Occupation writer Nationality Canadian | Name Jan Thornhill | |
 | ||
Genre science, children's literature Notable works I Found a Dead Bird, The Wildlife ABC | ||
Jan Thornhill (born 1955 in Sudbury, Ontario) is a Canadian writer and illustrator of educational books on science and nature for children. She was the 2015 winner of the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, a lifetime achievement award presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada, and won the Norma Fleck Award in 2007 for her book I Found a Dead Bird: The Kids’ Guide to the Cycle of Life & Death.
A graduate of the Ontario College of Art, Thornhill has illustrated many but not all of her own works. She won UNICEF's Ezra Jack Yeats International Award for illustration in 1990 for The Wildlife 123, and has been a two-time nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language children's illustration, at the 1988 Governor General's Awards for The Wildlife ABC and at the 1989 Governor General's Awards for The Wildlife 123.
She has also published the adult short story collection Drought, which was a shortlisted nominee for the ReLit Awards in 2001, and has drawn illustrations for general interest magazines including The Idler.