ABA Announces the 2011 Indies Choice and E.B. White Award Winners

By Rosemary Hawkins on Wednesday, Apr 6, 2011

The American Booksellers Association today announces the winners of the 2011 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, as chosen by the owners and staff at member stores in voting throughout the month of March.

The winners of the 2011 Indies Choice Book Awards reflect the spirit of independent bookstores nationwide and the IndieBound movement. Book of the Year winners and Honor Award recipients are all titles nominated by ABA member booksellers to the 2010 Indie Next Lists.

The 2011 winners are:

Adult Fiction Book of the Year

  • Room, by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown)

Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year

  • Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House)

Adult Debut Book of the Year

  • Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes (Atlantic Monthly Press and El León Literary Arts)

Young Adult Book of the Year

  • Revolution, by Jennifer Donnelly (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)

The E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards recognize books that reflect the playful, well-paced language, the engaging themes, and the universal appeal to a wide range of ages embodied by E.B. White’s collection of beloved books. They replace the Indies Choice Book Awards in the categories of Middle Reader and New Picture Book.

The 2011 winners are:

E.B.White Read-Aloud Award – Middle Reader

  • The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, by Tom Angleberger (Amulet Books)

E.B.White Read-Aloud Award – Picture Book

  • Children Make Terrible Pets, by Peter Brown (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

ABA member booksellers also chose Laurie Halse Anderson as Most Engaging Author. Halse Anderson was recognized for her exceptional involvement and responsiveness during in-store appearances and for having a strong sense of the importance of indie booksellers to their local communities.

And, in a very tight race, booksellers this year inducted four of their all-time favorites into the Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame:

  • Corduroy, by Don Freeman (Viking)
  • Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking)
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle (Philomel)

“In the first year that all ABA member booksellers had the opportunity to vote for both the Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, the result is an outstanding list of winners that reflect the types of books independent bookstores champion best,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. “We look forward to saluting all of the winners and honor recipients at the Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards Luncheon in May at BEA.”

The 2011 Honor Award recipients, named in each category, with the exception of Picture Book Hall of Fame, are:

Adult Fiction Honor Awards

  • Great House, by Nicole Krauss (W.W. Norton)
  • How to Read the Air, by Dinaw Mengestu (Riverhead)
  • The Surrendered, by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead)
  • The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell (Random House)
  • A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan (Knopf)

Adult Nonfiction Honor Awards

  • At Home, by Bill Bryson (Doubleday)
  • Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff (Little, Brown)
  • Let’s Take the Long Way Home, by Gail Caldwell (Random House)
  • The Tiger, by John Vaillant (Knopf)
  • The Wave, by Susan Casey (Doubleday)

Adult Debut Honor Awards

  • Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, by Maaza Mengiste (W.W. Norton)
  • The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner)
  • Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson (Random House)
  • The Quickening, by Michelle Hoover (Other Press)
  • The Wake of Forgiveness, by Bruce Machart (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Young Adult Honor Awards

  • Bamboo People, by Mitali Perkins (Charlesbridge)
  • Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver (HarperCollins)
  • Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
  • Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper (Atheneum)
  • Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan (Dutton Juvenile)

E.B. White Read-Aloud Award – Middle Reader Honor Awards

  • Because of Mr. Terupt, by Rob Buyea (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
  • The Familiars, by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson (HarperCollins)
  • Penny Dreadful, by Laurel Snyder, Abigail Halpin (Illus.) (Random House Books for Young Readers)
  • The Sixty-Eight Rooms, by Marianne Malone, Greg Call (Illus.) (Random House Books for Young Readers)
  • A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton Juvenile)

E.B. White Read-Aloud Award – Picture Book Honor Awards

  • Bedtime for Bear, by Brett Helquist (HarperCollins)
  • Chicken Big, by Keith Graves (Chronicle Books)
  • Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, by Eric Litwin, James Dean (Illus.) (HarperCollins)
  • A Pig Parade Is a Terrible Idea, by Michael Ian Black, Kevin Hawkes (Illus.) (Simon & Shuster)
  • The Quiet Book, by Deborah Underwood, Renata Liwska (Illus.) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Most Engaging Author Honor Awards

  • Jonathan Evison
  • Kevin Henkes
  • Mitali Perkins
  • Richard Russo
  • Terry Tempest Williams

All of the Indies Choice and E.B. White award winners and honor recipients are being invited to the Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, May 24, at BookExpo America. The event is free and open exclusively to two booksellers from each ABA member store. Booksellers who would like to attend should reserve a spot now via an electronic reservation form on Bookweb.org. Questions regarding the lunch should be addressed to Mark Nichols, ABA industry relations officer.

Learn more about all of ABA programming at BEA.

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