Town Is by the Sea wins TD book prize

TORONTO — A tale about a young boy growing up in mid-century Cape Breton has won the $50,000 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award.

Town Is by the Sea, written by Toronto’s Joanne Schwartz and illustrated by Toronto’s Sydney Smith, was named the big winner at a gala in Toronto on Monday.

Its publisher, Groundwood Books, received $2,500 for promotional purposes.

An additional $10,000 was shared among four finalists, including Victoria author Monique Gray Smith for Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation (Orca Books).

The other finalists were Dragonfly Song, written by Wendy Orr for Pajama Press; Picture the Sky, written and illustrated by Barbara Reid for North Winds Press/Scholastic Canada; and When the Moon Comes, written by Paul Harbridge and illustrated by Matt James for Tundra Books.

Reid also took home the $5,000 fan choice award after garnering more than 17,000 online votes for Picture the Sky.

In total, $112,500 was awarded Monday. An additional $72,500 will be awarded at a gala event in Montreal on Nov. 19.

Other prizes announced Monday included:

• the $20,000 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award for When the Moon Comes;

• the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction for #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women, edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale (Annick Press);

• the $5,000 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People for The Assassin’s Curse by Kevin Sands (Aladdin);

• the $5,000 John Spray Mystery Award for The Hanging Girl by Eileen Cook (Houghlin Mifflin Harcourt);

• the $5,000 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award for The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (DCB).