Greener Grass: The Famine Years

Greener Grass: The Famine Years
Author	Caroline Pignat
Language	English
Publisher	Red Deer Press
Publication date	2009
Publication place	Canada
Media type	Print (Trade Paperback)
Pages	278 pp (first edition)
ISBN	978-0-88995-402-1

Greener Grass, published in 2009, is the second novel of Canadian author Caroline Pignat. The story revolves around a 14-year-old girl, Kit Byrne, living during the Great Famine of 1847 in Ireland. The Byrne family faces imminent eviction when their landlord, Lord Fraser, wants to repossess their land. He attempts to drive them out by raising the rent and having his estate manager, Lynch, set fires in the surrounding area. Kit works as a kitchen maid in the main house, but when she loses her job her mother is forced to sell precious family heirlooms and furniture. With her father dead, she must fight for survival and help her ailing mother and siblings escape Ireland for good.

This story is a glimpse into the tragic events of the Great Hunger, the famine that devastated Ireland, forcing thousands of impoverished families to seek better livelihoods outside of their homeland.

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Result
Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature	2009	Won^[1]
CLA Children's Book of the Year Award	2009	Shortlist^[2]
Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction	2009	Finalist^[3]
Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Awards	2010	Shortlist^[4]
Red Maple Award	2010	Nominated^[5]

References

^ "Winners of the 2009 Governor General's Literary Awards Announced". Retrieved 16 December 2009.^{[dead link]}
^ "Canadian Library Association | CLA: News (03/06/2009)". Cla.ca. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
^ "Finalists Announced for 2009 Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards | Canadian Children's Book Centre". Bookcentre.ca. Archived from the original on 6 July 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
^ "Myrca Nominees". Myrca.ca. 16 September 2011. Archived from the original on 25 November 2009. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
^ "Forest of Reading® 2010 - Red Maple™". Accessola.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2013.

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[1] "Winners of the 2009 Governor General's Literary Awards Announced". Retrieved 16 December 2009.^{[dead link]}

[2] "Canadian Library Association | CLA: News (03/06/2009)". Cla.ca. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2013.

[3] "Finalists Announced for 2009 Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards | Canadian Children's Book Centre". Bookcentre.ca. Archived from the original on 6 July 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2013.

[4] "Myrca Nominees". Myrca.ca. 16 September 2011. Archived from the original on 25 November 2009. Retrieved 4 September 2013.

[5] "Forest of Reading® 2010 - Red Maple™". Accessola.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2013.

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v t e Winners of the Governor General's Award for young people's literature — text
1980s	Morgan Nyberg, Galahad Schwartz and the Cockroach Army (1987) Welwyn Wilton Katz, The Third Magic (1988) Diana Wieler, Bad Boy (1989)
1990s	Michael Bedard, Redwork (1990) Sarah Ellis, Pick-Up Sticks (1991) Julie Johnston, Hero of Lesser Causes (1992) Tim Wynne-Jones, Some of the Kinder Planets (1993) Julie Johnston, Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me (1994) Tim Wynne-Jones, The Maestro (1995) Paul Yee, Ghost Train (1996) Kit Pearson, Awake and Dreaming (1997) Janet Lunn, The Hollow Tree (1998) Rachna Gilmore, A Screaming Kind of Day (1999)
2000s	Deborah Ellis, Looking for X (2000) Arthur Slade, Dust (2001) Martha Brooks, True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (2002) Glen Huser, Stitches (2003) Kenneth Oppel, Airborn (2004) Pamela Porter, The Crazy Man (2005) William Gilkerson, Pirate's Passage (2006) Iain Lawrence, Gemini Summer (2007) John Ibbitson, The Landing (2008) Caroline Pignat, Greener Grass: The Famine Years (2009)
2010s	Wendy Phillips, Fishtailing (2010) Christopher Moore, From Then to Now: A Short History of the World (2011) Susin Nielsen, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen (2012) Teresa Toten, The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B (2013) Raziel Reid, When Everything Feels Like the Movies (2014) Caroline Pignat, The Gospel Truth (2015) Martine Leavitt, Calvin (2016) Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves (2017) Jonathan Auxier, Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster (2018) Erin Bow, Stand on the Sky (2019)
2020s	Eric Walters, The King of Jam Sandwiches (2020) Philippa Dowding, Firefly (2021) Jen Ferguson, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet (2022) Sarah Everett, The Probability of Everything (2023)