Alberta Children’s Book of the Year Award. Winners 1995

The Alberta Children’s Book of the Year Award is presented annually by Alberta Community Development, the Writers Guild of Alberta and the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, is given to the Alberta-based publisher producing the best children’s or young adult book, including fiction, non-fiction and picture books.

Award Winners

Year		WINNER
2008		Jamie Bastedo (below right) Free as the Wind: Saving the Horses of Sable Island. Illustrated by Susan Tooke. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2007. The horses of Sable Island-they are a romantic and enduring symbol of the will to survive in an unforgiving environment. Hundreds of these wild horses live on the windy beaches and dunes of this remote island known as the graveyard of the Atlantic off the shores of Nova Scotia. Free as the Wind is Jamie Bastedo's re-creation of one of the most fascinating episodes in the history of these wild creatures: the moment in the early 1960s when it was decided the horses would be removed from the island and auctioned off, many of them slaughtered for dog food. School children across the country wrote Canada's then Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker, pleading with him to restore the horses to the island, to save them from certain death. This fictional account of that pivotal moment in Canada's history follows young Lucas Beauregard, son of the retiring superintendent of Sable Island, as he befriends and then plots to save Gem, one of the horses of Sable Island. The horses of Sable Island are a national treasure, not only because their history dates back as early as the settlement of Canada, but also because their continued survival showed the world that children can make a difference. Susan Tooke's sparkling paintings capture the spare but magnificent terrain of Sable Island in a way that will captivate readers of all ages. 2008 Finalists • Red Deer Press (Calgary)—The End of the World as We Know It by Lesley Choyce • Red Deer Press (Calgary)—Free as the Wind: Saving the Horses of Sable Island by Jamie Bastedo, illustrated by Susan Tooke • Red Deer Press (Calgary)—The Sakura Tree by Carolyn McTighe, paintings by Karen Brownlee
2007		Jamie Bastedo On Thin Ice. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2006.
2006		Patti McIntosh The Remarkable Maria. Illustrated by Tara Langlois. Edmonton: Maggie & Pierrot, 2005.
2005		Martine Leavitt Heck Superhero. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2004.
2004		Rudy Wiebe Hidden Buffalo. Paintings by Michael Lonechild. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2003.
2003		Troon Harrison Courage to Fly. Illustrated by Zhong-Yang Huang. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2002.
2002		Teresa Toten The Game. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2001.
2001		Kevin Major Eh? to Zed: A Canadian ABeCedarium. Illustrated by Alan Daniel. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2000.
2000		Rick Book Necking With Louise. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 1999.
1999		Tim Wynne-Jones On Tumbledown Hill. Illustrated by Dušan Petri?i?. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 1998.
1998		Linda Reynolds Calgary Science Fun Guide/Edmonton Science Fun Guide. Calgary: Bare Bones Publishing, 1997.
1997		Irene Morck. Tiger’s New Cowboy Boots. Red Deer, AB: Red Deer College Press, 1996.
1996		Lois Simmie Mr. Got to Go. Red Deer, AB: Red Deer College Press, 1995.
1995		Jim McGugan Josepha. Red Deer, AB: Red Deer College Press, 1994.