Governor General's Children's Lit Shortlist

The shortlist was announced today for Canada's Governor General's Literary Awards in the category of children's literature. There are awards for French, English, text and illustration. I'm interested in the English text award and plan to try and read all five shortlisted titles of which I have so far read zero. Sadly, my library only has two of the titles in circulation so I had to put the other three on Inter Library Loan. Hopefully, I'll receive them in time to read before the winner is announced on November 27.

Historical fiction is the theme of the day as each of the five titles takes place in the past: an American painter, escaped slaves in Ontario, 1960's space program, the explorer Henry Hudson, and a Hungarian Jew in Auschwitz. I'm very excited to read each of these.

The shortlist:

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose: The Story of a Painting by Hugh Brewster

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis -

Gemini Summer by Iain Lawrence

The Alchemist's Dream by John Wilson (Review here)

Kanada by Eva Wiseman