Hey, remember when I wondered if the SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS puns would ever end? Apparently not. Because I’ve gotten some pretty amazing news about it lately, and I nearly lost it. No, I’m kidding, I did lose it. If ‘it’ is a bunch of emotional tears, because yeah, that happened. 

Bear with me, there’s a lot to tell you – it’s been an embarrassment of riches kind of autumn. 

First up, earlier this fall, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS won the children/youth category of the The Canadian Jewish Literary Awards.  Later this month, I will travel to Toronto to accept the award and I can’t wait. 

Second, earlier this week, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS was named as a finalist in The 2022 Governor General’s Literary Awards. This is a huge, huge honour and, well, I’m verklempt. See the full list of finalists here.

Also this week, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS has also been nominated in the OLA’s Forest of Reading in the Red Maple category.  From the Forest website: “The Forest of Reading® is Canada’s largest recreational reading program! This initiative offers ten reading programs to encourage a love of reading in people of all ages. The Forest helps celebrate Canadian books, publishers, authors and illustrators. More than 270,000 readers participate annually from their school and/or public library. All Canadians are invited to participate via their local public library, school library, or individually.”

This is an absolutely amazing program. I had the honour of participating a few years back when SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE was nominated, and I loved every minute of it. What a wonderful program to get kids reading and talking about books while elevating authors to rock stars! 

Another great thing about the Forest is being nominated among so many talented authors, many of whom I call friends. Writing can be such a solitary endeavor (especially these past few years!), so being able to get together with other authors  in this way is a giant added bonus.

And if all that wasn’t enough, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS was offered up as one of October’s four monthly choices for PJ Our Way. If you’ve been around these parts, you know that I love PJ Library and PJ Our Way for many reasons (read the acknowledgements in the back of THE SUN WILL COME OUT to get a peek into why) but the biggest one is that they get books into kids hands. I especially love that the site posts kid reviews and kid reviews are the best reviews. 

Whew. That’s a lot of big stuff. Add that to the other great news that SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS has garnered, and, well, I feel like my cup of goodness overfloweth. 

To all of you who have reviewed it, contacted me directly to tell me it touched you,  who have handed it to a kid, or who have simply read and enjoyed it, thank you. There are a lot of amazing books out there and I’m beyond honoured that you chose mine.