Fast Friends, written by Heather M. O'Connor and illustrated by Claudia Dávila, is the 2022 title for the TD Grade One Book Giveaway.

The giveaway is an initiative organized by the Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) that delivers Canadian children's picture books to every Grade 1 student in Canada.

The 2022 program will launch on Nov. 18 at St. Paul Catholic Elementary School in Peterborough, Ont., where author Heather M. O'Connor lives.

Following a reading and discussion at St. Paul Catholic Elementary School, O'Connor will head to her daughter's original school, St. Bernard's Catholic Elementary School in Whitby, later in the month, for another reading.

Fast Friends will be distributed throughout schools. According to the CCBC, Fast Friends may be the first book ever owned by some children.

Fast Friends tells the story of Suze, a nonverbal student, and high-energy Tyson, two kids with different challenges and strengths who find they are just what the other needs to navigate classroom life. While their teacher and students don't understand Suze and think Tyson may not be the right friend for her, Tyson takes the time to understand Suze's cues. Through shared understanding about their differences, the two develop a special bond and prove they might have more in common than anyone thought.

Fast Friends was also a 2021 finalist for the Blue Spruce Award, an award voted on by students as part of the Forest of Reading program.

"My daughter Suze is nonverbal and uses a wheelchair," O'Connor said in a press statement. "That didn't stop her friends from playing with her and, yes, sometimes zooming her around the schoolyard speedy-quick. I'm excited to share Fast Friends with kids at St. Paul's, my neighbourhood school in Peterborough."

Claudia Dávila is an illustrator from Toronto. She has illustrated the nonfiction books Child Soldier by Michel Chikwanine, Jessica Dee Humphreys, and Change It!, Move It! and Touch It!, all written by Adrienne Mason. She also wrote and illustrated the picture book Super Red Riding Hood.

This year, the CCBC is working with CNIB Beyond Print and Kobo to provide accessible formats to Grade 1 students who have been identified as having a print disability.

"Less than 10 per cent of Canadian books are currently available in accessible formats, with approximately 3 million Canadians living with print disabilities," Melanie Romer Noel, lead for Braille Publishing at CNIB Beyond Print said in a press statement. "Print Braille is the gateway to literacy for early readers."

By the end of this school year, an estimated 12 million books will have been distributed to students by the CCBC since the TD Book Giveaway program was established in 2000.

Past titles from the program include Malaika's Costume, written by Nadia L. Hohn and illustrated by Irene Luxbacher, My Heart Fills With Happiness/sâkaskinêw nitêh miywêyihtamowin ohci by Monique Gray Smith and illustrated by Julie Flett, Small Saul by Ashley Spires, Alligator Stew written by Dennis Lee and illustrated by Rogé and Moira's Birthday by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Michael Martchenko.