Ontario's Christopher Paul Curtis wins $20,000 children's literature award
Last Updated: Thursday, November 6, 2008 | 8:24 PM ET
The Canadian Press
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Christopher Paul Curtis, shown in his Windsor, Ont., home in 2000, wrote about the Ontario community of Buxton, which was settled by freed slaves in the 1860s. (Carlos Osorio/Canadian Press) Ontario author Christopher Paul Curtis has won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for Elijah of Buxton, a book about runaway slaves in the 19th century.
Elijah of Buxton is the story of an 11-year-old boy living in an Ontario settlement of runaway slaves, who travels to the United States and discovers the horrors his parents fled.
"One of the reasons I write children's literature is because I want to bring joy to children through their love of reading," said Curtis, who received the award at a banquet Thursday in Toronto.
"The positive response I've had to Elijah of Buxton from Canadian readers has been extremely gratifying, and winning this award is the icing on the cake."
The book also won the Coretta Scott King Book Award from the American Library Association.
The other finalists for the $20,000 Canadian children's prize were:
- Hugh Brewster for Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose: The Story of a Painting.
- Kenneth Oppel for Darkwing.
- Shane Peacock for Eye of the Crow: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His First Case.
- Frieda Wishinsky for Please, Louise!
They will receive $2,500 each.
Curtis is a native of Flint, Mich., but has lived and worked in Windsor, Ont., for 25 years.
His other children's books include The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Bud, Not Buddy and Bucking the Sarge.
"Christopher Paul Curtis has written an exceptional and inspiring story and we are delighted that he won this award," said Charlotte Teeple, executive director of the non-profit Canadian Children's Book Centre.
The award for the most distinguished French-language children's book was presented in Montreal last week to Gilles Vigneault and illustrator Stéphane Jorisch for Un Cadeau pour Sophie (A Gift for Sophie).
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