Finalists for the GEOFFREY BILSON AWARD FOR HISTORICAL FICTION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE were announced yesterday. Sponsored by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Bilson Endowment Fund the winner of this award will receive $5000. Congratulations to all the nominees and finalists, but a special shout out to finalist Laura Best, author of BITTER, SWEET (Nimbus Publishing 2009).
“Bitter, Sweet – Written by Laura Best (Springfield, NS) Nimbus Publishing, for ages 10 and up. “A beautifully crafted novel set in 1948 in Nova Scotia told by Pru, a young girl trying to keep her siblings together after their father abandons them and their mother dies… Best has masterfully created a sense of time and place… The characters are thoughtfully developed and their relationships to each other skillfully described.”
“The Geoffrey Bilson Award was established in 1988 in memory of the respected historian and children’s author, Geoffrey Bilson. The $5,000 prize is awarded annually to the Canadian author of an outstanding work of historical fiction for young people.”
“The winners of the English-language awards will be announced at an invitation-only gala event at The Carlu in Toronto on November 9, 2010.”
I interviewed Laura on November 2, 2009. You can read the interview here.
Woo-hoo, way to go, Laura! We’re keeping our fingers and toes crossed for you!
MUSINGS 
Oh, Carol! How sweet of you. I’m still on cloud nine, you know!
And rightly so! The nomination and shortlisting as a finalist is an honour in itself. There will be no holding you down if you win! LOL You and that ‘cloud nine’ will be floating. Here’s hoping! I assume you’ll find out long before the November official announcement, but the waiting is still hard.
Woo hoo! Way to go, Laura.
I’ll be cheering for you.
WOW! That’s great news. Awesome Laura! (Guess she’ll start charging us to visit her blog from now on.) We can all say ‘we knew her when’ ….
What wonderful news. Congratulations, Laura. And thanks for announcing it, Carol.
That is such excellent news. Congratulations Laura and thanks for keeping us posted Carol.