The Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award is a literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian book of young adult fiction. The book must be written in English, published in Canada during the preceding year, and nominated by the end of November. The writer must be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
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The Young Adult Book Award is administered and presented by the Canadian Library Association. It was established by the Young Adult Caucus of the Saskatchewan Library Association in 1980 and inaugurated by an award to Kevin Major of Newfoundland and Labrador for Far from Shore, published by Clarke, Irwin & Company of Toronto.
The companion CLA Book of the Year for Children Award was inaugurated in 1947 and has been presented annually without exception from 1963. As of 2015, two of its criteria are "appeal to children up to and including age 12" and "creative (i.e., original) writing (i.e., fiction, poetry, narrative, non-fiction, retelling of traditional literature)". Corresponding criteria for the YA Book Award are "[appeal] to young adults between the ages of 13 and 18" and "fiction (novel, collection of short stories, or graphic novel)".
The Canadian Library Association also administers a book award for illustrators, the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award.
Winners
The award has recognized one winner per year since its inception. With few exceptions, if any, the books were first published during the year preceding the award, in Canada. Each year, additional books may also receive special mention as "honour" titles.
Repeat winners
Martha Brooks is a three-time winner of the Young Adult Book Award for 1998, 2003, and 2008, William Bell (author) is a two-time winner, in 2002 and 2007.
Winners of multiple awards
Two books won both the Young Adult Book Award and the CLA Book of the Year for Children Award: Shadow in Hawthorn Bay by Janet Lunn in 1987 and Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel in 2011.
Six books won both the Young Adult Book Award and the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature, or Canada Council Children's Literature Prize before 1987. The writers and CLA award dates were Hughes 1983, Lunn 1987, (now under the present name) Wieler 1990, Johnston 1995, Wynne-Jones 1996, and Brooks 2003.
Thus Shadow in Hawthorn Bay (Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1986) by Janet Lunn won three major Canadian awards, the CLA awards for both children's and young-adult literature and the Governor General's Award in its last year as the Canada Council Children's Literature Prize.
Two winners of the CLA Young Adult Book Award were also recognized by major annual book awards in the United States. Polly Horvath won the 2003 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for The Canning Season. This One Summer, a graphic novel by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, was one of the 2015 Honour Books, or finalists, for both the American Library Association (ALA) Michael L. Printz Award as the year's best new work for young adults judged "by literary merit alone" (recognizing Mariko Tamaki) and the ALA Caldecott Medal, or children's picture book illustration award (recognizing Jillian Tamaki).