Publishing Children Books by Minority Voices in Canada: The Case of Groundwood Books

In Canada today the children’s book publishing scene is quite different from what it used to be in the 1970s and 1980s. Even if most publishers are small and rely heavily on federal grants the sheer range of publishing houses which feature the multicultural composition of the country for children and young adult readers is vast. The pendulum covers houses such as Annick Press, Fifth house, Second Story, or Theytus Books. The situation forty years ago though was radically different. In those days one of the groundbreaking houses was Groundwood Books. In this article we intend to look into the origins of the project, the wider political, social and cultural context, and three works by minority voices which clearly marked the publishing house’s profile and aspirations (Paul Yee’s Tales from Gold Mountain, Thomas King’s controversial A Coyote Columbus Story and Shirley Sterling’s My Name is Seepeetza). Our aim thus is to afford insight into the part played by Groundwood Books in fostering a new poetics in children’s books within the framework of Canada’s nation-building process.