Tales from the land of the Red Cedar

Fans of Canadian Literature will find something familiar about the above title for this blog entry, as the Red Cedar is an award for Children's writing in British Columbia. Now up until this weekend past I myself had not heard of the award, nor the authors that vie for it's reward. But with a ten year old boy who spent the last few months immersed in Red Cedar titles, I quickly have brought myself up to speed on a rather important event in the Can Lit scene.

Basically the Red Cedars are awarded to deserving authors at a gala held once a year, normally in May and normally in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The books are nominated and school children across the province then read and vote on them. This year the awards headed north to Prince George, the first time that the northern city has had the opportunity to tackle the logistics of such a huge event.

Our involvement was that of the proud parents (and book carriers) as our lad and a very poised young lady from one grade above, were chosen by their school to be co-presenters for one of the nominated authors. They were chosen for their work on the Red Cedar project at school, they would read a number of the nominated books and then write up a book report on the epic studied. A fair amount of work but in then end well worth the effort as they prepared their presentation with the assistance of their supervising teacher.

The Red Cedars were a one day gala celebration, made up of a parade of authors, presentations, question and answer sessions with the authors and an autograph scramble as we carted our school library books from author to author for autographing.

With over 800 people in attendance at the College of New Caledonia for the opening and closing ceremonies, it by far was the largest audience most of the participating children would have faced thus far in their young lives. The presentations from each school were about two minutes and ranged from dramatic readings to recitations of facts from the selected books.

For our pair the two minute presentation featured a bit of theatre that tied in our community, school, the book in question "Hana's suitcase" and bit of history about what the book was about and it's impact on the students. Despite the huge crowd our kids remembered their lines and their marks like showbiz vets, in fact I suspect the parents were more nervous for them than they were themselves. Without missing a line or a beat they rattled off their two minute presentation without a flaw and basked in the applause from the crowd afterwards. No doubt a special moment in their lives that won't soon be forgotten. I know that we felt a sense of pride as they stood on stage accepting the accolades of a huge crowd.

The organizers put on a top notch show, covering all the bases and had things go off like clockwork with few noticeable snags a long the way. Making use of many volunteers from the Prince George High shcools and community at large, they did a remarkable job of showcasing the authors, books and participating schools. The success that they had over the weekend, should give the Red Cedar organizers the incentive to keep moving this gala around the province from year to year. Believe it or not people read books beyond the Langley district line.

For the authors it proved to be a great way to get feedback about their works, meet their audience and helped to put some cash in their pockets as well, the book selling was fast and furious at one point as kids scrambled to pick up their favorite work and rushed to find an author to autograph it.

Most importantly though it fosters a love of reading, which in this day of the multi channel television universe, Nintendo, Gameboys, computers and such is a hard sell at the best of times. By celebrating the authors and involving the children, the written word may still have a viable place in our society.

For the record, Hana's suitcase won its award for Non-fiction, and while the presentation by our young ones had nothing to do with the actual winning of the award, none the less our kids had a special attachment to an award winning book. To hear a book that they presented become the eventual winner gave them a sense of ownership of the title with Ms. Levine.

For one Saturday in May, the focus was on books, ideas and confidence. Not a bad way to spend a day and certainly worth a sixteen hour round trip by car. If you have young ones at home check out the nominees and get a head start on your own home literature program. You can even plan ahead for the Red Cedars in 2006, Inquire at your school and see if your province has a similar program and involve your kids, the sense of accomplishment will be something to watch!