Popular authors Jean Little, Kenneth Oppel and Tim Wynne-Jones have been shortlisted for the reader-selected Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards.

The annual prize honours excellence in writing and illustration in Canadian children's literature.

Organizers announced on Thursday 11 nominees in two categories: children's picture book and young adult/middle reader.

CBC Radio host Bill Richardson and illustrator Cynthia Nugent are nominated in the picture book category for The Aunts Come Marching. Also vying for the award are:

• The Boy from the Sun by Duncan Weller.
• Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard.
• The Painted Circus: P.T. Vermin Presents a Mesmerizing Menagerie of Trickery and Illusion Guaranteed to Beguile and Bamboozle the Beholder by Wallace Edwards.
• Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend by Mélanie Watt. 

There will be a tight race for the young adult/middle reader crown, with perennial favourites Little, Oppel and Wynne-Jones all nominated. The category's finalists are:

• Dancing Through the Snow by Jean Little.
• Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel.
• Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.
• A Perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson.
• Rex Zero, King of Nothing by Tim Wynne-Jones.

Little, Oppel and Wynne-Jones are all past winners of the prize, as are Pearson, Edwards and Watt.

This year, the Ruth Schwartz Foundation has raised the pot for each category to $6,000 from $5,000.

While the Ontario Arts Foundation, the Ruth Schwartz Foundation and members of the Canadian Booksellers Association choose each year's short list, young readers choose the winners.

Students from Toronto's Ryerson Community School will pick this year's winners, who will be announced at the school on May 6.

Toronto-based photographer Sylvia Schwartz set up the prize in 1976 to honour the memory of her sister Ruth, a respected Toronto bookseller. In 2004, the Schwartz family decided to rename the prize to honour Sylvia as well.