Voting Opens for 2012 Indies Choice and E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards

By Rosemary Hawkins on Monday, Feb 27, 2012

The owners and staff at all ABA member bookstores can now cast their ballots for the 2012 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards. Voting is open till March 31 via an electronic form on BookWeb.org.

All of this year’s finalists represent the types of books that indie booksellers champion best. In addition, the E.B. White Read-Aloud finalists 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.

Every bookseller at an ABA member store is encouraged to vote; one ballot per person will be accepted. One book in each category will be declared the winner, with the exception of the Picture Book Hall of Fame, where booksellers will choose three inductees. The winners will be announced on April 5 and will be invited to take part in ABA’s Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards Luncheon at BookExpo America 2012 in New York City.

This year’s finalists are:

BOOK OF THE YEAR – ADULT FICTION

  • The Cat’s Table, by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf)
  • Everything Beautiful Began After, by Simon Van Booy (Harper Perennial)
  • 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel (Trans.) (Knopf)
  • The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  • Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury USA)
  • Wingshooters, by Nina Revoyr (Akashic Books)

BOOK OF THE YEAR – ADULT NONFICTION

  • Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton (Random House)
  • Blue Nights, by Joan Didion (Knopf)
  • Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie (Random House)
  • Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, by Tony Horwitz (Henry Holt & Co.)
  • Townie: A Memoir, by Andre Dubus III (W.W. Norton)
  • What It Is Like to Go to War, by Karl Marlantes (Atlantic Monthly Press)

BOOK OF THE YEAR – ADULT DEBUT

  • The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach (Little, Brown)
  • Mourad: New Moroccan, by Mourad Lahlou (Artisan)
  • Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles (Viking Adult)
  • The Tiger’s Wife, by Téa Obreht (Random House)
  • We the Animals, by Justin Torres (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • You Know When the Men Are Gone, by Siobhan Fallon (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)

BOOK OF THE YEAR – YOUNG ADULT

  • Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick, by Joe Schreiber (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel)
  • Legend, by Marie Lu (Putnam Juvenile)
  • A Monster Calls: Inspired by an Idea From Siobhan Dowd, by Patrick Ness, Jim Kay (Illus.) (Candlewick Press)
  • Shine, by Lauren Myracle (Amulet Books)
  • Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (Eds.) (Candlewick Press)

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

  • The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy, Ian Schoenherr (Illus.) (Putnam Juvenile)
  • Bluefish, by Pat Schmatz (Candlewick Press)
  • The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale, by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright, Barry Moser (Illus.) (Peachtree)
  • The Flint Heart, by Katherine Paterson and John Paterson, John Rocco (Illus.) (Candlewick Press)
  • Liesl & Po, by Lauren Oliver, Kei Acedera (Illus.) (HarperCollins)
  • Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, Carson Ellis (Illus.) (Balzer + Bray)

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

  • I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press)
  • King Hugo’s Huge Ego, by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick Press)
  • Press Here, by Hervé Tullet (Chronicle Books)
  • Stars, by Mary Lyn Ray, Marla Frazee (Illus.) (Beach Lane Books)
  • Over and Under the Snow, by Kate Messner, Christopher Silas Neal (Illus.) (Chronicle Books)
  • Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, by Sherri Duskey Rinker, Tom Lichtenheld (Illus.) (Chronicle Books)

PICTURE BOOK HALL OF FAME

  • Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban, Lillian Hoban (Illus.) (HarperCollins)
  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See, by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle (Henry Holt & Co.)
  • Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, Lois Ehlert (Illus.) (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
  • Curious George, by H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann (Putnam Juvenile/Puffin)
  • Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow)
  • The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper (Grosset & Dunlap / Philomel)
  • Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney (Viking Juvenile/Puffin)
  • The Napping House, by Audrey Wood, Don Wood (Illus.) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers/Aladdin)
  • Stellaluna, by Janell Cannon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith (Illus.) (Viking Juvenile/Puffin)

MOST ENGAGING AUTHOR

  • M.T. Anderson
  • John Green
  • Walter Mosley
  • Ann Patchett
  • Richard Russo
  • Brian Selznick

The finalists in the Indies Choice Book Awards categories of Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, and Adult Debut were chosen by a jury of seven ABA member booksellers from titles appearing on the Indie Next Lists in 2011.

A Children’s jury, composed of seven members of the ABC Children’s Group at ABA, chose the finalists for the Indies Choice Book Award in the Young Adult category and for the E.B. White Read-Aloud Middle Reader and Picture Book Awards. Finalists were chosen from titles appearing on the Kids’ Indie Next Lists in 2011, with additional titles for the E.B. White awards nominated by ABC Group members.

Finalists for the Most Engaging Author award were chosen by both the Adult and Children’s juries and were based not only on the author’s in-store appearance popularity, but also for having a strong sense of the importance of independent bookstores to local communities at large.

There is no restriction on publication date for nominees for induction into the Picture Book Hall of Fame, and once again this year the award will recognize three outstanding backlist titles.

To help booksellers promote the finalists in newsletters and other marketing materials, ABA has made the Indies Choice Awards logo available for download here.

Members of this year’s Indies Choice Book Awards Adult jury are John Evans, DIESEL: A Bookstore, Oakland, California (chair); Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, Kansas;  Dawn Braasch, Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts; Roberta Dyer, Broadway Books, Portland, Oregon; Bradley Graham, Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C.; Kelly Justice, Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, Virginia; and Lyn Roberts, Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi.

The 2012 Children’s jury members are Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston (chair); Laura Delaney, Rediscovered Books, Boise, Idaho; Judith Lafitte, Octavia Books, New Orleans; David Mallman, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, Wisconsin; Lauren Peugh, Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop, LaVerne, California; Ellen Richmond, Children’s Book Cellar, Waterville, Maine; and Christopher Rose, Andover Bookstore, Andover, Massachusetts.

Cast your ballot now.

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