Sydney Smith author page

Sydney Smith biography

Sydney Smith is a Canadian illustrator and creator of children’s picture books. He studied drawing and printmaking at NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and developed his interest in illustrating children’s books while studying there. He illustrated Sidewalk Flowers, a wordless picture book written by JonArno Lawson, and won the 2015 Governor General’s Award for Illustrated Children’s Books for that work.

Smith wrote and illustrated Small in the City, a 40-page picture book published in hardback by Neal Porter Books on 3 September 2019. Small in the City won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, and it was named a New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Book of the Year.

Smith wrote and illustrated Do You Remember?, a 40-page picture book published by Neal Porter Books on 3 October 2023. The book is about a boy and his mother sharing memories in a new apartment, and it won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book Award. Do You Remember? was longlisted for the 2025 Carnegie Medal.

Smith’s other children’s books include I Talk Like a River, My Baba’s Garden and Island Storm. Island Storm, written by Brian Floca and illustrated by Smith, was published by Neal Porter Books on 22 July 2025 and was a 2025 Kirkus Prize finalist for Young Readers’ Literature.