Canadian-Hungarian-Japanese writer Csilla Istok has won the 2013 Rainbow Caterpillar Multilingual Kid Lit Award last week for her Hungarian-language short story “When the Sun Dies.”

The prize is open to unpublished short stories by a Canadian writer in a language other than English. It was founded in 2011 by Happie Testa and Hanoosh Abbasi, co-owners of the Toronto-based multilingual children’s bookshop Rainbow Caterpillar, with an aim to support the preservation in Canada of mother languages.

We hope this award also encourages parents to pass their mother language on to their children raised in Canada, Abbasi said in a statement.

The winning story was selected by Annick Press co-founder Anne Millyard, journalist and children’s book author Catherine Rondina, and Calgary Public Library librarian Jean Ludlam. The award received submissions in eight languages, with three finalists selected by a panel of 10 language experts.

Finalists:

“Blackie and the Glacier” by Sergo Akchurin (Russian)
“Virginia and the Forgotten Teacup” by Viviana Laperchia (Italian)

Honourable mentions:

“Flowers in My Shoes” by Ahmad Marouf (Arabic)
“The Wonderful Furoshiki” by Mari Okumura (Japanese)