Jennifer Cowan of Toronto is nominated for best young adult novel for earthgirl. Jennifer Cowan of Toronto is nominated for best young adult novel for earthgirl. (Groundwood Books)

Debut novels by Jennifer Cowan and Anna Kerz, both of Toronto, have earned nominations for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards.

There are two annual awards, each with a $6,000 first prize, for picture books and for young adult novels. The nominees in both categories were announced Tuesday by the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Foundation and the Ruth Schwartz Foundation.

Cowan's young adult novel book, earthgirl, is similar to a real-life cyclist-driver clash that became a cause célèbre in Toronto in 2006.

Her heroine is riding her bike when she is hit by garbage thrown by a passing driver. When she throws it back, she becomes involved in an altercation that is caught on camera — and then posted on YouTube.

The incident prompts her to get involved in environmental causes, a story told in part in blog format, with replies from her readers.

Kerz, a veteran storyteller, has written The Mealworm Diaries, about a boy who moves to Toronto from Nova Scotia and is paired with the weirdest guy in the class for his science project. As if that is not problem enough, he is having strange dreams about the accident that took his father's life.

They are competing in the young adult category with:

  • Vanishing Girl: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Third Case, by Shane Peacock of Baltimore, Ont., third in a series about Holmes as a boy detective.
  • The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy, a story about a girl struggling in school set in contemporary Newfoundland, by Jill MacLean of Bedford, N.S.
  • The Awakening, a supernatural thriller, by Kelley Armstrong of Aylmer, Ont.
Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion is written by Jane Barclay and illustrated by Renné Benoit.Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion is written by Jane Barclay and illustrated by Renné Benoit. (Tundra Books)

The children's picture book category nominees are:

  • Perfect Snow, written and illustrated by Barbara Reid of Toronto.
  • When Stella was Very, Very Small, written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay of Outremont, Que.
  • Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion, written by Jane Barclay of Pointe-Claire, Que. with illustrations by Renné Benoit of St.Thomas, Ont.
  • Scaredy Squirrel at Night, written and illustrated by Mélanie Watt of Laval, Que.
  • The Imaginary Garden, written by Andrew Larsen and illustrated by Irene Luxbacher, both of Toronto.

The winners will be chosen by two juries of young readers from Huttonville Public School in Brampton, Ont., and announced on May 26.