Winners of the First Annual Teen Read Awards!

This past Saturday night, Jackie & I had the honor of attending the 1st Annual Teen Read Awards presented by the amazing people at Indigo.

Teen fans were able to vote daily over the summer with opportunities to win daily prizes & a grand prize of transportation to the awards, hotel & a copy of each book that made it to the final round (Wowzers 10 categories & 5 nominees = 50 books!!)

Prior to the award ceremony, many authors were in town for book signings. Just across the street from where the awards were to take place, a bunch of authors in town for the awards stopped into Chapters to sign. It was also the final tour stop for the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour in Brampton. Sadly I did not make it to these :(

Here's my recap of the "Big Event"

Jackie and I arrived just before the 6 PM red carpet time. I must say that Indigo went all out. While standing outside were entertained by a magician & mime. Once inside, they had a photo booth, graffiti wall, food & drinks & a DJ blasting music making it feel more like a Saturday night out than a stuffy award ceremony. The venue was perfect, it was a night club with disco balls hanging from the ceiling and everything! If there was any doubt, this proved books nerds rock.

The awards were hosted by Jessi Cruickshank and Dan Levy, with musical performances throw in by Alex Lacasse, Alyssa Reid as well as a surprise set by Hannah Montana co-star, Emily Osment. A cute feature, were mini-clips of the Best Read nominees : Catching Fire, Shiver, Shadowland & Along For The Ride created by Monster Factory. Throughout the night, prizes were given including Kobo readers, books, even signed Mockingjays :o

Here is a list of the winners:
Best New Writer - Fallen, Lauren Kate
Best Teen Series - Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead
Best Lip Lock - Bella & Edward from Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer
Best Hottie - Jace Waylaynd from Mortal Instruments:City of Glass, Cassandra Clare
Best Book-to-Flick - Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, JK Rowling
Best Hero - Percy Jackson from The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan
Best Villain - Alice Milthorpe from Prophecy of the Sisters, Michelle Zink
Best All Time Fave - Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling
Best Canadian Read - The Reckoning, Kelley Armstrong
Best Read - Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

Of all the winners above, only Richelle Mead & Kelley Armstrong were there to accept their awards in person. Kate Lauren, Cassie Clare, Rick Riordan, Michelle Zink and Suzanne Collins all accepted their awards via video & J.K. Rowling, winner of two awards, wrote a thank you letter, which Dan joked was probably worth $75,000! I hope with the success of this first awards behind their belt that next year many more of the nominees will go out of their way to attend the event. The idea of celebrating books, especially for teens, is such an important message to send.

If I could make one suggestion for next year, it would be to have access to the authors attending the event. The event specifically said no signing but was promoted with "special appearances by"... Considering only two winners accepted their awards in person and there were over a dozen authors in attendance, it would have been nice for the audience to have seen the authors - heck even have them on stage at the end of the awards?

A big thank you to Indigo for creating these awards, along with all the publishers for sponsoring. I can't wait to do this again next year :)


So what do you think about the winners? Who did you vote for?

p.s. Jackie, don't wear heels next year ;)