one year, Mona falls in love, speaks up to protect her younger sister, loses her best friend to the new girl at school, has summer adventures with her cousins in Pakistan, immigrates to Canada, and pursues her ambition to be a feminist and a poet.
Salma is represented by Amy Tompkins.
HOW TO BE A GOLDFISH by Jane Warren is up for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, AND the Jean Little First-Novel Award. This middle grade novel is published by Scholastic Canada and follows along our main character Lizzie when her class is assigned a family tree project, and she knows hers will become fodder for Scotch Gully’s town gossips. It’s 1981, and she’s the only one with an unmarried mom. So she turns to her neighbour Harry for advice, but he has problems of his own. A stranger has turned up, claiming to own his farm, and Harry is being forced out.
For David, the new owner’s son, everything is riding on this. The farm is his chance to escape the city and his bullies at school. And maybe even get his mom away from her horrible new fiancé. But he wasn’t expecting to find someone else living there.
Lizzie and David become surprising allies, and as their family stories crack wide open, they uncover the keys that could save Harry and his farm. But sharing long-buried secrets has a cost too. Can they trust themselves — and each other — to find the way forward together?
How to Be a Goldfish is a gripping story about lost and found family, fierce friendship, warm griddle cakes and finding the courage to be who you were always meant to be
Jane Warren is represented by Elizabeth Bennett.
To learn more about the awards and shortlist, click here: https://bookcentre.ca/awards