JonArno Lawson facts for kids

JonArno Lawson is a Canadian writer. He has published many books for both children and adults. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and grew up in a nearby town called Dundas. Today, he lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife and three children.

JonArno Lawson's Career and Education

JonArno Lawson studied English Literature at McGill University. He also briefly attended St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) and McMaster University. He has taught children's poetry at universities like Simmons University in Boston. He also taught at the University of British Columbia School of Information.

Lawson is well-known for his nonsense poetry. This type of poetry uses silly words and ideas to create funny or playful poems.

Awards and Recognition for JonArno Lawson

JonArno Lawson has won several awards for his writing. He won The Lion And The Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry four times. He received this award in 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2014. The winning books were "Enjoy It While It Hurts," "A Voweller's Bestiary," "Black Stars In A White Night Sky," and "Down In The Bottom Of The Bottom Of The Box." His book "The Man In The Moon-Fixer's Mask" was also a finalist for this award in 2005.

His wordless picture book, "Sidewalk Flowers," won a major award. It received the Governor General’s Award For Illustrated Children’s Books in 2015. This book, illustrated by Sydney Smith (Illustrator), tells a story using only pictures. It was also named one of the New York Times Best Illustrated Books in the same year.

Books by JonArno Lawson

Here is a list of books JonArno Lawson has published:

• Love Is An Observant Traveler (Exile Editions, 1997) (illus. Lui Liu)
• Inklings (Exile Editions, 1999)
• The Man In The Moon Fixer's Mask (Pedlar Press, 2004) (illus. Sherwin Tjia)
• Black Stars In A White Night Sky (Pedlar Press, 2006) (illus. Sherwin Tjia)
• A Voweller's Bestiary (Porcupine's Quill, 2008)
• This (And That Was That) (Greenboathouse Press, 2009)
• Think Again (Kids Can Press, 2010) (illus. Julie Morstad)
• There Devil, Eat That (Pedlar Press, 2011)
• Down In The Bottom Of The Bottom Of The Box (Porcupine's Quill, 2012) (illus. Alec Dempster)
• Old MacDonald Had Her Farm (Annick Press, 2012) (illus. Tina Holdcroft)
• Enjoy It While It Hurts (Wolsak and Wynn, 2013)
• Aloud In My Head (Walker Books Ltd., 2015) (illus. Jonny Hannah)
• Sidewalk Flowers (Groundwood Books, 2015) Sydney Smith (Illustrator)
• The Hobo's Crowbar (Porcupine's Quill, 2016) (Illus. Alec Dempster)
• I regret everything (Espresso Books, 2017)
• Uncle Holland (Groundwood Books, 2017) (illus. Natalie Nelson)
• Leap! (Kids Can Press, 2017) (illus. Josée Bisaillon)
• But It's So Silly: A Cross-cultural Collage of Nonsense, Play, and Poetry (Wolsak and Wynn, 2017)
• Over the Rooftops, Under the Moon (Enchanted Lion Books, 2019) (illus. Nahid Kazemi)
• The Playgrounds of Babel (Groundwood Books, 2019) (illus. Piet Grobler)
• Over the Shop (Candlewick Press, 2021) (illus. Qin Leng)
• A Day for Sandcastles (Candlewick Press, 2022) (illus. Qin Leng)
• Wise Up! Wise Down! (Walker Books, 2024) (a collaboration with John Agard) (illus. Satoshi Kitamura)