The finalists for the 2013 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards were revealed today. Celebrating “artistic excellence in writing and illustration in English-language Canadian children’s literature,” the annual awards for best picture book and for best young adult or middle-grade title are each worth $6,000.

This year’s jurors ” always a group of young readers ” are from North Kipling Junior Middle School in Etobicoke, Ontario. The prizes will be given out May 23 at the school.

Children’s Picture Book Award

• A Few Bites, Cybèle Young (Groundwood Books)
• A Hen for Izzy Pippik, Aubrey Davis; Marie Lafrance, illus. (Kids Can Press)
• Larf, Ashley Spires (Kids Can)
  
• Virginia Wolf, Kyo Maclear; Isabelle Arsenault, illus. (Kids Can)
  
• Wishes, Jean Little; Geneviève Côté, illus. (Scholastic Canada)
  

Young Adult/Middle Reader Award

• A Tinfoil Sky, Cyndi Sand-Eveland (Tundra Books)
• Hunted, Cheryl Rainfield (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
  
• Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Doubleday Canada)
  
• The Grave Robber’s Apprentice, Allan Stratton (HarperCollins Canada)
  
• The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, Susin Nielsen (Tundra)