Norma Fleck Award

The Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction is a lucrative literary award founded in May 1999 by the Fleck Family Foundation and the Canadian Children's Book Centre, and presented to the year's best non-fiction book for a youth audience. Each year's winner receives CDN$10,000.

The award is one of several presented by the Canadian Children's Book Centre each year; others include the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award.^[1]

The award was discontinued after 2023, with a new Sharon Fitzhenry Award for Children's Nonfiction to be presented beginning in 2025.

Awards and winners

Norma Fleck Award winners and finalists^[2]

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
1999	Andy Turnbull and Debora Pearson	By Truck to the North: My Winter Adventure	Winner
	Gena K. Gorrell	Catching Fire: The Story of Firefighting	Finalist
	Barbara Greenwood	The Last Safehouse: A Story of the Underground Railroad	Finalist
	Larry Verstraete	Accidental Discoveries: From Laughing Gas to Dynamite	Finalist
	Mary Wallace	The Inuksuk Book	Finalist
2000	Simon Tookoome and Sheldon Oberman	The Shaman's Nephew: A Life in the Far North	Winner
	Sarah Ellis	The Young Writer's Companion	Finalist
	Linda Maybarduk	The Dancer Who Flew: A Memoir of Rudolf Nureyev	Finalist
	Irene Morck	Five Pennies: A Prairie Boy's Story	Finalist
2001	Gena K. Gorrell	Heart and Soul: The Story of Florence Nightingale	Winner
	Linda Granfield	Pier 21: Gateway of Hope	Finalist
	Ann Love and Jane Drake	The Kids Book of the Far North	Finalist
	Ronald Orenstein	New Animal Discoveries	Finalist
	Candace Savage	Born to be a Cowgirl: A Spirited Ride Through the Old West	Finalist
2002	Jack Batten	The Man Who Ran Faster Than Everyone: The Story of Tom Longboat	Winner
	Karen Levine	Hana's Suitcase	Finalist
	Susan Musgrave	Nerves Out Loud: Critical Moments in the Lives of Seven Teen Girls	Finalist
	Jane Pavanel	The Sex Book: An Alphabet of Smarter Love	Finalist
	John Wilson	Righting Wrongs: The Story of Norman Bethune	Finalist
2003	Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden	As Long as the Rivers Flow	Winner
	Kathy Conlan	Under the Ice	Finalist
	Chan Hon Goh with Cary Fagan	Beyond the Dance: A Ballerina's Life	Finalist
	Candace Savage	Wizards: An Amazing Journey through the Last Great Age of Magic	Finalist
	Roderick Stewart	Wilfrid Laurier: A Pledge for Canada	Finalist
2004	Val Ross	The Road to There: Mapmakers and Their Stories	Winner
	Nicolas Debon	Four Pictures by Emily Carr	Finalist
	Anne Dublin	Bobbie Rosenfeld: The Olympian Who Could Do Everything	Finalist
	Reva Marin	Oscar: The Life and Music of Oscar Peterson	Finalist
	John Wilson	Discovering the Arctic: The Story of John Rae	Finalist
2005	Shari Graydon	In Your Face: The Culture of Beauty and You	Winner
	Hazel Hutchins	A Second Is a Hiccup	Finalist
	Marthe Jocelyn	A Home for Foundlings	Finalist
	Kathy Kacer	The Underground Reporters	Finalist
	Ange Zhang	Red Land, Yellow River: A Story from the Cultural Revolution	Finalist
2006	Bill Slavin and Jim Slavin	Transformed: How Everyday Things Are Mad	Winner
	Deborah Ellis	Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk About AIDS	Finalist
	Nadja Halilbegovich	My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary	Finalist
	Susan Hughes	Coming to Canada: Building a Life in a New Land	Finalist
	Kathy Kacer	Hiding Edith: A True Story	Finalist
2007	Jan Thornhill	I Found a Dead Bird: The Kids' Guide to the Cycle of Life & Death	Winner
	Barbara Greenwood	Factory Girl	Finalist
	Celia Godkin	Fire! The Renewal of a Forest	Finalist
	Jane Springer	Genocide	Finalist
	Herb Shoveller	Ryan and Jimmy: And the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together	Finalist
2008	Hugh Brewster	At Vimy Ridge: Canada's Greatest World War I Victory	Winner
	Robert Bateman with Nancy Kovacs, illus. by Robert Bateman	Birds of Prey: An Introduction	Finalist
	Sue Ann Alderson, illus. by Millie Ballance	The Eco-Diary of Kiran Singer	Finalist
	Jan Thornhill	This Is My Planet: The Kids' Guide to Global Warming	Finalist
	Kate Evans	Weird Weather: Everything You Didn't Want to Know About Climate Change but Probably Should Find Out	Finalist
2009	Mariatu Kamara with Susan McClelland	The Bite of the Mango	Winner
	Mary Wallace	Inuksuk Journey: An Artist at the Top of the World	Finalist
	Susan Hughes, illus. by Willow Dawson	No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed As Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure	Finalist
	Katie Smith Milway, illus. by Eugenie Fernandes	One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference	Finalist
	Elizabeth MacLeod	Royal Murder: The Deadly Intrigue of Ten Sovereigns	Finalist
2010	Priscilla Galloway with Dawn Hunter	Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road	Winner	[3]
	Charis Cotter	Born to Write: The Remarkable Lives of Six Famous Authors	Finalist
	William Gilkerson	A Thousand Years of Pirates	Finalist
	Kathy Kacer and Sharon E. McKay	Whispers from the Ghettos	Finalist
	Scot Ritchie	Follow That Map! A First Book of Mapping Skills	Finalist
2011	Susan Hughes	Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science	Winner
	Hadley Dyer	Watch This Space: Designing, Defending and Sharing Public Spaces	Finalist
	Elin Kelsey	Not Your Typical Book About the Environment	Finalist
	Daniel Loxton	Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be	Finalist
	Jody Nyasha Warner	Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged	Finalist
2012	Susan Vande Griek	Loon	Winner
	Rafal Gerszak with Dawn Hunter	Beyond Bullets: A Photo Journal of Afghanistan	Finalist	[4]
	Susan Hughes	Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World	Finalist	[4]
	Marthe Jocelyn	Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives	Finalist	[4]
	Dora Lee, illus. by Margot Thompson	Biomimicry: Inventions Inspired by Nature	Finalist	[4]
2013	Deborah Ellis	Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely Through a Never-Ending War	Winner
	Deborah Hodge	Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport	Finalist
	Monica Kulling	Going Up! Elisha Otis's Trip to the Top	Finalist
	Bill Swan	Real Justice: Fourteen and Sentenced to Death – The Story of Steven Truscott	Finalist
2014	Rona Arato	The Last Train: A Holocaust Story	Winner
	Deborah Ellis	Looks Like Daylight: Voices of Indigenous Kids	Finalist
	Elizabeth Macleod and Frieda Wishinsky	A History of Just About Everything: 180 Events, People and Inventions That Changed the World	Finalist
	Ken Setterington	Branded by the Pink Triangle	Finalist
	Eric Walters	My Name Is Blessing	Finalist
2015	Kira Vermond	Why We Live Where We Live	Winner
	Hugh Brewster	From Vimy to Victory: Canada's Fight to the Finish in World War I	Finalist	[5]
	Sarah Elton	Starting from Scratch: What You Should Know about Food and Cooking	Finalist	[5]
	Larry Loyie with Wayne K. Spear and Constance Brissenden	Residential Schools, With the Words and Images of Survivors: A National History	Finalist	[5]
	David J. Smith	If: A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers	Finalist	[5]
2016	Cory Silverberg	Sex Is a Funny Word: A Book About Bodies, Feelings, and You	Winner	[6]
	Paula Ayer	Foodprints: The Story of What We Eat	Finalist
	Maria Birmingham	A Beginner's Guide to Immortality: From Alchemy to Avatars	Finalist
	Jessica Dee Humphreys and Michel Chikwanine	Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls Are Used in War	Finalist
	Edward Keenan	The Art of the Possible: An Everyday Guide to Politics	Finalist
2017	Elizabeth Macleod	Canada Year by Year	Winner
	Antonia Banyard and Paula Ayer	Water Wow! An Infographic Exploration	Finalist
	Kristina Rutherford	Level the Playing Field: The Past, Present, a Future of Women's Pro Sports	Finalist
	Laura Scandiffio	Fight to Learn: The Struggle to Go to School	Finalist
	Jan Thornhill	The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk	Finalist
2018	Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale	#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women	Winner
	Jane Drake and Ann Love	Rewilding: Giving Nature a Second Chance	Finalist
	Sarah Elton	Meatless? A Fresh Look at What You Eat	Finalist
	James Gladstone	When Planet Earth Was New	Finalist
	Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson)	The Sockeye Mother	Finalist
2019	James Gladstone and Karen Reczuch	Turtle Pond	Winner	[7]
	Erica Fyvie and Bill Slavin	Trash Revolution: Breaking the Waste Cycle	Finalist	[8]
	Wab Kinew and Joe Morse	Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes	Finalist	[8]
	Rob Laidlaw	Bat Citizen: Defending the Ninjas of the Night	Finalist	[8]
	Merrie-Ellen Wilcox	After Life: Ways We Think About Death	Finalist	[8]
2020	Serah-Marie McMahon and Alison Matthews David	Killer Style: How Fashion Has Injured, Maimed, & Murdered Through History	Winner
	Carolyn Fisher	Cells: An Owner's Handbook	Finalist	[9]
	Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson	Picking Up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket	Finalist	[9]
	Rachel Poliquin	Beastly Puzzles: A Brain-Boggling Animal Guessing Game	Finalist	[9]
	Ashley Spires	Fairy Science	Finalist	[9]
2021	Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane	Powwow: A Celebration Through Song and Dance	Winner
	Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), illus. by Natasha Donovan	The Eagle Mother	Finalist
	Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illus. by Drew Shannon	This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes: How Science is Tackling Unconscious Bias	Finalist
	Rina Singh, illus. by Marianne Ferrer	111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl	Finalist
	Kyla Vanderklug	Crows: Genius Birds	Finalist
2022	Christian Allaire, illus. by Jacqueline Li	The Power of Style: How Fashion and Beauty Are Being Used to Reclaim Cultures	Winner	[10]
	Erica Fyvie, illus. by Ian Turner	Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads	Finalist	[11]
	Dr. Lindsay Herriot and Kate Fry (ed.)	Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words	Finalist	[11]
	Kathy Stinson, illus. by François Thisdale	The Girl Who Loved Giraffes and Became the World's First Giraffologist	Finalist	[11]
	Robbie Waisman with Susan McClelland	Boy from Buchenwald: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor	Finalist	[11]
2023	Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson	The Witness Blanket: Truth, Art and Reconciliation	Winner	[12]
	Tanya Lloyd Kyi and Julia Kyi, illus. by Vivian Rosas	Better Connected: How Girls Are Using Social Media for Good	Finalist	[13]
	Elise Gravel with Mykaell Blais, illus. by Elise Gravel	Pink, Blue, and You! Questions for Kids About Gender Stereotypes	Finalist
	Laura Alary, illus. by Andrea Blinick	Sun in my Tummy	Finalist
	Gregor Craigie, illus. by Kathleen Fu	Why Humans Build Up: The Rise of Towers, Temples and Skyscrapers	Finalist