Quebec author Angèle Delaunois and Nova Scotia illustrator Sydney Smith are IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Canada’s nominees for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Awards, which is given out every other year and honours children’s authors and illustrators from around the world.

Smith has twice won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature — Illustrated Books, for Small in the City in 2019 and Sidewalk Flowers in 2015. In 2018, he was awarded CILIP’s Kate Greenaway Medal for Town Is by the Sea.

“Sydney Smith is recognized internationally for his outstanding body of work,” said IBBY Canada’s nomination committee co-chair Lesley Clement in the press release. “Readers, critics, and jurors commend his artwork for its uncanny ability to reflect the world through the perspectives of young people and to celebrate their resilience and fortitude when challenged by an antagonistic world.”

Delaunois has written more than 100 children’s books which have been translated into more than 10 languages, and she won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature — Text, for Variations sur un même t’aime in 1998. She is also the founder and director of Éditions de l’Isatis.

“Many of Angèle Delaunois’s books are punctuated by cultural and social issues and represent children from around the world, and with each new book she has the talent to target the vocabulary to its intended readers,” said IBBY Canada’s nomination committee co-chair Nicholas Aumais in the press release. “She is a teacher, publisher, and author whose impressive literary production makes her the perfect candidate to represent IBBY Canada for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award.”

An international jury of distinguished children’s literature specialists selects the winners. The Awards will be presented at the IBBY Congress in Putrajaya, Malaysia, in September 2022.