Race and the Prizing of Children’s Literature in Canada: Spotlighting Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Awards

Schooled in the professions of librarianship and teaching, I have been socialized to pay attention to, and to validate the prizing of children’s literature. In the discussion that follows, I employ critical race theory (CRT) (Aylward 1999; Delgado and Stefancic 2000; Gillborn 2005, 2006; Goldberg 2009; Ladson-Billings 2005, Ladson-Billings and Tate 1995) and post-colonial thought (Battiste 2009; Yazzie 2009; Bradford 2007) to critically examine how racialization in the context of colonial/post-colonial domination and subordination has inuenced the prizing of children’s literature in Canada.