2025 Reading Award Recipients

Written by Elizabeth Blake

At the Reading for the Love of It 2025 Dinner Banquet, I had the privilege of honouring this year’s Reading Award recipients.

The East York-Scarborough Reading Association has a long history of recognizing and honouring educators who demonstrate exceptional leadership in the field of literacy. Candidates of our reading award are nominated by colleagues and demonstrate a lasting influence on student learning through innovative teaching, sharing of their literacy expertise and inspiring a love of reading. Our 2025 recipients, Melissa Pignataro and Andrea Smith from the Toronto Catholic District School Board, are two such passionate educators, held in the highest regard by their colleagues, appreciative parents, adoring students, and grateful school communities.

Melissa Pignataro

Melissa fosters a love of reading with students of all grade levels through school wide literacy initiatives. These include her “get caught reading” bulletin boards, Christmas Bookshare gifts for reading buddies and the curated mystery book bags with activities that are delivered weekly to her teaching partners. In addition, Melissa shares her professional knowledge and expertise with her colleagues and the education community at large. She is a leader in the field of literacy and a valuable mentor for others. She welcomes new teachers with a basket of books and her well-stocked classroom ensures students always have access to a good read. The following example of how Melissa inspires a love of reading highlights why she is so deserving of our reading award: “When a story was being explored in Melissa’s class- the entire division knew. Students were never surprised to see her (or her students) dressed up as characters from the novel they were studying. On multiple occasions her entire class would be dressed up in character and would do book talks in other classrooms.” 

Congratulations, Melissa!

Andrea Smith

Andrea inspires a love of reading. Whether it’s getting whole classes hooked on a new novel series, taking part in Global Read Aloud or doing book talks to highlight new titles, Andrea goes out of her way to ensure students and staff have access to great books. Her energy and enthusiasm for reading have led to many literacy initiatives, for example Reading Olympics events that raise funds for new books, adding helpful resources to her library website or using her musical talents to engage young readers. Andrea works hard to ensure her library activities are meaningfully connected to classroom learning. She works closely with the equity department to make sure library materials are inclusive and reflect students’ identities. Andrea’s passion for reading benefits her colleagues and her students. This is apparent in the following quote shared by one of her peers “Andrea has the ability to make every book sound exciting and intriguing while also knowing exactly how to connect it to something the students are already familiar with”. 

Congratulations, Andrea!

Melissa and Andrea, your commitment to encourage the development of lifelong literacy skills, and the love of reading is an inspiration to us all. Congratulations to you both and thank you for all that you do for your readers!

To learn more about the Reading Awards or to make a nomination please visit Awards.