JANICE LYNN MATHER WINS THE CCBC AMY MATHERS TEEN BOOK AWARD

Janice Lynn Mather is the winner of the CCBC Amy Mathers Teen Book Award for FACING THE SUN. “The Canadian Children’s Book Centre is a national, not‐for‐profit organization founded in 1976. We are dedicated to encouraging, promoting and supporting the reading, writing and illustrating of Canadian books for young readers. Our programs, publications, and resources help teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents select the very best for young readers.”

The jury citation:

“FACING THE SUN is a rich story told with lyricism and insight about four girls, their families, and the small Bahamian town that is their home… Janice Lynn Mather does a fantastic job weaving four perspectives that offer a look into the lives of Black girls…[examining] the ways in which Black girls are often expected to bear the weight of responsibility in their homes while also interrogating Blackness set outside of Canada… This novel is beautifully realized, written not just for teens, but for all of us in search of a better understanding of how communities, knitted together through struggle and circumstance, can hold us in difficult times… Mather is an uncommonly gifted storyteller.”

JURY MEMBERS: Dr. Dave Jenkinson, Editor, CM: Canadian Review of Materials and Professor Emeritus, Children’s & YA Literature, Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba; Kathleen Martin, writer, editor and Past President, Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia; Ardo Omer, writer, podcast host and Kids Coordinator, Festival of Literary Diversity.