# Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award

The Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award was presented annually by the Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliothèques (CLA) to an outstanding illustrator of a new Canadian children's book. The book must be "suitable for children up to and including age 12" and its writing "must be worthy of the book's illustrations." The illustrator must be a citizen or permanent resident. The prize is a plaque and $1000 presented at the CLA annual conference. The medal commemorates and the award is dedicated to schoolteacher and artist Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon who taught academics as well as art to Ontario schoolchildren in the 1860s and early 1870s. Her best-known work An Illustrated Comic Alphabet was published in 1966 by Henry Z. Walck in New York City and Oxford University Press in Toronto.

## Winners

The award has been presented to one illustrator for one book every year from 1971.
Below, the author column indicates if the author is distinct from the original and/or a retelling of a text. Otherwise the text was written by the illustrator or was not original ("anthology").
Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award winners :
| Year | Illustrator | Author | Title |
| 1971 | Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver | Anthology | The Wind Has Wings: Poems from Canada |
| 1972 | Shizuye Takashima | | A Child in Prison Camp |
| 1973 | Jacques de Roussan | | Au-Delà du Soleil / Beyond the Sun (bilingual) |
| 1974 | William Kurelek | | A Prairie Boy's Winter |
| 1975 | Carlo Italiano | | The Sleighs of My Childhood |
| 1976 | William Kurelek | | A Prairie Boy's Summer |
| 1977 | Pam Hall | Al Pittman | Down by Jim Long's Stage: Rhymes for Children and Young Fish |
| 1978 | Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver | William Toye (retelling) | The Loon's Necklace |
| 1979 | Ann Blades | Betty Waterton | A Salmon for Simon |
| 1980 | László Gál | Janet Lunn (retelling) | The Twelve Dancing Princesses |
| 1981 | Douglas Tait | Christie Harris | The Trouble with Princesses |
| 1982 | Heather Woodall | Garnet Hewitt | Ytek and the Arctic Orchid: an Inuit Legend |
| 1983 | Lindee Climo | | Chester's Barn |
| 1984 | Ken Nutt | Tim Wynne-Jones | Zoom at Sea |
| 1985 | Ian Wallace | | Chin Chiang and the Dragon's Dance |
| 1986 | Ken Nutt | Tim Wynne-Jones | Zoom Away |
| 1987 | Marie-Louise Gay | | Moonbeam on a Cat's Ear |
| 1988 | Marie-Louise Gay | | Rainy Day Magic |
| 1989 | Kim LaFave | Janet Lunn | Amos's Sweater |
| 1990 | Kady MacDonald Denton | Anthology | 'Til All the Stars Have Fallen: Canadian Poems for Children |
| 1991 | Paul Morin | Tololwa M. Mollel | The Orphan Boy |
| 1992 | Ron Lightburn | Sheryl McFarlane | Waiting for the Whales |
| 1993 | Paul Morin | Julie Lawson | The Dragon's Pearl |
| 1994 | Leo Yerxa | | Last Leaf, First Snowflake to Fall |
| 1995 | Barbara Reid | Jo Ellen Bogart | Gifts |
| 1996 | Karen Reczuch | Ainslie Manson | Just Like New |
| 1997 | Harvey Chan | Paul Yee | Ghost Train |
| 1998 | Barbara Reid | | The Party |
| 1999 | Kady MacDonald Denton | Anthology | A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes |
| 2000 | Zhong-Yang Huang | Dave Bouchard | The Dragon New Year: A Chinese Legend |
| 2001 | Laura Fernandez and Rick Jacobson | Marilynn Reynolds | The Magnificent Piano Recital |
| 2002 | Frances Wolfe | | Where I Live |
| 2003 | Pascal Milelli | Susan Vande Griek | The Art Room |
| 2004 | Bill Slavin | Linda Bailey | Stanley's Party |
| 2005 | Wallace Edwards | | Monkey Business |
| 2006 | Leslie Elizabeth Watts | | The Baabaasheep Quartet |
| 2007 | Mélanie Watt | | Scaredy Squirrel |
| 2008 | Mélanie Watt | | Chester |
| 2009 | Dušan Petričić | Hazel Hutchins and Gail Hebert | Mattland |
| 2010 | Barbara Reid | | Perfect Snow |
| 2011 | Marie-Louise Gay | | Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth! |
| 2012 | Matthew Forsythe | Annika Dunklee | My Name is Elizabeth |
| 2013 | Soyeon Kim | Elin Kelsey | You are Stardust |
| 2014 | Jon Klassen | Lemony Snicket | The Dark |
| 2015 | Marie-Louise Gay | | Any Questions? |
| 2016 | Sydney Smith | JonArno Lawson | Sidewalk Flowers |

## Repeat winners

Marie-Louise Gay has won the Illustrator's Award four times from 1987, most recently in 2015. Several others have won it twice.

## Winners of multiple awards

Nine books won both this CLA Illustrator's Award and the Governor General's Award for English-language children's illustration (or Canada Council Children's Literature Prize before 1987). The illustrators and CLA award dates were Blades 1979, Gál 1980, Woodall 1982, (now under the "Governor General's Awards" name) Gay 1988, LaFave 1989, Morin 1991, Lightburn 1992, Reid 1998, and Denton 1999.