The Stellar Book Award :: Myra Paperny


Book List After Francis Chalifour Alice MacLeod, Realist At Last Susan Juby Evil Masters: the Frightening world of Tyrants. Laura Scandiffio Forget-Me-Not Barbara Haworth-Attard Four Steps to Death John Wilson Just Ask Us: a conversation with First Nations teenage moms. Sylvia Olsen One on One Don Aker Red Sea Diane Tullson Resurrection Blues Mike Tanner Rooster Don Trembath Season of Rage: Hugh Burnett and the Struggle for Civil Rights. John Cooper Seraphina's Circle Jocelyn Shipley Something Girl Beth Goobie The Aquanauts John Lunn The Cure for Crushes Karen Rivers The Freedom of Jenny Julie Burtinshaw The Greenies Myra Paperny The Isabel Factor Gayle Friesen The Turning Gillian Chan


Myra Paperny Born in 1932 in Edmonton, Myra Paperny spent her early years in Alberta’s capital before moving to Vancouver at the age of 14. While still a small girl, Myra joined her father on several trips to Eastern Europe to visit his family there. Many of these relatives never lived to see the end of WWII. Not only was Myra’s family directly affected by the war, but as a teenage Vancouverite in the ’40s and ’50s, Myra actually knew and made friends with some real-life “Greenies” like the ones who are the main characters of her young adult novel called - you guessed it - The Greenies. The term “Greenies” actually comes from a Yiddish word, “greeneh”, used to describe someone who is new to a culture, a little mystified by how things work, and a little uncomfortable with the locals’ reactions to them. In a 2006 interview with The Jewish Tribune, Canada’s largest weekly Jewish newspaper, Myra said that she wrote this book as “a way of remembering the 6 million people.” She also stated that “When I submitted this manuscript, I really didn’t know if there was any likelihood of anyone being interested in the subject. My editor from HarperCollins said she’d check with a Jewish friend because she couldn’t believe this actually happened. She’d never heard of this. Neither had her friend.” Now, Myra has made Canadians aware of this important part of our history through her writing. Before (and during) her career writing for young people, Myra had a whole slew of other interesting careers, too, including: university lecturer, newspaper reporter, book reviewer on CBC Radio, and workshop facilitator in children’s literature and creative writing. She is certainly well-qualified to be giving workshops on these two topics, as nearly all of her books have met with high praise, and even awards – the Governor General’s Award, for instance! These days, Myra is a mother and grandmother (many times over!) who lives in Calgary, and is still writing away. Other Books The Wooden People, which won the Governor General’s Award (then known as the Canada Council Prize); Take a Giant Step, shortlisted for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction Nightmare Mountain.