2013 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards' nominees announced

Today, the 2013 nominees for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards were announced.

Administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards recognize artistic excellence in writing and illustration in English-language Canadian children’s literature. The award was established in 1976 by Sylvia Schwartz in memory of her sister, Ruth Schwartz, a respected Toronto bookseller.  In 2004, the Schwartz family renamed the awards to honour both sisters.

While funded generously by the Ruth Schwartz Foundation ($6000 for each award) and administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation, the awards are selected by two juries of young readers, this year from North Kipling Junior Middle School in Etobicoke, Ontario.  Five students from Grades 2 and 3 select the award-winning book for the Children's Picture Book Award, and five students from Grade 8 select the Young Adult/Middle Reader Book Award recipient.  The prizes will be given out May 23 at the school.

Here are the two short-lists of nominees announced today:

• • •                                        

In the CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK CATEGORY, the nominees are:

A Few Bites
by Cybèle Young
Groundwood Books

A Hen for Izzy Pippik
by Aubrey Davis
Illustrated by Marie Lafrance
Kids Can Press

Larf
by Ashley Spires
Kids Can Press

Virginia Wolf
by Kyo Maclear
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Kids Can Press

Wishes
by Jean Little
Illustrated by Geneviève Côté
Scholastic Canada

• • •                                       

In the  YOUNG ADULT/MIDDLE READER CATEGORY, the nominees are:

 
A Tinfoil Sky
by Cyndi Sand-Eveland
Tundra Books

 
Hunted
by Cheryl Rainfield
Fitzhenry & Whiteside








Seraphina
by Rachel Hartman
Doubleday Canada








The Grave Robber’s Apprentice
by Allan Stratton
HarperCollins Canada








The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen
by Susin Nielsen
Tundra

Congratulations to all nominees