Winners of the 2012 Indies Choice and E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards Announced

A record-breaking number of independent booksellers nationwide cast their ballots in March, and today the American Booksellers Association announces the winners of the 2012 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards.

“After a month of voting by the owners and staff at independent bookstores across the country, we have an outstanding list of winners that reflects the types of books independent bookstores champion best,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. “We look forward to saluting the winners and honor recipients at the Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards Luncheon on June 5 at BEA.”

The 2012 Indies Choice Book Award winners, reflecting the spirit of independent bookstores nationwide, are:

Adult Fiction Book of the Year

• The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year

• Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton (Random House)

Adult Debut Book of the Year

• The Tiger’s Wife, by Téa Obreht (Random House)

Young Adult Book of the Year

• Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel)

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

E.B. White Read-Aloud Award – Middle Reader
(Balloting ended in a tie between the works of sister and brother Maile Meloy and Colin Meloy.)

• The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy, Ian Schoenherr (Illus.) (Putnam Juvenile)
• 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)

ABA members also chose bestselling author and fellow indie bookseller Ann Patchett as the Most Engaging Author for 2012. Patchett 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.

In addition, booksellers inducted three of their all-time favorites into the Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame:

• Curious George, by H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper (Grosset & Dunlap / Philomel)
• Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney (Viking Juvenile/Puffin)

The 2012 Honor Award recipients, named in each category with the exception of Picture Book Hall of Fame, are:

Adult Fiction Honor Awards

• 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)
• Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury USA)
• Wingshooters, by Nina Revoyr (Akashic Books)

Adult Nonfiction Honor Awards

• 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)

Adult Debut Honor Awards

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

Young Adult Honor Awards

• Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick, by Joe Schreiber (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• 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 Honor Awards

• 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)

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

• 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)

Most Engaging Author Honor Awards

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

The winners and finalists in all categories with the exception of Most Engaging Author and Picture Book Hall of Fame were chosen from titles appearing on the Indie Next Lists in 2011, 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 are being invited to the Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, June 5, 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 this online reservation form. Questions regarding the lunch should be addressed to Mark Nichols, ABA development officer.

Learn more about all of ABA programming at BEA.