The Governor General's Award for English-language children's writing is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a children's book written in English. It is one of four children's book awards among the

Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by th ...

, one each for writers and illustrators of English- and French-language books. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the fede ...

. In name, this award is part of the Governor General's Award program only from 1987 but there was a single award for "Juvenile" literature from 1949 to 1958, and the four present-day "Children's" awards were established in 1975 under a Canada Council name. In the event, the "Canada Council" and "Governor General's" awards have recognized writing in an English-language children's book every year from 1975.

Juvenile fiction

The oldest of now-14 annual Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were inaugurated in 1936. One award for a "juvenile" book was introduced in 1949, and conferred every year to 1958. Throughout those ten years, the juvenile literature award was one of five in the program, all for English-language books. * 1949: Richard S. Lambert, ''Franklin of the Arctic'' *

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

: Donalda Dickie, ''The Great Adventure'' *

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

: John F. Hayes, ''A Land Divided'' *

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

: Marie McPhedran, ''Cargoes on the Great Lakes'' *

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

: John F. Hayes, ''Rebels Ride at Night'' * 1954:

Marjorie Wilkins Campbell Marjorie Elliott Wilkins Campbell (1901 – November 23, 1986) was a Canadian writer of history and historical fiction. She won two Governor General's Literary Awards for the best works of the year, one of the two 1950 non-fiction awards for ''Th ...

, ''The Nor'westers'' * 1955:

Kerry Wood Kerry Lee Wood (born June 16, 1977) is an American former baseball pitcher who played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees. Wood first came to prominence as a 20-year-old rook ...

, ''The Map-Maker'' *

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

Farley Mowat Farley McGill Mowat, (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Can ...

, ''

Lost in the Barrens ''Lost in the Barrens'' is a children's novel by Farley Mowat, first published in 1956. Later editions used the title ''Two Against the North''. It won Governor General's Award in 1956 and the Canada Library Association Book of the Year for Ch ...

'' *

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

, ''The Great Chief'' *

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

: Edith L. Sharp, ''Nkwala'' Two of the Governor General's Award-winning writers also won the

Canadian Library Association The Canadian Library Association (CLA) was a national, predominantly English-language association which represented 57,000 library workers across Canada. It also spoke for the interests of the 21 million Canadians who are members of libraries. C ...

award for children's book writing, recognizing the same book: Richard Lambert in 1949 and Farley Mowat in 1958. The

CLA Book of the Year for Children Award The Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award is a literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian children's book. The book must be written in English and published in Canada during the preceding year (and nominated by ...

was conferred six times during these ten years.

Canada Council Children's Literature Prize

In 1975 the Canada Council established four annual prizes of $5000 for the year's best English- and French-language children's books by Canadian writers and illustrators. Those "Canada Council Children's Literature Prizes" were continued under the "Governor General's Awards" rubric from 1987, and continue today. Among them the English-language writing prize was awarded every year from 1975. * 1975: Bill Freeman, ''Shantymen of Cache Lake'' * 1976:

Myra Paperny Myra Paperny (née Green born 19 September 1932) is a Canadian author and former academic. After briefly reporting for the '' Vancouver Province'' and '' Vancouver News Herald'' in the early 1950s, Paperny taught creative writing at Mount Royal Col ...

, ''The Wooden People'' * 1977:

Jean Little Jean Little, CM (January 2, 1932 – April 6, 2020) was an award-winning Canadian writer of over 50 books. Her work mainly consisted of children's literature, but she also wrote two autobiographies: ''Little by Little'' and ''Stars Come Out Wit ...

, ''Listen for the Singing'' – sequel to ''

From Anna ''From Anna'' is a children's novel written by Canadian children's author Jean Little, first published in 1972. It is the story of Anna Solden, a visually impaired child who moves from Germany to Canada with her family, on the eve of Hitler's ris ...

'' (1972) * 1978:

Kevin Major Kevin Major (born September 12, 1949) is a Canadian author who lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador with his wife. He writes for both young people and adults, including fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, and plays. Major was born a ...

, ''Hold Fast'' * 1979:

Barbara Smucker Barbara Claassen Smucker (1 September 1915 – 29 July 2003) was an American writer, primarily of children's fiction, who lived in Canada from 1969 to 1993. She is the author of twelve books, including '' Underground to Canada'' (1977) which is s ...

, ''Days of Terror'' * 1980:

Christie Harris Christie Lucy Harris, (November 21, 1907 – January 5, 2002) was a Canadian children's writer. She is best known for her portrayal of Haida First Nations culture in the 1966 novel ''Raven's Cry.'' Biography Harris was born in Newark, New Jer ...

, ''The Trouble with Princesses'', illus. Douglas Tait * 1981: Monica Hughes, '' The Guardian of Isis'' – sequel to ''The Keeper of the Isis Light'' (1980) * 1982: Monica Hughes, ''

Hunter in the Dark ''Hunter in the Dark'' is a young adult novel by Monica Hughes, first published in 1982 and has been the subject of school study. It is about a boy with leukemia who goes on a hunting expedition. Plot summary Mike Rankin is an athletic teenag ...

'' * 1983: Sean O'Huigin, ''The Ghost Horse of the Mounties'' * 1984: Jan Hudson, ''Sweetgrass'' * 1985:

Cora Taylor Cora Taylor (born January 14, 1936) is a Canadian writer. Born in Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, she moved to Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan Ri ...

, ''Julie'' * 1986:

Janet Lunn Janet Louise Lunn, ('' née'' Swoboda; December 28, 1928 – June 26, 2017) was a Canadian children's writer. Early life and education Lunn was born in Dallas, Texas; she moved with her family to Vermont when she was an infant. In 1938, she ...

, ''Shadow in Hawthorn Bay'' Three of the CCCLP-winning English-language writers also won the annual

award for children's book writing, recognizing the same book. Their

s are dated one year later: Kevin Major 1979, Cora Taylor 1986, and Janet Lunn 1987. The CLA Book of the Year was inaugurated in 1947 and has been awarded every year since 1963."Book of the Year for Children Award"
inners ''Book Awards''. Canadian Library Association (cla.org). Retrieved 2015-08-06. Two of the CCCLP-winning English-language writers also won the CLA Young Adult Book Award, recognizing the same book, namely Monica Hughes in 1983 and Janet Lunn in 1987."Young Adult Book Award"
inners ''Book Awards''. CLA. Retrieved 2015-08-06. That is,

and ''Shadow in Hawthorn Bay'' (1986) won both the CLA awards for children's and young-adult books. According to one

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

library record ''The Trouble With Princesses'' (

McClelland & Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Random House of Canada, Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. ...

, 1980) "retells stories about Northwest Coast princesses and compares them with similar Old World princesses", . For their collaboration Christie Harris won the CCCLP prize for English-language writing and Douglas Tait won the CLA award for children's book illustration, the 1981

Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award The Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award was presented annually by the Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliothèques (CLA) to an outstanding illustrator of a new Canadian children's book. The book must be "suita ...

."Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award"
ist of winners ''Book Awards''. CLA. Retrieved 2015-08-06.

Children's literature (writing)

Four books listed below, winners of the English-language writing award under the "Governor General's" name, were also named CLA Book of the Year for Children: Bedard 1991, Wynne-Jones 1994, Porter 2006, and Nielsen 2013. Four of them also won the CLA Young Adult Book Award: Wieler 1990, Johnston 1995, Wynne-Jones 1996, and Brooks 2003.

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

References

{{Governor General's Literary Awards Canadian children's literary awards Children English *English Awards established in 1949 1949 establishments in Canada Awards disestablished in 1958 Awards established in 1987 1987 establishments in Canada English-language literary awards