See also
- CLA Young Adult Book Award
- Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award
- ALA Newbery Medal
- British Carnegie Medal – spans children's and young-adult literature
The Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award was a literary award given annually to recognize a Canadian children's book. The award was given to a book written in English by a citizen or permanent resident of Canada and published in Canada during the preceding year. [1]
The award was administered and presented by the Canadian Library Association (CLA) [1] until the organization disbanded in 2016. It was inaugurated in 1947 by an award to Roderick Haig-Brown for Starbuck Valley Winter [lower-alpha 1] and it was be presented to one book every year without exception from 1963 to 2016. [2] As of 2016, two Book of the Year for Children criteria were "appeal to children up to and including age 12" and "creative (i.e., original) writing (i.e., fiction, poetry, narrative, non-fiction, retelling of traditional literature)". [1]
The companion CLA Young Adult Book Award was presented annually from 1981. [3] Corresponding criteria for the YA Book Award are "[appeal] to young adults between the ages of 13 and 18" and "fiction (novel, collection of short stories, or graphic novel)". [3] Two books have won both the children's and young-adult awards (below).
There were two awards in 1966 and no award six times from 1948 to 1962. [2] From 1967, the award-winning books were published during the preceding year; to 1965, most of the winning books were published during the second preceding year; the 1966 winners were published one each in 1964 and 1965.
Many of Canada's most beloved authors have won this award multiple times:
Two books have won the CLA Young Adult Book Award as well as the Book of the Year for Children: Shadow in Hawthorn Bay by Janet Lunn, in 1987, and Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel, in 2011. [2] [5]
Nine books named CLA Book of the Year for Children have also won the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature, or the preceding Canada Council Children's Literature Prize, or earlier Governor General's Award for juvenile fiction (in all, conferred for English-language books from 1949 to 1958 and 1975 to present). The writers and CLA award dates were Richard S. Lambert 1950, Farley Mowat 1958, Kevin Major 1979, Cora Taylor 1986, Janet Lunn 1987, Michael Bedard 1991, Tim Wynne-Jones 1994, Pamela Porter 2006, Susin Nielsen 2013. [6] [7]
Thus Shadow in Hawthorn Bay (Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1986) by Janet Lunn won three major Canadian awards, the CLA awards for both children's and young-adult literature and the Governor General's Award in its last year as the Canada Council Children's Literature Prize. [6]
Kenneth Oppel is a Canadian children's writer.
The Governor General's Award for English-language children's writing is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a children's book written in English. It is one of four children's book awards among the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, one each for writers and illustrators of English- and French-language books. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the Canada Council.
The Governor General's Award for English-language children's illustration is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian illustrator for a children's book written in English. It is one of four children's book awards among the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, one each for writers and illustrators of English- and French-language books. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the Canada Council.
Ian Wallace is a Canadian illustrator and writer. He was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
John Ibbitson is a Canadian journalist. Since 1999, he has been a political writer and columnist for The Globe and Mail.
Dennis Beynon Lee is a Canadian poet, teacher, editor, and critic born in Toronto, Ontario. He is also a children's writer, well known for his book of children's rhymes, Alligator Pie.
Christie Lucy Harris, was a Canadian children's writer. She is best known for her portrayal of Haida First Nations culture in the 1966 novel Raven's Cry.
Airborn is a 2004 young adult novel by Kenneth Oppel. The novel is set in an alternate history where the airplane has not been invented, and instead, airships are the primary form of air transportation. Additionally, the world contains fictional animal species such as flying creatures that live their entire lives in the sky. The book takes place aboard a transoceanic luxury passenger airship, the Aurora, and is told from the perspective of its cabin boy, Matt Cruse.
Roderick Langmere Haig-Brown was a Canadian writer and conservationist.
Marie-Louise Gay is a Canadian children's writer and illustrator. She has received numerous awards for her written and illustrated works in both French and English, including the 2005 Vicky Metcalf Award, multiple Governor General's Awards, and multiple Janet Savage Blachford Prizes, among others.
Brian Doyle is a Canadian writer of novels and short stories. His children's books have been adapted into movies and plays. Many of his stories are drawn from his experiences growing up in the Ottawa area. He was awarded the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2005 and was twice a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Frank Newfeld FGDC is a book designer, illustrator, art director and educator.
Shelley Tanaka is a Canadian editor of numerous young adult novels, an author of non-fiction for children, a translator, and a writing teacher.
Cary Fagan is a Canadian writer of novels, short stories, and children's books. His novel, The Student, was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award and the Governor General's Literary Award. Previously a short-story collection, My Life Among the Apes, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and his widely praised adult novel, A Bird's Eye, was shortlisted for the 2013 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His novel Valentine's Fall was nominated for the 2010 Toronto Book Award. Since publishing his first original children's book in 2001, he has published 25 children's titles.
Gary Clement is a Canadian artist, illustrator and writer living in Toronto, Ontario.
Leo Yerxa is a Canadian visual artist, medallist, and writer. As an illustrator of children's picture books he won the Governor General's Award in 2006. He lived in Ottawa, Ontario, then. He died on September 1, 2017.
Christopher Hugh Moore is a Canadian author, journalist, and blogger about Canadian history. A freelance writer since 1978, Moore is unusual among professionally trained Canadian historians in that he supports himself by writing for general audiences. He is a longtime columnist for Canada's History magazine and the author of many books. He has twice won the Governor General's Literary Awards.
The Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award was a literary award given annually from 1981 to 2016 to recognize a Canadian book of young adult fiction written in English and published in Canada, written by a citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
Patricia Aldana is a children's book publisher based in Canada. She is the founder and former publisher of Groundwood Books, past president of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), former president of the IBBY Trust, and current publisher of Aldana Libros, an imprint of Greystone Kids. She was named to the Order of Canada in 2010 "for her contributions to children's publishing in Canada and around the world."
Linda Granfield is an American-Canadian writer of nearly thirty nonfiction children's books. In 2001, she received the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, an honour bestowed by the Writers' Trust of Canada to a writer or illustrator whose body of work has been "inspirational to Canadian youth".