2011 Ezra Jack Keats Award Winners

2011 Writer Award

Laurel Croza

Laurel Croza’s father was an engineer who built dams, subways and bridges all over Canada. Her family relocated nine times when she was a child, and she attended six schools before she was 14. I Know Here began as a writing assignment in creative nonfiction. It is based on her memories of leaving rural Saskatchewan at age 7 for a new, unknown life in Toronto, where she still lives with her family.

I Know Here

Groundwood Books

A trailer on a roadside in rural Canada is home for a little girl, whose father is building a dam nearby. Learning that her family will soon move to the city, she has to figure out how to keep from losing the only place she’s ever known. More about Laurel Croza

2011 Illustrator Award

Tao Nyeu

Tao Nyeu grew up in Niskayuna, a small town in upstate New York, and moved to New York City after college for a career in graphic design. There she discovered a love for drawing and earned an MFA in illustration, specializing in silkscreen and etching. Using those mediums, she creates whimsical landscapes inhabited by charming animals. Bunny Days is her second book. She lives with her family in Southern California.

Bunny Days

Dial Books for Young Readers

Six baby rabbits, two well-meaning goats and a problem-solving bear inhabit these three stories, each one an adventure that ends with the words “Everyone is happy.” More about Tao Nyeu