Jack Wong, Sydney Smith and Liselle Sambury among finalists for top Canadian children's book awards

Jack Wong, Sydney Smith and Liselle Sambury are among the finalists for the 2024 Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards. 

The eight awards, which include prizes for nonfiction, YA and picture books, annually recognize the best in Canadian children's literature.

Wong's When You Can Swim is nominated for the $20,000 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, which is for the best Canadian picture book of the year. Written and illustrated by Wong, When You Can Swim is about an adult explaining to a young girl all the joys of swimming in lakes, rivers and at the beach.

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Wong is a Halifax-based author and illustrator who was born in Hong Kong but grew up in Vancouver. When You Can Swim is his first book. It won the 2023 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — illustrated books.

Written and illustrated by Smith, Do You Remember? is nominated for the $50,000 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, which recognizes the best Canadian book for readers up to age 12 in any genre.

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Smith is a writer and illustrator from Halifax. Some of his other works include illustrating Town is by the Sea which won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award in 2017 and the Kate Greenaway Medal, and Small in the City which he also wrote. Small in the City won the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Ezra Jack Keats Award.

Sambury's YA novel Delicious Monsters is nominated for the $5,000 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, which recognizes Canadian young adult books for readers between the ages of 13 and 18.

In Delicious Monsters, a teen named Daisy has a huge secret: she can see the spirits of the dead. The only person who knows is Daisy's mom Grace, who is aloof, distant and has her own secrets. When Daisy and her mom inherit a mysterious mansion in Northern Ontario, Daisy jumps at the promise of a new life and new relationship with her mother, only to find out it's not the happily ever after she was hoping for.

A decade later, a young filmmaker named Brittany wants to tell Daisy's story, and as she races to piece together Daisy's truth, she must also confront her past.

• Liselle Sambury explores difficult mother-daughter relationships in her spooky YA novel Delicious Monsters

Liselle Sambury is a Trinidadian-Canadian YA writer and blogger. Her debut novel, Blood Like Magic, was on the shortlist for the 2021 Governor General's Literary award for young people's literature — text.

Two long-standing awards are celebrating milestones this year: this year marks the 20th anniversary of the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and the 10th anniversary of the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award.

This is also the first year that the Richard Allen Chase Memorial Award (RACMA) will be bestowed as part of the CCBC's awards program. 

The winners will be announced at an in-person event at the Toronto Reference Library on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024.

You can see the shortlisted titles for all eight awards below.

The finalists for the $50,000 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award are:

• Do You Remember? by Sydney Smith
• Green Papayas by Nhung N. Tran-Davies, illustrated by Gillian Newland
• Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow 
• Skating Wild on an Inland Sea by Jean E. Pendziwol, illustrated by Todd Stewart
• The Umbrella House by Colleen Nelson

The finalists for the $20,000 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award are:

• Love Is in the Bear by Judith Henderson, illustrated by Nahid Kazemi
• Our Pool written and illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins
• Skating Wild on an Inland Sea by Jean E. Pendziwol, illustrated by Todd Stewart
• A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Lauren Soloy
• When You Can Swim written and illustrated by Jack Wong

The finalists for the $5,000 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People recognizes historical fiction young people are:

• Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold by Jessica Outram
• The Cricket War by Thọ Phạm and Sandra McTavish
• Focus. Click. Wind. by Amanda West Lewis
• Mall Goth by Kate Leth
• Out of the Dark by Julie Lawson

The finalist for the $5,000 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award recognizes Canadian young adult books for readers between the ages of 13 and 18 are:

• Brighter Than the Sun by Daniel Aleman
• Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
• Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian
• Something More by Jackie Khalilieh
• The Space Between Here & Now by Sarah Suk

The finalists for the $5,000 Jean Little First Novel Award recognizes the first book by a Canadian writer for young people are:

• Bee Bakshi and the Gingerbread Sisters by Emi Pinto
• The Boy Who Woke the Sun by A.T. Woodley, illustrated by Mike Deas
• The Cricket War by Thọ Phạm and Sandra McTavish
• The Secret of the Ravens by Joanna Cacao
• Where the Water Takes Us by Alan Barillaro

The finalists for the $5,000 Arlene Barlin Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy recognizes excellence in Canadian children's speculative fiction are:

• Bonesmith by Nicki Pau Preto
• The Boy, the Cloud and the Very Tall Tale by Heather Smith
• City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer
• Nightbreaker by Coco Ma
• The Stars of Mount Quixx by S.M. Beiko

The finalists for the $3,500 David Booth Children's and Youth Poetry Award recognizes excellence in Canadian children's and youth poetry are:

• Forever Our Home by Tonya Simpson, illustrated by Carla Joseph
• I Want to Build a Seahouse by Whitney Moran, illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
• Like a Hurricane by Jonathan Bécotte, translated by Jonathan Kaplansky
• The Prisoner and the Writer by Heather Camlot, illustrated by Sophie Casson
• Robot, Unicorn, Queen: Poems for You and Me by Shannon Bramer, illustrated by Irene Luxbacher
• The Yellow Leaves Are Coming by James Gladstone, illustrated by François Thisdale

The finalists for the $2,500 Richard Allen Chase Memorial Award are:

• Alone: The Journeys of Three Young Refugees by Paul Tom, illustrated by Mélanie Baillairgé and translated by Arielle Aaronson
• The Halifax Explosion: 6 December 1917, at 9:05 in the Morning by Afua Cooper, illustrated by Rebecca Bender
• The Secret Pocket by Peggy Janicki, illustrated by Carrielynn Victor
• Shizue's Path by Mark Sakamoto, illustrated by Rachel Wada
• A Star Explodes: The Story of Supernova 1054 by James Gladstone, illustrated by Yaara Eshet