About the Forest®






Our Programs are designed for various age ranges as follows:


For School-Aged Readers


  • Blue Spruce™Awards (primary - Grade 2 picture books)
  • Silver Birch® Awards (Grades 3-6 fiction, non-fiction)
  • Silver Birch Express™ Awards (Grades 3-4 fiction, non-fiction)
  • Red Maple™ Awards (Grades 7-8 fiction, non-fiction every other year)
  • White Pine™ Awards (high school fiction, non-fiction every other year)
  • Le Prix Peuplier (picture books, less text, simpler subject matters, beautiful picture books perfect for read alouds)
  • Le Prix Tamarac (chapter books from 100 to 250 pages, smaller text with little or no illustrations, more complicated verb tenses and vocabulary)
  • Le Prix Tamarac Express (shorter chapter books maximum 100 pages or more mature picture books, larger texte with pictures, simpler vocabulary and verb tenses)

For each program, readers are encouraged to read all or a selection of the books, and then vote on their favourite.

For the school-aged programs the readers must read a minimum of 5 books to be eligible to vote.


For Adults


GOLDEN OAK FLYER

EVERGREEN FLYER


How Do the Programs Work?


Committees of public and school library practitioners carefully select the nominated titles each year. The school-aged programs and Golden Oak™ run from the fall to the spring and Evergreen™ runs from the winter to the fall.


Goals of the Forest of Reading®


  • To encourage the children, young people and adults of Ontario to enjoy reading
  • To develop recognition for Canadian authors and Canadian books
  • To contribute to the financial stability of the Canadian publishing industry
  • To provide teacher-librarians, librarians, library staff and parent volunteers with a meaningful tool for improving literacy in schools and libraries
  • To respond to community interest and needs


Program Timeline


In October, the programs are launched when the lists of nominated titles are announced by the OLA. Most schools and libraries start to run the program in December/January. The Evergreen™ Awards program launches at OLA's Super Conference and runs through until Public Library Week in October.


Registering Your School, Library or Child


You simply need to register online. The cost of the registration is for one school or library, no matter the number of readers in your program. Parents are encouraged to register their own child if they want to run it outside of either the school or library. Within a public library system each branch is a different site, therefore each branch must register separately. The nominal registration fee is separate from the cost of the books.


Getting the Books


Books are sold by the official wholesaler of the Forest®, S&B Books, retail stores and are available through public libraries. S&B Books offers schools and public libraries a discount. Alternatively, when registering for the program, books can be purchased through OLA, but will be shipped by S&B Books.

Please note: additional posters and bookmarks may be purchased from the OLAStore.

ALTERNATE FORMATS: A selection of the nominated books are available in audio and braille at CNIB Library (Canadian National Institute for the Blind). Contact CNIB Library Reader Services at: 1-800-268-8818 or reader.services@cnib.ca for more information. To learn how persons with a print disability may access CNIB’s collection of alternate format materials through their public library, visit the CNIB Library Partners Program.


Official Wholesaler


The Forest of Reading® Official Wholesaler is S&B Books Without their support this program would not be possible.


Trademarks


The Forest of Reading® Award programs are trademarked with either a ® or ™, so please ensure you are following the style guide when using these programs for any purpose. Only registered sites are permitted to be using the Forest brand.