Announcing the 2013 Indies Choice and E.B. White Award Winners

Today, the American Booksellers Association announces the winners of the 2013 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, as voted by independent booksellers nationwide.

“Once again this year, the owners and staff at ABA member stores across the country enthusiastically cast their ballots to choose the winners from an outstanding list of indie handselling favorites,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. “We will salute these winners and honor award recipients at the Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Lunch on May 30 at BookExpo America, and invite two booksellers from each ABA member store to join us.”

The 2013 Indies Choice Book Award winners, reflecting the spirit of independent bookstores nationwide, are:

• ADULT FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
  The Round House: A Novel, by Louise Erdrich (Harper)
   
• ADULT NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
  Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed (Knopf)
   
• ADULT DEBUT BOOK OF THE YEAR
  The Snow Child: A Novel, by Eowyn Ivey (Little, Brown)
   
• YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE YEAR
  The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green (Dutton Juvenile)

The winners of the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, reflecting 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, are:

• E.B. WHITE READ-ALOUD AWARD – MIDDLE READER
  Wonder, by R.J. Palacio (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
   
• E.B. WHITE READ-ALOUD AWARD – PICTURE BOOK
  Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen (Illus.) (Balzer + Bray)

This year, the Indies Choice award for Most Engaging Author has been renamed the Indie Champion Award. Booksellers chose the new name to more clearly describe the award presented to the author or illustrator that has both the best sense of the importance of independent bookstores to their communities at large and the strongest personal commitment to foster and support the mission and passion of independent booksellers.

• INDIE CHAMPION AWARD
  John Green

Each year, indie booksellers also chose three classic picture books for induction into the Picture Hall of Fame. This year, due to a tie in the voting, four titles will be inducted.

PICTURE BOOK HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

• Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban, Lillian Hoban (Illus.) (HarperCollins)
• Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobokina (HarperCollins)
• Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson (HarperCollins)
• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith (Illus.) (Viking Juvenile)

In addition to the winners above, five 2013 Honor Award recipients were named in each category with the exception of Picture Book Hall of Fame.

This year’s Honor Award recipients are:

ADULT FICTION HONOR AWARDS

• The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: A Novel, by Jan Philipp Sendker (Other Press)
• Beautiful Ruins: A Novel, by Jess Walter (Harper)
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk: A Novel, by Ben Fountain (Ecco)
• The Dog Stars: A Novel, by Peter Heller (Knopf)
• The Orphan Master’s Son: A Novel, by Adam Johnson (Random House)

ADULT NONFICTION HONOR AWARDS

• Elsewhere: A Memoir, by Richard Russo (Knopf)
• The End of Your Life Book Club, by Will Schwalbe (Knopf)
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain (Crown)
• Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham (Random House)
• Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (Grove Press)

ADULT DEBUT HONOR AWARDS

• The Age of Miracles: A Novel, by Karen Thompson Walker (Random House)
• In the Shadow of the Banyan: A Novel, by Vaddey Ratner (Simon & Schuster)
• A Land More Kind Than Home: A Novel, by Wiley Cash (William Morrow)
• The Orchardist: A Novel, by Amanda Coplin (Harper)
• The Yellow Birds: A Novel, by Kevin Powers (Little, Brown)

YOUNG ADULT HONOR AWARDS

• Cinder: Book One of the Lunar Chronicles, by Marissa Meyer (Feiwel & Friends)
• Colin Fischer, by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz (Razorbill)
• Every Day, by David Levithan (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
• Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book I, by Robin LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children)
• Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman (Random House Books for Young Readers)

E.B. WHITE READ-ALOUD AWARD – MIDDLE READER HONOR AWARDS

• The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Scholastic)
• The Last Dragonslayer: The Chronicles of Kazam Book I, by Jasper Fforde (Harcourt Children’s Books)
• The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, Patricia Castelao (Illus.) (HarperCollins)
• Same Sun Here, by Silas House and Neela Vaswani (Candlewick)
• Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage (Dial Books for Young Readers)

E.B. WHITE READ-ALOUD AWARD – PICTURE BOOK HONOR AWARDS

• Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds, Peter Brown (Illus.) (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Bear Has a Story to Tell, by Philip C. Stead, Erin Stead (Illus.) (Roaring Brook Press)
• Oh, No! by Candace Fleming, Eric Rohmann (Illus.) (Schwartz & Wade)
• Too Tall Houses, by Gianna Marino (Viking Juvenile)
• Z Is for Moose, by Kelly Bingham, Paul O. Zelinsky (Illus.) (Greenwillow Books)

INDIE CHAMPION HONOR AWARDS

• Tom Angleberger
• Geraldine Brooks
• Jonathan Evison
• Jon Scieszka
• Terry Tempest Williams

The winners and finalists in all categories with the exceptions of Most Engaging Author and Picture Book Hall of Fame were chosen from titles appearing on the Indie Next Lists in 2012, with additional titles for the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards nominated by bookseller members of the ABC Group at ABA.

All of the Indies Choice and E.B. White winners and honor recipients will be invited to the Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Lunch on Thursday, May 30, at BookExpo America. The event is free and open exclusively to two booksellers from each ABA member store. Those who would like to attend must make a reservation before May 10 via this online reservation form. Questions regarding the lunch should be addressed to ABA Development Officer Mark Nichols.

The Indies Choice and E.B. White logos are available to ABA members in the Bookseller DIY  for use in promoting the winners and finalists in newsletters and other marketing materials.

Complete details about ABA programming at BEA are available at bea.bookweb.org.