Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award facts for kids

The Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award was a special prize given each year to the best Canadian children's book written in English. This award celebrated books by Canadian citizens or permanent residents that were published in Canada.

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) managed and presented this award. They continued to do so until the organization closed down in 2016. The award started in 1947. The first winner was Roderick Haig-Brown for his book Starbuck Valley Winter. From 1963 until 2016, a book received this award every single year.

To win, a book needed to be appealing to children up to 12 years old. It also had to show "creative writing." This included fiction, poetry, stories, non-fiction, or new versions of old tales.

The CLA also had a similar award called the CLA Young Adult Book Award. This award started in 1981. It was for books that appealed to young adults aged 13 to 18. These books were usually novels, short story collections, or graphic novels. Two books even won both the children's and young adult awards!

Award Winners

There were two awards given in 1966. However, no award was given six times between 1948 and 1962. From 1967 onwards, the winning books were published in the year before the award. Before 1965, most winning books were published two years earlier. The 1966 winners were published in 1964 and 1965.

• 1947 – Roderick Haig-Brown, Starbuck Valley Winter (Collins)
• 1948 – no award
• 1949 – Mabel Dunham, Kristli's Trees (McClelland & Stewart)
• 1950 – Richard S. Lambert, Franklin of the Arctic: a life of adventure (McClelland & Stewart)
• 1951 – no award
• 1952 – Catherine Anthony Clark, The Sun Horse (Macmillan of Canada)
• 1953 – no award
• 1954 – no award
• 1955 – no award
• 1956 – Louise Riley, Train for Tiger Lily (Macmillan of Canada)
• 1957 – Cyrus Macmillan, Glooskap's Country and Other Indian Tales (Oxford University Press)
• 1958 – Farley Mowat, Lost in the Barrens (Little, Brown and Company)
• 1959 – John F. Hayes, The Dangerous Cove: a story of the early days in Newfoundland (Copp Clark)
• 1960 – Marius Barbeau and Michael Hornyansky, The Golden Phoenix and Other Fairy Tales from Quebec (Oxford University Press)
• 1961 – William Toye, The St. Lawrence (Oxford University Press)
• 1962 – no award
• 1963 – Sheila Burnford, The Incredible Journey (Little, Brown and Company)
• 1964 – Roderick Haig-Brown, The Whale People (Collins)
• 1965 – Dorothy M. Reid, Tales of Nanabozho (Oxford University Press)
• 1966 – James Archibald Houston, Tikta'liktak: an Eskimo Legend (Longman)
• 1966 – James McNeill, The Double Knights: More Tales from Round the World (Oxford University Press)
• 1967 – Christie Harris, Raven's Cry (McClelland & Stewart)
• 1968 – James Archibald Houston, The White Archer: an Eskimo Legend (Kestrel Press)
• 1969 – Kay Hill, And Tomorrow the Stars (Dodd)
• 1970 – Edith Fowke, Sally Go Round the Sun: 300 songs, rhymes, and games of Canadian children (McClelland & Stewart)
• 1971 – William Toye, Cartier Discovers the St. Lawrence (Oxford University Press)
• 1972 – Ann Blades, Mary of Mile 18 (Tundra Books)
• 1973 – Ruth Nichols, The Marrow of the World (Macmillan of Canada)
• 1974 – Elizabeth Cleaver, The Miraculous Hind: a Hungarian legend (Holt Rinehart)
• 1975 – Dennis Lee, Alligator Pie (Macmillan of Canada)
• 1976 – Mordecai Richler, Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang (McClelland & Stewart)
• 1977 – Christie Harris, Mouse Woman and the Vanished Princesses (McClelland & Stewart)
• 1978 – Dennis Lee, Garbage Delight (Macmillan of Canada)
• 1979 – Kevin Major, Hold Fast (Clarke, Irwin & Company)
• 1980 – James Archibald Houston, River Runners (McClelland & Stewart)
• 1981 – Donn Kushner, The Violin-Maker's Gift (Macmillan of Canada)
• 1982 – Janet Lunn, The Root Cellar (Lester & Orpen Dennys)
• 1983 – Brian Doyle, Up to Low (Groundwood Books)
• 1984 – Jan Hudson, Sweetgrass (Tree Frog Press)
• 1985 – Jean Little, Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird (Penguin Books)
• 1986 – Cora Taylor, Julie (Western Producer Prairie Books)
• 1987 – Janet Lunn, Shadow in Hawthorn Bay (Lester & Orpen Dennys)
• 1988 – Kit Pearson, A Handful of Time (Penguin Books)
• 1989 – Brian Doyle, Easy Avenue (Groundwood Books)
• 1990 – Kit Pearson, The Sky is Falling (Penguin Books)
• 1991 – Michael Bedard, Redwork (Lester & Orpen Dennys)
• 1992 – Kevin Major, Eating Between the Lines (Doubleday Canada)
• 1993 – Celia Barker Lottridge, Ticket to Curlew; also issued as Ticket to Canada (Groundwood Books/Douglas & McIntyre)
• 1994 – Tim Wynne-Jones, Some of the Kinder Planets (Groundwood Books/Douglas & McIntyre)
• 1995 – Cora Taylor, Summer of the Mad Monk (Douglas & McIntyre)
• 1996 – Maxine Trottier, The Tiny Kite of Eddie Wing (Stoddart Publishing)
• 1997 – Brian Doyle, Uncle Ronald (Groundwood Books)
• 1998 – Kenneth Oppel, Silverwing (HarperCollins)
• 1999 – Tim Wynne-Jones, Stephen Fair (Groundwood Books/ Douglas & McIntyre)
• 2000 – Kenneth Oppel, Sunwing (HarperCollins)
• 2001 – Nan Gregory, Wild Girl & Gran (Red Deer Press)
• 2002 – Jean Little, Orphan at My Door: the home child diary of Victoria Cope (Scholastic Canada)
• 2003 – Karen Levine, Hana's Suitcase: a true story (Second Story Press)
• 2004 – Brian Doyle, Boy O'Boy (Groundwood Books/Douglas & McIntyre)
• 2005 – Anne Laurel Carter, Last Chance Bay (Penguin Books)
• 2006 – Pamela Porter, The Crazy Man (Groundwood Books)
• 2007 – Hadley Dyer, Johnny Kellock Died Today (HarperCollins)
• 2008 – Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton (Scholastic Canada)
• 2009 – Anne Laurel Carter, The Shepherd's Granddaughter (Groundwood Books)
• 2010 – Nancy Hartry, Watching Jimmy (Tundra Books)
• 2011 – Kenneth Oppel, Half Brother (HarperCollins)
• 2012 – Kit Pearson, The Whole Truth (HarperCollins Canada)
• 2013 – Susin Nielsen, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen (Tundra Books)
• 2014 – Allan Stratton, The Curse of the Dream Witch (Scholastic Canada)
• 2015 – Jonathan Auxier, The Night Gardener (Penguin Books Canada)
• 2016 - Kenneth Oppel, The Nest (HarperCollins Canada)

Authors Who Won Multiple Times

Many popular Canadian authors won this award more than once:

• Roderick Haig-Brown won in 1947 and 1964.
• William Toye won in 1961 and 1971.
• James Archibald Houston won in 1966, 1968, and 1980.
• Christie Harris won in 1967 and 1977.
• Dennis Lee (author) won in 1975 and 1978.
• Kevin Major won in 1979 and 1992.
• Janet Lunn won in 1982 and 1987.
• Brian Doyle (writer) won in 1983, 1989, and 1997.
• Jean Little won in 1985 and 2002.
• Cora Taylor won in 1986 and 1995.
• Kit Pearson won in 1988, 1990, and 2012.
• Tim Wynne-Jones won in 1994 and 1999.
• Kenneth Oppel was the first author to win the award four times: in 1998, 2000, 2011, and 2016.
• Anne Laurel Carter won in 2005 and 2009.

Books with Multiple Awards

Two books won both the CLA Young Adult Book Award and the Book of the Year for Children:

• Shadow in Hawthorn Bay by Janet Lunn (1987)
• Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel (2011)

Nine books that won the CLA Book of the Year for Children also won the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature. This other award was also known by earlier names like the Canada Council Children's Literature Prize. The authors and their CLA award years 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)

Shadow in Hawthorn Bay by Janet Lunn (published in 1986) was very special. It won three big Canadian awards: both CLA awards (for children's and young adult literature) and the Governor General's Award.

See also

• CLA Young Adult Book Award
• Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award
• ALA Newbery Medal
• British Carnegie Medal