Governor General's Award for Children's Literature 2005
Text
Pamela Porter: The Crazy Man (Groundwood/House of Anansi Press)
The award for text went to Pamela Porter for The Crazy Man, published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi. It is set on a south Saskatchewan wheat farm in 1965. When Emaline chases after her runaway dog, her father accidentally runs over her leg, leaving her with a permanent disability. Grief-stricken, her father shoots the dog and abandons the family. Her mother hires a patient from the nearby mental hospital to help with the farm. The small town's prejudice towards Angus almost ends in tragedy; but Angus is a healer who helps Emaline come to terms with her injury and with her father's abandonment. The story is told in free verse.
Illustration
Rob Gonsalves: Imagine a Day text by Sarah L.Thompson (Simon and Schuster)
The award for illustration goes to Rob Gonsalves for his paintings for Imagine A Day, published by Atheneum/Simon and Schuster. His surreal paintings for Sarah L.Thompson's text are a voyage into the realm of the imagination which takes the viewer from the realm of the everyday into that of the possible, allowing children to expand their view of the world around them.
Rob Gonsalves paintings in the 2003 publication, Imagine a Night, were finalists for the Governor-General's Award that year.
