On May 7, the Ontario Arts Foundation announced the 2019 nominees for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards. These award recognize artistic excellence in writing and illustration in English-language Canadian children’s literature. The awards will be selected by two juries of young readers, this year from Eastview Public School, Scarborough, Ontario. Students from Gr. 3 and 4 and also from Gr. 7 and 8, from this school, a school with a large Indigenous community, offering Ojibwa language instruction and other Indigenous programming, will select the award-winning book for the Children's Picture Book Award and for the Young Adult/Middle Reader Book Award respectively. The prizes, $6000 each, will be given out in June at the school.
Here are the two short-lists of nominees:
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In the CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK CATEGORY, the nominees are:
Written by Shauntay Grant
Illustrated by Eva Campbell
Groundwood Books
Reviewed here
Written by Wab Kinew
Illustrated by Joe Morse
Tundra Books
Reviewed here
Island in the Salish Sea
Written by Sheryl McFarlane
Illustrated by Leslie Redhead
Orca Book Publishers
Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay
Groundwood Books
Written by Paula Ikuutaq Rumbolt
Illustrations by Lenny Lishchenko
Inhabit Media
Reviewed here
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In the YOUNG ADULT/MIDDLE READER CATEGORY, the nominees are:
Fire Song
Written by Adam Garnet Jones
Annick Press
Written by Adam Garnet Jones
Annick Press
No Fixed Address
Written by Susin Nielsen
Tundra Books
Written by Susin Nielsen
Tundra Books
Planet Grief
Written by Monique Polak
Orca Book Publishers
Orca Book Publishers
Sadia
Written by Colleen Nelson
Dundurn Press
Written by Colleen Nelson
Dundurn Press
Very Rich
Written by Polly Horvath
Puffin Canada
Written by Polly Horvath
Puffin Canada
Congratulations to all nominees
