Budge Wilson

Photo by Sr. Kate Waters

Budge Wilson was born and educated in Nova Scotia, but spent many years in Ontario, returning home in 1989, where she lives in a South Shore fishing village. She began writing later in life, after teaching and working as a commercial artist, photo-grapher, and for over 20 years as a fitness instructor. Her first book appeared in 1984 and she has now published 33, with 27 foreign editions in 14 languages – and has appeared in over 90 anthologies.

 Budge has received 21 Canadian Children’s Book Centre “Our Choice” Awards; City of Dartmouth Book Award; Canadian Library Association Young Adult Award; Marianna Dempster Award; Lilla Stirling Award; 2 Ann Connor Brimer Awards; runner-up for Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize; nominated for Red Maple and CNIB Torgi Awards; finalist for Commonwealth Prize (Canada & Caribbean Region); appeared in first Journey Prize Anthology; finalist for Governor General’s Award (2006); shortlisted for CBA’s Libris Children’s Author of the Year Award (2009), for CLA’s Best Children’s Book Award (2009) and for Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award (2009); winner of Atlantic Independent Booksellers Choice Award (2009); winner of National IODE’s Violet Downey Award (2009). In 2003 she received the Halifax Mayor’s Award for Cultural Achievement; in 2004, Armbrae Academy’s Distinguished Alumnae Award; and in 2008, Dalhousie University’s Alumni Achievement Award. In 2004 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Photo by Elizabeth Eve, 1986

Her books have been frequently read and dramatized on CBC, American and Danish Radio. The Leaving received the ALA’s Notable Book Award and was listed among its Best Books for Young Adults, named a Horn Book “Fanfare Book”, School Library Journal’s “Best Books, 1992”, Library of Congress’s “100 Noteworthy Children’s Books, 1992”, National Council of Teachers of English “Notable Children’s Books, 1993”, NYPL’s “Books for the Teen Age, 1993”, ALA’s 1994 list of “The 75 Best Children’s Books of the Last 25 Years.” Her latest book, Before Green Gables appears to date in 11 countries and 7 languages, with a Japanese animation, and was recognized by Quill & Quire as being one of the “Best Books of 2008.”

Budge has given readings, talks, interviews and workshops across Canada and in the UK., Lahr, Germany, Guadalajara and Mexico City. She is married to Alan Wilson, and has two daughters and two grandsons.

CANSCAIP has a member page devoted to her.

Selected List of Publications

Before Green Gables. Penguin Group Canada, 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-06721-3; Anne avant la maison aux pignons verts. Les editions Trecarre, Montreal, 2009. ISBN 9282895684398. Also in editions in US, UK (Puffin), Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Poland, Germany & Indonesia, plus a Japanese animation.

Before Green Gables has won the Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Award, the National Chapter IODE’s Violet Downey Award, and Quill & Quire’s “Best Book for Young People in 2008.”

Izzie: Book Four, Homecoming. Penguin Group Canada, 2006. ISBN 0-14-305449-X.

Friendships: Stories. Penguin Group Canada, 2006. ISBN 0-14-301766-7.

"Like Wilson's last collection, Fractures: Family Stories, this is an essential title for classrooms and school ibraries." -- Jeffrey Canton, Quill and Quire

Izzie: Book Three, Patricia's Secret. Penguin Canada, 2005. ISBN 0-14-3050079.
      Click here to read WFNS' description of this book.

Izzie: Book Two, Trongate Fury. Penguin Canada, 2005. ISBN 0-14-301465-X.
      Click here to read WFNS' description of this book.

The Imperfect Perfect Christmas. Pottersfield Press, 2004. ISBN 1-895900-66-2.

Fractures: Family Stories. Penguin Canada, 2002. ISBN 0-4331201-4.
     Click here for a description of this book.
     Short-listed for a Torqi Award, 2003 (CNIB), and Red Maple Award.

     "Wilson deftly captures the inner eye of adolescents" -Sarah Ellis, Quil & Quire

Izzie: Book One, The Christmas That Almost Wasn't. Penguin Books, 2002. ISBN 0-14-100272-7.
      Click here to read WFNS' description of this book.

"Mr. Manuel Jenkins." Atlantica: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Lesley Choyce, Editor. Goose Lane Editions, 2001. ISBN 0-8692-309-0.
     Click here for a description of this book.

A Fiddle for Angus. Illustrated by Susan Tooke. Tundra, 2001. ISBN 0-88776-500-9.
     Click here for a description of this book.

     Shortlisted for the 2002 Ann Connor Brimer Award      for Children's Literature.

     Shortlisted for the 2002 Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award.

Manfred the UnManageable Monster. Illustrated by Gill Quinn. Pottersfield Press, 2001. ISBN 1-895900-41-7.

Duff's Monkey Business. Illus. by Kim LaFave. Halifax: Formac Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-88780-498-5.
      Finalist for 2002 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award.

"While the plot is fairly simple, the theme is significant. The boys stand up to all the challenges . . . . it is satisfying to note that Duff and Simon decide the price of honesty isn't too high."
     - Gillian Richardson, "First Novels Series," CM Magazine: Canadian Review of Materials, Vol. VII, No. 9 (January 5, 2001).

The Fear of Angelina Domino. Illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes. Stoddart Kids, 2000. ISBN 0-7737-3217-9.
      Click here for WFNS' description of this book.

"Lively illustrations and well-chosen words define this gentle story about fear."
      - Susan Perren, "Kids' Picks". The Globe and Mail, May 13, 2000.

The Cat That Barked. Pottersfield Press, 1998. ISBN 1-895900-17-4.
      Click here to read a description of The Cat That Barked from WFNS' Eastword.

Sharla. Toronto: Stoddart Kids, 1997. ISBN 0-7736-7467-5.
     Winner of the Lilla Stirling Award, 1998.

The Long Wait. Illus. by Eugenie Fernandes. Toronto: Stoddart Kids, 1997. ISBN 0-7737-3021-4.

Duff the Giant Killer. Illus. by Kim LaFave. Halifax: Formac Publishing, 1997.
      ISBN 0-88780-382-2 (pb); ISBN 0-88780-382-0 bd.

"Highly recommended."
      "Lilly to the Rescue/Duff the Giant Killer/Go For It, Carrie." Review by Irene Gordon. CM Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 2, September 19, 1997.

Mothers & Other Strangers. N.Y.: Harcourt Brace, 1996. ISBN 0-15-200312-6.

Harold and Harold. Illus. by Terry Roscoe. Lawrencetown Beach: Pottersfield Press, 1995. ISBN 0-919001-94-7.

The Dandelion Garden. N.Y.: Putnam/Philomel, 1995. ISBN 0-399-22768-7.

Cordelia Clark. Toronto: Stoddart, 1994. ISBN 0-7736-7423-3.
Italian Edition: Milan: Mondadori.

The Courtship and other Stories. Concord, Ontario: Stoddart/Anansi, 1994. ISBN 0-88784-550-9.
In mass market paper. Stoddart, 1997. ISBN 0-7736-7456-X.

Cassandra's Driftwood. Illus. by Terry Roscoe. Lawrencetown Beach: Pottersfield Press, 1994. ISBN 0-919002-85-8.

Oliver's Wars. Toronto: Stoddart/Irwin, 1992. ISBN 0-7737-5508-X.
     Winner of the 1993 Ann Connor Brimer Award for children's literature.
Romanian Edition: Forthcoming.

Lorinda's Diary. Toronto: General/Gemini, 1991. ISBN 0-7736-7348-2.
     Winner of the Marianna Dempster Award, 1992.

The Leaving. Toronto: Stoddart/Anansi, 1990.
ISBN 0-887784-159-7 hc. ISBN 0-887784-159-7 trade pb.
ISBN 0-7736-7363-6 mass pb.
     Winner of the 1991 Canadian LIbrary Association YA Book Award.
     Winner of the 1991 City of Dartmouth Book Award.
American Editions:
      N.Y.: Putnam/Philomel, 1992. ISBN 0-3999-21878-5.
      N.Y.: Scholastic, 1993. ISBN 0-590-46933-9.
Danish Edition: Man oplever sa meget, noveller (trans. by Else Sandvad). Copenhagen:      Fremad, 1992. ISBN 87-557-1719-5.
Australian Edition: My Cousin Clarette and other stories. St.Lucia: University of      Queensland Press, 1993. ISBN 0-7022-2503-7.
Italian Edition: Il Viaggio (transl. by Mario Bellinoza). Milan: Mondadori, 1997.
     ISBN 88-04-42817-1.

Madame Belzile and Ramsay Hitherton-Hobbs. Halifax: Nimbus, 1990.
ISBN 921054-38-6.

Going Bananas. Illustrated by Graham Pillsworth. Toronto: Scholastic, 1989. ISBN 0-590-73365-6.
      Available in French as Ca suffit, les singeries. ISBN 0-590-73366-4.

Thirteen Never Changes. Toronto, Scholastic, 1989. New York: Scholastic, 1991. ISBN 0-590-73134-3. Available in Braille.

"Lorinda inherits her grandmother's diaries, she takes them back home, and she decides she will read the ones for the age at which she is. So she reads the diary for her grandmother at thirteen. The grandmother died when she was sixty; I wrote the book when I was sixty. So when Lorinda goes back to the grandmother at thirteen, the grandmother is exactly the age I was. She lives in Halifax as I did. World War II was on. The British Guest Children had arrived and were about to make an enormous impact on all our lives. We were forced, at that young age, to learn some very hard facts about war."
      - Budge Wilson on Thirteen Never Changes, in "Introducing... Budge Wilson." Interview by Hilary Thompson. CANSCAIP News, Winter 1988.

Breakdown. Toronto: Scholastic, 1988. ISBN 0-590-71843-6. Also available in Norwegian, Swedish, German, Greek and Italian, with Finnish edition forthcoming.

Mystery Lights at Blue Harbour. Toronto: Scholastic, 1987. Available in Braille and Finnish (Hameenlinna, Karisto Oy, 1991).
ISBN 0-590-71389-2.

A House Far from Home. Toronto: Scholastic, 1986. Available in Braille and Finnish (Hameenlinna, Karisto Oy, 1991).
ISBN 0-590-71679-4.

Mr. John Bertrand Nijinsky and Charlie. Illustrated by Terry Roscoe Boucher. Halifax: Nimbus, 1986. ISBN 0-920852-57-2.

The Best/Worst Christmas Present Ever. Toronto: Scholastic, 1984. Available in Braille.
Finnish Edition: Hameenlinna: Karisto Oy, 1991. ISBN 0-590-71430-9.