The finalists have been announced for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards, a pair of annual $6,000 prizes that recognize excellence in writing and illustration in Canadian English-language books.

This year’s winners will be selected by two five-member juries from Aldergrove Public School in Markham, Ontario, and will be announced on May 20.

The nominees in the children’s picture-book category are:

• The Boy Who Paints by K. Jane Watt; Richard Cole, illus. (Fenton Street Press)
• Loula Is Leaving for Africa by Anne Villeneuve (Kids Can Press)
• The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson; DuÅ¡an Petričić, illus. (Annick Press)
• Once Upon a Northern Night by Jean E. Pendziwol; Isabelle Arsenault, illus. (Groundwood Books)
• Read Me a Story, Stella by Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood)

The nominees in the young-adult and middle-reader category are:

• Little Red Lies by Julie Johnston (Tundra Books)
• Ultra by David Carroll (Scholastic Canada)
• The Unlikely Hero of Room 3B by Teresa Toten (Doubleday Canada)
• Jane, the Fox and Me by Fanny Britt; Isabelle Arsenault, illus. (Groundwood)
• Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow (Scholastic Canada)

The awards are administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation with the support of the Ontario Arts Council and funding from the Ruth Schwartz Foundation.