Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards 2012 Short Lists announced!

Today, the Ontario Arts Foundation, on behalf of the Ruth Schwartz Foundation, announced the 2012 short lists for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards.

Administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards recognize artistic excellence in writing and illustration in English-language Canadian children’s literature. The award was established in 1976 by Sylvia Schwartz in memory of her sister, Ruth Schwartz, a respected Toronto bookseller.  In 2004, the Schwartz family renamed the awards to honour both sisters.

While funded generously by the Ruth Schwartz Foundation ($6000 for each award) and administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation, the awards are selected by two juries of young readers from Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School.  Five students from Grades 2 and 3 select the award-winning book for the Children's Picture Book Award, and five students from Grade 8 select the Young Adult/Middle Reader Book Award recipient.

Here are the titles short-listed for the 2012 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards:

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK CATEGORY

Along a Long Road
by Frank Viva
HarperCollins Canada

Loon
by Susan Vande Griek
Illustrated by Karen Reczuch
Groundwood

Migrant
by Maxine Trottier
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Groundwood

Picture a Tree
by Barbara Reid
Scholastic Canada

The Vole Brothers
by Roslyn Schwartz
Owlkids Books

 YOUNG ADULT/MIDDLE READER CATEGORY

Blink and Caution
by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick Press

No Ordinary Day
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood

Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra

That Fatal Night: The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilton, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1912
by Sarah Ellis
Scholastic Canada

The Whole Truth
by Kit Pearson
HarperCollins Canada

The 2012 winners will be announced at Toronto’s Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School at 1:00 p.m. on May 31, 2012.