Victoria author Monique Gray Smith has been nominated for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award.
Smith is one of seven children’s authors and illustrators in the running for the prize, the richest in Canadian children’s literature.
Smith, who has Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry, is an international speaker, an award-winning author and consultant.
She is nominated for her book Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation (Orca Book Publshers).
An annual tradition since 2004, the TD Canadian Children’s prize will be announced Oct. 29, with the winner taking home $50,000, an increase from the $30,000 won in previous years.
Young readers can also vote for their favourite nominated book online via CBC from Sept. 6 to Oct. 25 as part of the Fan Choice Award.
One voter will also receive a cash prize, as well as a visit by one of the nominated authors, book donations and a financial donation to their school library.
The award is part of The Ready Commitment, TD’s corporate citizenship platform, which acknowledges the positive impact early learning can have on lives from childhood to adulthood.
In Speaking Our Truth, Gray Smith sets out to help young readers understand the history of the residential-school system in Canada and its lasting effects on survivors today.
Inspired by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the book includes questions and prompts to help young people think about these complicated issues, and how to move forward with understanding and empathy.
The prize jury noted: “Speaking Our Truth takes on the daunting task of synthesizing the history and evolution of the residential school system through the modern lens of reconciliation … Weaving personal experience and Canadian society's struggle to come to terms with a sorrowful and the haunting past, Monique Gray Smith bravely negotiates this politically sensitive terrain.”
Other nominees include Wendy Orr for Dragonfly Song, Barbara Reid for Picture in the Sky, Joanne Schwartz for Town is by the Sea and When the Moon Comes by Paul Harbridge.
