Awards

King Leary was the 2008 winner the Canada Reads award. Canada reads is a “battle of the Books” where five famous personalities “champion” their book, explaining why they believe their book should be the winner. The winning book is then heralded as the book that all of Canada should read. The competition began as a radio show but television and a podcast have been added in recent years. At the end of each episode, the audience votes one book out of the competition. In 2008, Dave Bidini, a Canadian musician and author, championed King Leary to win the competition. This novel also won the Stephen Leacock award for humour in 1988 for being the best piece of humorous literature written by a Canadian in that year. King Leary is a worthy recipient of this award because the main character, Percival “King” Leary is so funny, always coming up with one-liners like, “There’s an ugly scab on his forehead; he has done battle with another wall.” King Leary is a great novel that is deserving of its accolades because, being a book largely about hockey, it has a Canadian feel to it that most Canadians can relate to, and due to the humorous content present in the novel.