N.L. author wins national children’s book award
The Canadian Children’s Book Centre announced this week that Newfoundland and Labrador-born author Heather Smith took home the most distinguished children’s book of the year award — the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award — and the $50,000 prize that goes with it.
It’s the largest cash prize in Canadian children’s literature.
Smith won for her book “Ebb & Flow,” a middle-grade novel in free-verse.
The publisher, Kids Can Press, received $2,500 for promotional purposes.
An additional $10,000 was shared among the four finalists for their contributions to Canadian children’s literature.
Other award winners: “Africville” by Shauntay Grant, illustrated by Eva Campbell, won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award; “Turtle Pond” by James Gladstone, illustrated by Karen Reczuch, won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-fiction; and “They Say Blue” by Jillian Tamaki won the CBC Fan Choice Award.
Other winners were Christopher Paul Curtis, Courtney Summers and Michelle Barker.
“We look forward to this event every year to celebrate our accomplished authors and illustrators for children and young people in Canada,” said Rose Vespa, executive director of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.
“The books that were celebrated represent outstanding achievements in literature for young people.”
“Ebb & Flow” tells the story of 11-year-old Jett’s summer on the east coast with his unconventional Grandma Jo following a year in which his father was sent to jail and he and his mother moved away.
The novel, Smith’s third and a follow-up to “Bay Girl” and “The Agony of Bun O’keefe,” won the Winterset Award this year, garnering a cash prize of $12,500.
She has since released another book, titled “Chicken Girl.”
Smith lives in Waterloo, Ont., with her husband and three children.