Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature facts for kids
The Governor General's Award for English-language children's writing is a special Canadian prize. It celebrates the best English children's book written by a Canadian author each year. This award is part of the larger Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, which also honors French books and amazing illustrators. The Canada Council helps run these important awards.
While it's been called the Governor General's Award since 1987, a similar prize for "Juvenile" (young people's) books existed from 1949 to 1958. Then, in 1975, the Canada Council created four new "Children's" awards, which are the ones we know today. So, an award for English children's writing has been given out every year since 1975!
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Early Awards for Young People's Books (1949–1958)
The very first Governor General's Awards for books started in 1936. A special award for a "juvenile" book was added in 1949. This award was given every year until 1958. During these ten years, it was one of five awards in the program, all for English books.
| Year | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Richard S. Lambert | Franklin of the Arctic |
| 1950 | Donalda Dickie | The Great Adventure |
| 1951 | John F. Hayes | A Land Divided |
| 1952 | Marie McPhedran | Cargoes on the Great Lakes |
| 1953 | John F. Hayes | Rebels Ride at Night |
| 1954 | Marjorie Wilkins Campbell | The Nor'westers |
| 1955 | Kerry Wood | The Map-Maker |
| 1956 | Farley Mowat | Lost in the Barrens |
| 1957 | Kerry Wood | The Great Chief |
| 1958 | Edith L. Sharp | Nkwala |
Some of these winners also won another award. Richard Lambert in 1949 and Farley Mowat in 1958 also received the Canadian Library Association award for children's books for the same stories.
Canada Council Children's Literature Prize (1975–1986)
In 1975, the Canada Council started four new yearly awards. Each prize was $5000. They were for the best English and French children's books by Canadian writers and illustrators. These "Canada Council Children's Literature Prizes" became part of the "Governor General's Awards" in 1987. The English-language writing prize has been given every year since 1975.
| Year | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Bill Freeman | Shantymen of Cache Lake |
| 1976 | Myra Paperny | The Wooden People |
| 1977 | Jean Little | Listen for the Singing |
| 1978 | Kevin Major | Hold Fast |
| 1979 | Barbara Smucker | Days of Terror |
| 1980 | Christie Harris, illus. by Douglas Tait | The Trouble with Princesses |
| 1981 | Monica Hughes | The Guardian of Isis |
| 1982 | Monica Hughes | Hunter in the Dark |
| 1983 | Sean O'Huigin | The Ghost Horse of the Mounties |
| 1984 | Jan Hudson | Sweetgrass |
| 1985 | Cora Taylor | Julie |
| 1986 | Janet Lunn | Shadow in Hawthorn Bay |
Several of these authors also won the Canadian Library Association award for children's books. Kevin Major won in 1979, Cora Taylor in 1986, and Janet Lunn in 1987. Monica Hughes and Janet Lunn also won the CLA Young Adult Book Award. For example, Janet Lunn's Shadow in Hawthorn Bay (1986) won both the children's and young adult CLA awards.
Christie Harris's book, The Trouble With Princesses (1980), retells stories about princesses from Canada's Northwest Coast. It also compares them to princesses from older European tales. Christie Harris won the Canada Council prize for writing, and Douglas Tait won an award for illustrating it.
Governor General's Awards for Children's Literature (Writing)
Since 1987, the award has been known as the Governor General's Award. Many winners have also received other honors. Four books won both this award and the CLA Book of the Year for Children: Michael Bedard (1991), Tim Wynne-Jones (1994), Pamela Porter (2006), and Susin Nielsen (2013). Four others also won the CLA Young Adult Book Award: Diana Wieler (1990), Julie Johnston (1995), Tim Wynne-Jones (1996), and Martha Brooks (2003).
Winners from the 1980s
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Morgan Nyberg | Galahad Schwartz and the Cockroach Army | Winner |
| Welwyn Wilton Katz | False Face | Finalist | |
| Donn Kushner | A Book Dragon | ||
| Russell McRae | Going to the Dogs | ||
| 1988 | Welwyn Wilton Katz | The Third Magic | Winner |
| Martha Brooks | Paradise Café and Other Stories | Finalist | |
| Brian Doyle | Easy Avenue | ||
| Jean Little | Little by Little | ||
| 1989 | Diana Wieler | Bad Boy | Winner |
| Kit Pearson | The Sky Is Falling | Finalist | |
| Eliane Corbeil Roe | Circle of Light |
Winners from the 1990s
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Michael Bedard | Redwork | Winner | |
| Jan Andrews | The Auction | Finalist | ||
| Brian Doyle | Covered Bridge | |||
| Welwyn Wilton Katz | Whale Singer | |||
| 1991 | Sarah Ellis | Pick-Up Sticks | Winner | |
| Martha Brooks | Two Moons in August | Finalist | ||
| Roch Carrier | A Happy New Year's Day | |||
| Jean Little | Stars Come Out Within | |||
| Monty Reid | The Last Great Dinosaurs | |||
| 1992 | Julie Johnston | Hero of Lesser Causes | Winner | |
| Margaret Buffie | My Mother's Ghost | Finalist | ||
| John Ibbitson | 1812: Jeremy and the General | |||
| Thomas King | A Coyote Columbus Story | |||
| Kit Pearson | Looking at the Moon | |||
| 1993 | Tim Wynne-Jones | Some of the Kinder Planets | Winner | |
| Mitzi Dale | Bryna Means Courage | Finalist | ||
| James Archibald Houston | Drifting Snow: An Arctic Search | |||
| Carol Matas | Daniel's Story | |||
| Shirley Sterling | My Name Is Seepeetza | |||
| 1994 | Julie Johnston | Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me | Winner | |
| Sarah Ellis | Out of the Blue | Finalist | ||
| Carol Matas | The Burning Time | |||
| Jim McGugan | Josepha: A Prairie Boy's Story | |||
| Ken Roberts | Past Tense | |||
| 1995 | Tim Wynne-Jones | The Maestro | Winner | |
| Beth Goobie | Mission Impossible | Finalist | ||
| Hazel Hutchins | Tess | |||
| Welwyn Wilton Katz | Out of the Dark | |||
| Diana Wieler | RanVan A Worthy Opponent | |||
| 1996 | Paul Yee | Ghost Train | Winner | |
| Jan Andrews | Keri | Finalist | ||
| David Boyd | Bottom Drawer | |||
| Gillian Chan | Glory Days and Other Stories | |||
| Don Gillmor | The Fabulous Song | |||
| 1997 | Kit Pearson | Awake and Dreaming | Winner | |
| Cheryl Foggo | One Thing That's True | Finalist | ||
| James Heneghan | Wish Me Luck | |||
| Teddy Jam | The Fishing Summer | |||
| Barbara Nichol | Dippers | |||
| 1998 | Janet Lunn | The Hollow Tree | Winner | |
| Gayle Friesen | Janey's Girl | Finalist | ||
| Julie Johnston | The Only Outcast | |||
| Janet McNaughton | Make or Break Spring | |||
| Sarah Withrow | Bat Summer | |||
| 1999 | Rachna Gilmore | A Screaming Kind of Day | Winner | |
| Don Gillmor | The Christmas Orange | Finalist | ||
| Graham McNamee | Hate You | |||
| W. D. Valgardson | The Divorced Kids Club and Other Stories | |||
| Frieda Wishinsky | Each One Special |
Winners from the 2000s
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Deborah Ellis | Looking for X | Winner | |
| Martha Brooks | Being with Henry | Finalist | ||
| Sharon E. McKay | Charlie Wilcox | |||
| Sheldon Oberman | The Shaman's Nephew | |||
| Duncan Thornton | Kalifax | |||
| 2001 | Arthur Slade | Dust | Winner | |
| Brian Doyle | Mary Ann Alice | Finalist | ||
| Beth Goobie | Before Wings | |||
| Julie Johnston | In Spite of Killer Bees | |||
| Teresa Toten | The Game | |||
| 2002 | Martha Brooks | True Confessions of a Heartless Girl | Winner | |
| Alan Cumyn | The Secret Life of Owen Skye | Finalist | ||
| Deborah Ellis | Parvana's Journey | |||
| John Lekich | The Losers' Club | |||
| Karen Levine | Hana's Suitcase | |||
| 2003 | Glen Huser | Stitches | Winner | |
| Sarah Ellis | The Several Lives of Orphan Jack | Finalist | ||
| Barbara Haworth-Attard | Theories of Relativity | |||
| Kevin Major | Ann and Seamus | |||
| Judd Palmer | The Maestro | |||
| 2004 | Kenneth Oppel | Airborn | Winner | |
| Martine Leavitt | Heck Superhero | Finalist | ||
| Sharon McKay | Esther | |||
| Judd Palmer | The Wolf King | |||
| Ange Zhang | Red Land, Yellow River: A Story from the Cultural Revolution | |||
| 2005 | Pamela Porter | The Crazy Man | Winner | |
| Francis Chalifour | After | Finalist | ||
| Barbara Nickel | Hannah Waters and the Daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach | |||
| Gail Nyoka | Mella and the N'anga: An African Tale | |||
| Shyam Selvadurai | Swimming in the Monsoon Sea | |||
| 2006 | William Gilkerson | Pirate's Passage | Winner | |
| André Alexis | Ingrid and the Wolf | Finalist | ||
| Glen Huser | Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen | |||
| Teresa Toten | Me and the Blondes | |||
| Budge Wilson | Friendships | |||
| 2007 | Iain Lawrence | Gemini Summer | Winner | |
| Hugh Brewster | Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose: The Story of a Painting | Finalist | ||
| Christopher Paul Curtis | Elijah of Buxton | |||
| John Wilson | The Alchemist's Dream | |||
| Eva Wiseman | Kanada | |||
| 2008 | John Ibbitson | The Landing | Winner | |
| Alma Fullerton | Libertad | Finalist | ||
| Dianne Linden | Shimmerdogs | |||
| Shenaaz Nanji | Child of Dandelions | |||
| Mariko Tamaki | Skim | |||
| 2009 | Caroline Pignat | Greener Grass: The Famine Years | Winner | |
| Shelley Hrdlitschka | Sister Wife | Finalist | ||
| Sharon Jennings | Home Free | |||
| Robin Stevenson | A Thousand Shades of Blue | |||
| Tim Wynne-Jones | The Uninvited |
Winners from the 2010s
| Year | Author | Title | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Wendy Phillips | Fishtailing | Winner | |
| K. L. Denman | Me, Myself and Ike | Finalist | ||
| Lesley Fairfield | Tyranny | |||
| Gina McMurchy-Barber | Free as a Bird | |||
| Cheryl Rainfield | Scars | |||
| 2011 | Christopher Moore | From Then to Now: A Short History of the World | Winner | |
| Jan L. Coates | A Hare in the Elephant’s Trunk | Finalist | ||
| Deborah Ellis | No Ordinary Day | |||
| Kenneth Oppel | This Dark Endeavour | |||
| Tim Wynne-Jones | Blink & Caution | |||
| 2012 | Susin Nielsen | The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen | Winner | |
| Rachel Hartman | Seraphina | Finalist | ||
| Deborah Kerbel | Under the Moon | |||
| Judd Palmer | The Umbrella | |||
| Allan Stratton | The Grave Robber's Apprentice | |||
| 2013 | Teresa Toten | The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B | Winner | |
| Beverley Brenna | The White Bicycle | Finalist | ||
| Shane Peacock | Becoming Holmes | |||
| Jean E. Pendziwol | Once Upon a Northern Light | |||
| Valerie Sherrard | Counting Back from Nine | |||
| 2014 | Raziel Reid | When Everything Feels Like the Movies | Winner | |
| Jonathan Auxier | The Night Gardener | Finalist | ||
| Lesley Choyce | Jeremy Stone | |||
| Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley | Skraelings | |||
| Mariko Tamaki | This One Summer | |||
| 2015 | Caroline Pignat | The Gospel Truth | Winner | |
| Dan Bar-el | Audrey (cow) | Finalist | ||
| Darren Groth | Are You Seeing Me? | |||
| Susin Nielsen | We Are All Made of Molecules | |||
| Emil Sher | Young Man with Camera | |||
| 2016 | Martine Leavitt | Calvin | Winner | |
| Mikaela Everett | The Unquiet | Finalist | ||
| E. K. Johnston | A Thousand Nights | |||
| Trilby Kent | Once, in a Town Called Moth | |||
| Tim Wynne-Jones | The Emperor of Any Place | |||
| 2017 | Cherie Dimaline | The Marrow Thieves | Winner | |
| Alison Hughes | Hit the Ground Running | Finalist | ||
| Aviaq Johnston | Those Who Run in the Sky | |||
| Allan Stratton | The Way Back Home | |||
| Danielle Younge-Ullman | Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined | |||
| 2018 | Jonathan Auxier | Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster | Winner | |
| Christopher Paul Curtis | The Journey of Little Charlie | Finalist | ||
| Janice Lynn Mather | Learning to Breathe | |||
| Lindsay Mattick and Josh Greenhut | Winnie's Great War | |||
| Heather Smith | Ebb & Flow | |||
| 2019 | Erin Bow | Stand on the Sky | Winner | |
| Brian Francis | Break in Case of Emergency | Finalist | ||
| Sue Farrell Holler | Cold White Sun | |||
| Michelle Kadarusman | Girl of the Southern Sea | |||
| Jo Treggiari | The Grey Sisters |
Winners from the 2020s
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Eric Walters | The King of Jam Sandwiches | Winner | |
| Sara Cassidy | Nevers | Finalist | ||
| Polly Horvath | Pine Island Home | |||
| Colleen Nelson and Tara Anderson | Harvey Holds His Own | |||
| David A. Robertson | The Barren Grounds | |||
| 2021 | Philippa Dowding | Firefly | Winner | |
| Jo Treggiari | Peter Lee's Notes from the Field | Finalist | ||
| Sharon Jennings | Unravel | |||
| Liselle Sambury | Blood Like Magic | |||
| Basil Sylvester and Kevin Sylvester | The Fabulous Zed Watson! | |||
| 2022 | Jen Ferguson | The Summer of Bitter and Sweet | Winner | |
| Deborah Ellis | Step | Finalist | ||
| Joanne Levy | Sorry for Your Loss | |||
| Edeet Ravel | A Boy Is Not a Ghost | |||
| Kate Story | Urchin | |||
| 2023 | Sarah Everett | The Probability of Everything | Winner | |
| Michelle Kadarusman | Berani | Finalist | ||
| Zoulfa Katouh | As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow | |||
| Iain Lawrence | Fire on Headless Mountain | |||
| Kim Spencer | Weird Rules to Follow | |||
| 2024 | Li Charmaine Anne | Crash Landing | Winner | |
| Cherie Dimaline | Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix | Finalist | ||
| Shari Green | Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams | |||
| June Hur | A Crane Among Wolves | |||
| Kristy Jackson | Mortified |
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