Two Nanaimo authors have been shortlisted for a prominent children’s literature prize.
In mid-April, the West Coast Book Prize Society announced the finalists for its annual B.C. and Yukon Book Prizes, naming Susan Juby and Haley Healey as nominees for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize.
Juby’s Me Three tells the story of an 11-year-old boy whose life is “turned upside-down” when allegations against his father start to arise. The book examines “new beginnings, friendships and a fresh look at the way things really are.”
Juby teaches fiction and creative non-fiction at Vancouver Island University, and her novel The Truth Commission won the Egoff Children’s Literature Prize and the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award in 2016.
Healey’s Her Courage Rises: 50 Trailblazing Women of British Columbia and the Yukon is a collection of illustrated stories of noteworthy women throughout the 1800s to more contemporary times.
Healey’s other best-selling works include On Their Own Terms: True Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island, and Flourishing and Free: More Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island.
The two authors will be up against Rachel Hartman’s In the Serpent’s Wake, Kim Spencer’s Weird Rules to Follow and Emily Seo’s The Science of Boys for the best juvenile or young adult novel or work of non-fiction prize.
The winner, along with seven other prize winners, will be announced at the B.C. Yukon Book Prizes Gala on Sept. 24 at the University Golf Club in Vancouver.
There will also be an event on Thursday, May 11 at Vancouver’s Book Warehouse on West Broadway to celebrate all 2023 B.C. and Yukon Book Prize finalists.
READ MORE: Nanaimo author highlights B.C. women who ‘pushed the boundaries’ in latest book
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