What do these books have in common?
Sylvia Schwartz was a photographer who specialized in children’s portraiture. Her sister Ruth was a bookseller. Sylvia established the Ruth Schwartz Award in 1976 to recognize “artistic excellence in Canadian children’s literature.” In 2004 the family renamed the award the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards, ten years after establishing separate awards for picture books and YA-middle readers. What makes this award unique, besides that it’s named after two great sisters, is that winning books are selected by juries of children from a public school in Ontario.
I’m delighted that Harry and Walter is on this year’s picture book shortlist.
Among the other fine titles there is A Family is a Family by Sara O’Leary and Qin Leng. I’m happy to be narrating this book for the CNIB Library this week. (It will be my 42nd book narrated there.)
Look closely at the covers of the two books. Do you now have two answers to the question at the top of this post?
Share this post:
Kathy Stinson is the author of the classic Red Is Best and the award-winning The Man with the Violin. Her wide range of titles includes picture books, non-fiction, young adult fiction, historical fiction, horror, biography, series books, and short stories. She has met with her readers in every province and territory of Canada, in the United States, Britain, Liberia, and Korea. She lives in a small town in Ontario.
