Border Crossing

Iram Khan

t seems as though for anything to take off in Canada it must make it in the United States first. However, the Canadian children's literature industry seems to be an exception. Children's literature in Canada is a major success story. Within the last ten years especially, publishers such as Annick, Kids Can, and Groundwood have helped Canadian children's authors such as Robert Munsch, Paulette Bourgeois, and Jean Little become household names (well I guess in households that have kids!). I was curious to see how popular Canadian children's authors were in the United States, so I put out a survey to 111 grade K to 12 teachers from all across the United States. The following table presents the results:

These are pretty pitiful results considering there were 111 respondents. This does not say anything about the teachers' knowledge, though, it says a lot about the industry itself. Do Canadian children's book publishers want to be successful in the United States? Or are they happy with the success that they have in Canada?

To break through the border, there needs to be more advertising and partnerships with the U.S. publishers. For example, Scholastic Publishers reprints many titles every year and sells them in schools all across the United States and Canada through their very popular book clubs. Currently the Canadian Children's authors that Scholastic regularly supports are Robert Munsch and Paulette Bourgeois. These authors came in first and third respectively in our survey. Sure L.M. Montgomery came in second, but she has also had a ninety year head start.

It was not a surprise that Robert Munsch tremendously lead the way. Many of the respondents had very nice words to say about our most successful children's author export. One respondent, though, reminded me that in fact Robert Munsch was not Canadian at all but born and raised in the United States. Okay, even if he was born and raised in the United State he has lived here for a while, and I'm sure he considers himself Canadian (Are you convinced? It works for other famous "Canadians.").

So why is Canadian children's literature so strong in Canada? Well this is due to a number of factors. The Canada Council, I would have to say is one of the strongest. They are a strong beam under the authors because of their support with author tours, publishing grants, awards, and festivals. Another factor is the Canadian Children's Book Centre publications, Children's Book News and the annual Our Choice. These publications are popularly used by Canadian teachers and librarians to keep up with new Canadian children's literature. Finally, many Canadian children's authors have written at least one book about Canadian people, Canadian places, and/or Canadian things; examples are Munsch's From Far Away, Bourgeois' Canadian Postal Workers, and Mowat's The Dog Who Wouldn't Be. Parents, teachers, librarians, and the children themselves can feel better connected to these books and authors than those coming from other countries because they are obviously Canadian. Yes, we all love at least one book that has general topics and themes, but it's hard not to feel extra love when you find a "Canadian" book.

Surely many of the Canadian authors listed in the survey wouldn't mind some exposure in the U.S. and foreign markets. Canadian children's literature has a fairly strong (and growing) base here in Canada, but it could always use a little help from outside. The next big move, it would seem, is to work on making these names known outside of Canada.