Do you Know the Bédélys Youth Award Jury?
The Bédélys Youth Québec Award rewards the best French-language comic book intended for young people aged 7 to 14 since 1999. The choices are based on the cumulative votes of several juries of young readers. The réseau des bibliothèques de la Ville de Montréal (City of Montreal library network) has sponsored the prize since 2000.
The winner receives a unique trophy.
Selection Criteria
For this category, it is the librarians in charge of the juries who select a first reading list for young people. Here are the criteria used to determine the accepted works:
- Publication in French language including translations for an audience aged 7 to 14
- Distribution in Quebec
- Must not be part of a series, only the first volumes are considered
Jury
Made up of young comic book enthusiasts who regularly visit one of the participating libraries in the réseau des bibliothèques de la Ville de Montréal. They are looked after by librarians who help them discuss and analyze the selected works.
The participating libraries for the 25e Bédélys Awards are: Père-Ambroise and Marc-Favreau.
- Audrey Bluteau, librarian
- Alexis Robin-Brisebois, librarian
While we await the unveiling of the finalists for the 25th annual Bédély Awards, we’d like to introduce you to some of the members of the Bédélys Youth jury in a slightly different format from our previous Q&As. We went to meet six of the young readers, and were struck by their enthusiasm and pride.
Even if it was these kids’ first time participating in a jury of readers, there’s no doubt that the experience was a positive one, and that if the opportunity arises again, they’ll all be keen to repeat it.
Following a lottery among the volunteers from their 5th grade class, these 6 lucky readers were able to read the works pre-selected by librarians Audrey and Alexis. “19 books isn’t enough – I could have read 30!” said one of the jury members.
Passionate about reading in the broadest sense of the word, it’s both the images and the stories that seem to hold their attention. But of course, if the subject is about animals or makes reference to Star Wars, that’s a plus!
Following their individual readings, each member of the jury fills in a questionnaire to rate the work out of 10, and writes a few lines about what they liked or didn’t like about it. The jury then meets to discuss and name their top 5. Scores can be as precise as 8.75/10, and all opinions are listened to.
For the final stage, librarians Audrey and Alexis collate the questionnaires from the two libraries’ juries, pooling the top scores to come up with the five finalists for the Bédélys Youth Award. The winning comic will then be selected at a final jury meeting.
