Nova Scotia illustrator wins prestigious children's book award

A Halifax illustrator has won one of the world's most prestigious children's book awards again.

Sydney Smith won the 2021CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for his book, Small in the City.

The winner was announced in a virtual ceremony live streamed from The British Library on Wednesday.

Smith beat out 19 othercontenders longlistedfor the prize, which comes with5,000 (about $8,800), plus 500 worth of books to donate to a local libraryand a golden medal.Small in the City was the only Canadian book to be longlisted this year.

The chair of the judging panel,Ellen Krajewski, said in a press release thatSmall in the City"tells quite an ordinary story in such an extraordinary way that it surprises you.

"It conveys just how it feels to be small in an overpowering city. It's understated whilst also managing to build to a moving emotional end with the themes of being lost, alone,and overlooked, taking on a much wider resonance."

Winning the award was both "unreal" and "grounding," said Smith.

"It's unrealbecause it's one of the biggest prestigious awards for what I do,and so to be recognized that way, it just feels like, you know,I never sort of imagined that it could happen although it's happened once before I never thought it could happen again," he said.

Smith said it's grounding because during the pandemic he has been working alone and feeling disconnected from the community of illustrators, writers and publishers.

"You feel a little bit like you're on an island you're not sure how many days have passed and you judge time by the length of your beard, as ifmaybe you imagined everything before," he said.

"Now it just feels like, oh, yeah, that's rightI'm still part of this community andthey still recognize me as someone who is important."

This is the second time Smith has won the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.He also won the awardin 2018 for his illustrations in Joanne Schwartz'sTown Is by the Sea, which depicts a day in the life of a boy in a 1950s coal-mining town.

The competition is judged by children's librarians across the U.K., whoselect the nominees based on the artwork's ability to create an outstanding reader experience.

For this year's prize, the librarians reviewed 152 nominated titles.