[Recap] The Festival of Trees!

So a couple weeks ago, I had the chance to go down to the Festival of Trees in Toronto with my school. The Festival of Trees is basically a celebration of Canadian literature for kids. There are several levels, like Red Maple for middle grade books, Silver Birch for young primary school children and White Pine for YA books. This event isn't free, it's fifteen dollars for entry, I think?

It was my first time going down to do this, since last year the trip for our school got cancelled because there weren't enough people.



So the first order of business after we arrived was to attend the White Pine award ceremony. There are representatives of both fiction and non-fiction books here, though non-fiction nominees only happen once every three years. One of the more notable nominees for this year's White Pine Fiction awards, was SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman, though she was unable to attend the event.


Ms. Lisa Harrington won the White Pine award for Fiction for her book, LIVE TO TELL! I wasn't particularly rooting for anybody, as at the time I hadn't read any of the books yet.

The main reason I wanted to go to the Festival of Trees, was because MELISSA MARR and KELLEY ARMSTRONG were going to be there because ODIN'S RAVENS was nominated for the Red Maple award. I brought my copy of SEA OF SHADOWS and INK EXCHANGE and I lined up to get them signed . . . but I didn't.

The line was SO LONG. It was ridiculous. I had to leave and get on the bus before I could get my books signed, and they couldn't stay that long either, because I think they were flying down to the RT BookLovers convention down in New Orleans for the next day. So I was really sad that I couldn't get my books signed, but oh well.



And if you are somehow able to read the writing in this picture, please do.  I read it and it was absolutely HILARIOUS. It's one of those create your own story things with different people adding on. You can see that there's another one beside it, but this one was by far the funniest.

All in all, the event was fun. There were some activities that you could do to get a ticket and trade it in for a book. I saw people walking away with THE DARKEST MINDS and a Percy Jackson book. I didn't know about this until I had to leave, so oh well. I doubt I'll be going to this event again, because next year I'll be in University and it'll be really weird for a university child to be going. Maybe if I volunteer. Oh well.

Happy Reading!