A good book can be hard to find. Especially when you are trying to introduce your child to reading. There is no better guide to finding good books than the Forest of Reading nominees. There is a list of books for every grade and every reading level.
The Forest of Reading program promotes Canadian creators, while inspiring a love of reading in children. Students who read for fun are shown to have higher literacy rates and have more success in subjects like math and science.
The Silver Birch nominees are books geared for children in grades five and six. This year’s selection has a wide range of genres, everything from fantasy to mystery to graphic novels. There are so many gems in this category, it blew me away. There is masterful storytelling and creative themes in every nominee and each book that I read seemed to be better than the last. One in particular worth highlighting is The Boy Who Woke the Sun by A.T. Woodley.
Some books have it all. Giant kittens, a talking robot, an octopus who wears cowboy boots and one ordinary kid – what else you could possibly want in a story?
A boy named Elliot wakes up on a pile of plastic floating in the ocean. It’s dark and he is alone, except for a man in a black mask. When Elliot finally makes it to shore, he discovers he is no longer on earth. In this place children live underground and are hunted by a pack of vicious butterflies. The sun stopped shining a long time ago and the land became corrupted. Elliot takes on a journey to make the sun rise again and discovers some unique friends along the way. This is a fantasy adventure story, clearly inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia series. It was the biggest surprise of all the nominees on the list. Stories written by first-time authors can sometimes be flat, but author A.T. Woodley knocks it out of the park. Not only was it a compelling quest but it combines a bit of humour along the way to make it a truly satisfying read.
There are so many incredible stories amongst the nominees, make sure you check them all out.
Check it out 