# Geoffrey Bilson Award

The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young Readers is a Canadian literary award that goes to the best work of historical fiction written for youth each year. The award is named after Geoffrey Bilson, a writer of historical fiction for youth and a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan who died suddenly in 1987.
The Geoffrey Bilson Award is selected by a jury chosen by the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Award winners must be Canadian authors, and the winning novel must have been published in the previous calendar year. Each year's winner receives a $1000 (C$) prize.
The award is one of several presented by the Canadian Children's Book Centre each year; others include the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction and the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award.

## Honourees

Geoffrey Bilson Award winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
| 1988 | Carol Matas | Lisa | Winner | |
| 1988 | Bill Freeman | Danger on the Tracks | Finalist | |
| 1988 | Margaret Maloney, illustrated by Lazlo Gal | The Goodman of Ballengeich | Finalist | |
| 1988 | Bernice Thurman Hunter | Lamplighter | Finalist | |
| 1988 | Mary Razzell | Salmonberry Wine | Finalist | |
| 1988 | Myra Paperny | Take A Giant Step | Finalist | |
| 1989 | Martyn Godfrey | Mystery in the Frozen Lands | Winner | |
| 1989 | Ann Blades | Moses, Me and Murder | Finalist | |
| 1989 | Dorothy Perkyns | Rachel's Revolution | Finalist | |
| 1989 | Robert Sutherland | Son of the Hounds | Finalist | |
| 1990 | Kit Pearson | The Sky is Falling | Winner | |
| 1991 | Marianne Brandis | The Sign of the Scales | Winner | |
| 1992 | Award deferred | Award deferred | Award deferred | Award deferred |
| 1993 | Celia Barker Lottridge | Ticket to Curlew | Winner | |
| 1993 | John Ibbitson | Jeremy's War 1812 | Finalist | |
| 1993 | Ainslie Manson, illustrated by Ann Blades | A Dog Came, Too | Finalist | |
| 1993 | Joyce Barkhouse | Yesterday's Children | Finalist | |
| 1994 | Kit Pearson | The Lights Go On Again | Winner | |
| 1994 | Carol Matas | Daniel's Story | Finalist | |
| 1994 | John Ibbitson | The Night Hazel Come To Town | Finalist | |
| 1994 | Margaret Bunel Edwards, illustrated by Linda Potts | The Ocean Between | Finalist | |
| 1994 | David Richards | Soldier Boys | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Joan Clark | The Dream Carvers | Winner | |
| 1995 | Carol Matas | The Burning Time | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Jean Booker | Ellen's Secret | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Jean Little | His Banner Over Me | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Sharon Gibson Palmero | The Lie That Had to Be | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Connie Brummel Crook | Nellie L. | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Lillian Boraks-Nemetz | The Old Brown Suitcase: A Teenager's Story of War and Peace | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Dorothy Perkyn | Signal Across the Sea | Finalist | |
| 1995 | Hazel Hutchins | Within a Painted Past | Finalist | |
| 1996 | Marianne Brandis | Rebellion: A Novel of Upper Canada | Winner | |
| 1997 | Janet McNaughton | To Dance at the Palais Royale | Winner | |
| 1998 | Irene N. Watts | Good-Bye Marianne | Winner | |
| 1999 | Iain Lawrence | The Wreckers | Winner | |
| 2000 | Deferred to the following year | Deferred to the following year | Deferred to the following year | Deferred to the following year |
| 2001 | Sharon E. McKay | Charlie Wilcox | Winner | |
| 2002 | Virginia Frances Schwartz | If I Just Had Two Wings | Winner | |
| 2003 | Joan Clark | The Word for Home | Winner | |
| 2004 | Brian Doyle | Boy O'Boy | Winner | |
| 2005 | Michel Noël | Good for Nothing | Winner | |
| 2006 | Pamela Porter | The Crazy Man | Winner | |
| 2007 | Eva Wiseman | Kanada | Winner | |
| 2008 | Christopher Paul Curtis | Elijah of Buxton | Winner | |
| 2009 | John Ibbitson | The Landing | Winner | |
| 2010 | Shane Peacock | Vanishing Girl | Winner | |
| 2011 | Valerie Sherrard | The Glory Wind | Winner | |
| 2012 | Kate Cayley | The Hangman in the Mirror | Winner | |
| 2013 | Elizabeth Stewart | The Lynching of Louie Sam | Winner | |
| 2014 | Karen Bass | Graffiti Knight | Winner | |
| 2015 | Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch | Dance of the Banished | Winner | |
| 2016 | Karen Bass | Uncertain Soldier | Winner | |
| 2017 | Kevin Sands | The Mark of the Plague | Winner | |
| 2018 | Kevin Sands | The Assassin's Curse | Winner | |
| 2019 | Christopher Paul Curtis | The Journey of Little Charlie | Winner | |
| 2020 | Tina Athaide | Orange for the Sunsets | Winner | |
| 2021 | Jordyn Taylor | The Paper Girl of Paris | Winner | |
| 2022 | Harriet Zaidman | Second Chances | Winner | |
| 2023 | Kim Spencer | Weird Rules to Follow | Winner | |
| 2024 | Jessica Outram | Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold | Winner | |
| 2024 | Julie Lawson | Out of the Dark | Finalist | |
| 2024 | Kate Leth | Mall Goth | Finalist | |
| 2024 | Tho Pham, Sandra MacTavish | The Cricket War | Finalist | |
| 2024 | Amanda West Lewis | Focus. Click. Wind. | Finalist | |