~Press Release ~

Happy I Love Lucy Day! I wonder if we might turn your hair BRILLIANT RED when we announce our FIFTH biennial Joan Betty Stuchner – Oy Vey! – Funniest Children’s Book Award!

Please enter your funny book to win one of our TWO prizes.

Joan Betty Stuchner, beloved children’s author and teacher, passed away unexpectedly in 2014. Joan was many things: brave, gracious, warm, generous, kind, and absolutely hilarious to boot.  (“Oy vey!” she’s probably saying now…)

With this pair of awards, we honour Joan’s life-affirming humour and encourage other children’s writers to laugh it up on the page the way she did.

The $752.81 x 2 Joan Betty Stuchner – Oy Vey! –  Funniest Children’s Book Award is presented biennially to the Canadian authors or illustrators of the two works of juvenile writing that had the jury most incapacitated with giggles, buckled over with guffaws, and/or rib-ticklingly, side-splittingly, thigh-slappingly entertained in these two categories:

  1. A board book or picture book
  2. A book with lots more words than pictures

Eligible works include:

  • board books
  • picture books
  • chapter books
  • graphic novels
  • juvenile fiction and non-fiction (suitable for readers up to grade 7)
  • created by Canadian authors and/or illustrators permanently residing in Canada. (books may be published outside of Canada)
  • published between January 1st, 2023 and December 31st, 2024 
  • self-published titles
  • written in English

Please note that young adult fiction is not eligible for these awards.

Submission requirements:

Please send 3* copies of the work along with a completed form to:

Joan Betty Stuchner – Oy Vey! – Funniest Children’s Book Award

6637 Emerson Street, 

Burnaby BC 

V5E 1W5

* please note that if you want to add a 4th book to your submission, we will see to it that it reaches the hands of young English learners in Ukraine!

Please include a $30 Canadian submission fee per title via E-transfer to jbs.oyvey.award@gmail.com (OyVey Award), or a cheque payable to “JBS Oy Vey Award.” (Note that there is no longer a Paypal option, with apologies for the inconvenience.)

Submission deadline extended to January 15, 2025.

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The fifth Joan Betty Stuchner Oy Vey! — Funniest Children’s Book Award will be presented in Spring 2025. Details to follow. 

Sincerely,

The Joan Betty Stuchner — Oy Vey! — Funniest Children’s Book Award Committee

Cindy Heinrichs, Ellen Schwartz, Nathalie Patel, Gina McMurchy-Barber, Alison Acheson