The selection committee for Quebec’s Prix jeunesse des univers parallèles 2022 (the Parallel Universe Youth Award) has chosen three novels as finalists. They are:

• Lucy Wolvérène, Vol. 1 of Les Cristaux d’Orléans, by Sandra Dussault (Éditions Québec Amérique),
• Demi-vie, Vol. 1 of Rupture, by Magali Laurent (Éditions de Mortagne)
• Nouvel-Éden, Vol. 1 of L’Arc-en-ciel noir by Maude Royer (Éditions Scarab).

The award is given to the best children’s sff novel by vote of high school students in Quebec. Lower secondary students wishing to participate in the choice of winner will read these novels during the 2021-2022 school year as part of the French course or as members of their library’s book club.

The selection committee was made up of Annie Bacon, writer for young people, Claudine Grenier, French teacher at the Collège Jésus-Marie in Quebec City, and Hélène Moisan, librarian and coordinator for the Quebec City library network. Of the eighteen novels submitted to the selection committee, fifteen were by women.

The book voted the winner of the Prix Jeunesse des Univers Parallèles for 2021 will be announced in mid-June.