Back to             
2004
finalists.

2004 Hackmatack

Children's Choice Book Award/Prix littéraire - le choix de jeunes

The Christmas That Almost Wasn't takes place on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, in December of 1941, as Izzie Publicover, her brother and their friends prepare for a very special Christmas. Despite wartime rationing and the infrequency of winter visits, the Publicover children's grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins are coming for Christmas. But plans go awry two days before Christmas, when a huge storm hits the village. Can Izzie figure out a way to save Christmas for everyone?

Budge Wilson was born and educated in Nova Scotia, but spent many years in Ontario. She now lives in a fishing village on the South Shore, Nova Scotia. She has won many awards for her writing, including the CLA Young Adult Award, the Ann Connor Brimer Award, the City of Dartmouth Award, and many Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Awards. She also won First Prize in the CBC Literary Competition. Her collection of short stories, The Leaving, was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association and was later included on its list of "The 75 Best Children's Books of the Last 25 Years."

Thematic Links

• Christmas
• World War II
• Life in a fishing village

Suggested Activities

• Plan your own party or some big event, listing all the ways you would decorate the rooms and dining table.
• Make decorations for a celebration.
• Research what it was like in Halifax during the war. What did people wear, eat, how did they travel?