Canadian-born children’s book author Jon Klassen is the 2026 recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
The international award, which is administered by the Swedish Arts Council, is handed out annually to a person or organization for their contribution to children’s and young adult literature. It is the world’s largest international prize for children’s and young adult literature, worth C$750,000.
Klassen, who lives in California but was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Ontario, is the first Canadian to receive the award.
In giving him the award, the council praised his body of work as a “subtle, astute and humorous investigation into existential questions, where feelings of anticipation, suspense, and shock play a central role.”
Klassan’s books, the council went on to say, “open new perspectives on life’s challenges of uncertainty and hopefulness.”
Klassen, 44, has written or illustrated 17 books, including with co-author Mac Barnett. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages and sold over 12 million copies.
In addition to winning the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, in 2013, Klassen received the Caldecott Medal, awarded by the American Library Association to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
In 2014, he was the first Canadian to receive the U.K.’s Kate Greenaway Medal, now called the Carnegie Medal for Writing, which is awarded by children’s librarians for outstanding books written in English for children and young people.
Klassen was named to the Order of Canada in 2018 for how he had “captivated the imaginations of children the world over.”
Reviewers have remarked on Klassen’s bold visuals and muted color palettes, how his stories often highlight tension between the text and images, and how the characters in his books navigate themes of morality, loss and friendship.
“There’s an elegant sparsity to Klassen’s works,” said one reviewer. His stories manage “to avoid the tropes so ubiquitous in even the most well-meaning children’s literature,” said another, adding “there are no tales of glory, no heroes’ journeys. Instead, Klassen cultivates a universe of absurdity, by turns brutal and tender.”
In an interview with Canadian Affairs, Klassen — who is the father of two boys ages nine and seven — said receiving the award was “humbling, encouraging and overwhelming.”
When he got the call about the award, it was like “someone came from another dimension and told me that they liked my work,” he said. He noted that Lindgren, whom the award is named after, was a legendary presence in children’s literature internationally.
“It was hard to get my head around it,” he said.
After completing high school in Niagara Falls, Klassen went to Sheridan College, graduating in 2005 from the school’s animation program. He went from there to Dreamworks in the U.S., before embarking on writing children’s books full time.
Although he has lived outside of Canada since 2005, Klassen credits his upbringing in Winnipeg, Toronto and Niagara Falls as an influence for his books.
“There’s a dryness to the humour, and a straightforwardness, a sort of a plainness,” he said of being Canadian. He also thinks his work is informed by Canada’s climate and landscape. “There’s a sensibility that grows out of that.”
This includes his early years in Winnipeg. During a visit to the city a few years ago, Klassen looked at the elm trees that the city is known for and realized he had been drawing those kinds of trees for years.
“I didn’t know that those were the trees I was drawing, they grow up tall and spread,” he said, adding “there’s a certain shape and character that they have. I wasn’t keeping track of it consciously, but that’s what I was taking from home.”
Having grown up in a religious home, Klassen also feels a spiritual pull that he tries to incorporate into his books.
“I’m often thinking about grace,” he said, adding that while some characters in his books can feel a little harsh, “there is always the idea of grace … that acknowledges the flaws and bumps in life.”
For Klassen, his writing is about posing questions. “My books don’t necessarily have answers. They’re just ways of framing questions … I think kids are very clear about that, whether or not they grew up in church. It’s what they’re feeling every day,” he said.
