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

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

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.

Authors Who Won Multiple Times

Many popular Canadian authors won this award more than once:

Books with Multiple Awards

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

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:

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.

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Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.