Town is by the Sea is shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018. This most prestigious award recognizes the very best illustrators published in the UK. I’m so grateful to the talented Sydney Smith (@Sydneydraws) for his outstanding work on the book, bringing to life my story of a boy in a mining town in Cape Breton in the 1950s. Here is part of what the committee said about Sydney’s illustrations:

“The closeness of family life and the beauty and power of the Nova Scotia landscape are vividly rendered on each page, enhancing Schwartz’s narrative. Contrasting darkness and confined space with freedom and light above ground, these pictures linger in the mind.”