Skip navigation.
CANSCAIP logoPicture of text Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers
Frequently Asked Questions Join CANSCAIP CANSCAIP Meetings Buy CANSCAIP Contact Us  
What’s New?
CANSCAIP Members
School/Library Visits
Meeting Minutes
The CANSCAIP Collection
Packaging Your Imagination
Members/Friends Only
Member Biography Updates

CANSCAIP Members

Janet Lunn

Author

115-3260 Southgate Road
Ottawa, Ontario
K1V 8W9
Phone: 613-260-8980
Email: janetlunn@sympatico.ca
Web: www.lunnflutes.com/janetlunn/

Born: 28 December 1928. Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.
Family: Richard Lunn, deceased, five children

Biography

Janet was born Janet Louise Swoboda on December 28, 1928 in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A, moved to Vermont when she was two and lived there until she was ten when the family moved to the outskirts of New York City. She came to Canada in 1946 to go to Notre Dame College in Ottawa and then to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. There she met and married Richard Lunn, a fellow student. She has lived in Canada ever since. Janet has five children, ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1987.

"Those," she says, "are the bare bones of my life story. The part that's interesting to readers has to do with reading, writing and daydreaming which are all, in my case, one and the same." She calls herself a dedicated daydreamer and says she has been that, "almost from the moment I was born. Even before I could read I was dreaming up stories. The sound of the wind in the ancient pine tree outside my window in our old farmhouse accompanied all my childhood imaginings. When I was in my teens and living far from that beloved home, I began writing stories with the sound of that tree still singing in my head."

Years later, in Canada, when her children were in their school years, the Lunn family went to live in an old farmhouse at the edge of a bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario. "I loved that house, too, she says, "and I began writing stories about it and the people who might once have lived in it. The stories I made up about the Vermont house have long since vanished but the ones I wrote about the Ontario-house families are The Root Cellar, Shadow in Hawthorn Bay and The Hollow Tree."

Janet lives in Ottawa now in a small city house but, chances are, her stories will still reflect her love of the countryside and those old farmhouses.

Published Works

Laura Secord; Tundra, 2001
Charlotte; Tundra, 1998
The Umbrella Party (ill Kady Macdonald Denton); Groundwood, 1998
Come to the Fair (with Gilles Pelletier); Tundra, 1997
The Hollow Tree; Knopf, 1997
The Unseen (ed); Lester (now Stoddard), 1994
The Story of Canada (with Christopher Moore); Key Porter/Lester, 1992
One Hundred Shining Candles (ill Lindsay Grater); L&OD (now with Key Porter),1990
Duck Cakes for Sale (ill. Kim LaFave); Groundwood,1989
Amos's Sweater (ill Kim LaFave); Groundwood, 1988
Shadow in Hawthorn Bay; L&OD (now Knopf),1986
The Root Cellar; L&OD (now Knopf),1981
The Twelve Dancing Princesses (ill Laszlo Gal); Methuen,1979 (out of print)
Larger than Life; Press Porcepic, 1979(out of print)
Double Spell, Peter Martin Assoc. (now Penguin),1968
The County (with Richard Lunn); Prince Edward County Council, PE County, Ontario, 1967

Awards

Governor General's award for children's literature, 1998 for The Hollow Tree
Mr Christie Book Award for The Story of Canada, 1993
Toronto Branch IODE Award for The Story of Canada
California Young Readers' Medal (jr. high category, 1988 for The Root Cellar
Canada Council Award for Children's Literature, 1986 for Shadow in Hawthorn Bay
Canadian Library Assn. Children's Book Award, Shadow in Hawthorn Bay
Saskatchewan Library Assn. Young Adult Book of the Year Award, 1986 for Shadow in Hawthorn Bay
National Chapter of the IODE children's Book of the year, 1986 for Shadow in Hawthorn Bay
Canadian Library Assn Children's Book of the year, 1982 for The Root Cellar
Vicki Metcalf award for a body of work, 1981
Member,The Order of Canada, 1997
Order of Ontario, 1996
Hon. Diploma, Loyalist College, 1993
Hon. Doctor of Laws, Queen's Univeristy, 1992

Other Memberships

The Writers' Union of Canada, Pen Canada, IBBY, Canadian Children's Book Centre

Available For

Regretfully, no longer available for school and library readings.