Voting Open for 2009 Indies Choice Book Awards

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Voting is now open to the owners and staff at all ABA member bookstores for the inaugural Indies Choice Book Awards, reflecting the spirit of independent bookstores and the IndieBound movement. ABA members will choose the winners in seven categories -- Best Indie Buzz Book (fiction), Best Conversation Starter (nonfiction), Best Author Discovery (debut), Best New Picture Book, Best YA Buzz Book, Most Engaging Author, and the Picture Book Hall of Fame -- who will be honored in May at BookExpo America. Booksellers are encouraged to vote via an easy-to-use electronic form; however, a paper ballot is also available.

The 2009 Indies Choice Book Awards finalists, announced by the American Booksellers Association on Tuesday, March 3, are:

Best Indie Buzz Book (Fiction)

  • City of Thieves, by David Benioff (Viking)
  • The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane (Morrow)
  • The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (Dial)
  • Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill (Pantheon)
  • People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
  • Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf)

Best Conversation Starter (Nonfiction)

  • American Buffalo, by Steven Rinella (Spiegel & Grau)
  • The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins (Knopf)
  • Hurry Down Sunshine, by Michael Greenberg (Other Press)
  • A Voyage Long and Strange, by Tony Horwitz (Holt)
  • What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami (Knopf)
  • The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell (Riverhead)

Best Author Discovery (Debut)

  • Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central)
  • The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)
  • Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan (Algonquin)
  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
  • The Story of Forgetting, by Stefan Merrill Block (Random House)
  • White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga (Free Press)

Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book (Fiction)

  • Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (HMH)
  • The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
  • Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
  • Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (Tor)
  • My Most Excellent Year, by Steve Kluger (Dial)
  • Savvy, by Ingrid Law (Dial)

Best New Picture Book

  • Bats at the Library, by Brian Lies (Houghton Mifflin)
  • Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken, by Kate DiCamillo & Harry Bliss (HarperCollins)
  • Monkey and Me, by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster)
  • The Pout Pout Fish, by Deborah Diesen & Dan Hanna (FSG)
  • Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, by Mem Fox & Helen Oxenbury (Harcourt)
  • Wave, by Suzi Lee (Chronicle)

Most Engaging Author
(The author who is an in-store star with a strong sense of the importance of indie booksellers to their local communities.)

  • Sherman Alexie
  • Michael Chabon
  • Ann Patchett
  • Jon Scieszka
  • David Sedaris
  • Terry Tempest Williams

Picture Book Hall of Fame

  • Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst & Ray Cruz (Atheneum)
  • Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault & Lois Ehlert (Simon & Schuster)
  • Corduroy, by Don Freeman (Viking)
  • Curious George, by H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin)
  • Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, by Mo Willems (Hyperion)
  • Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann (Putnam)
  • The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper (Grosset & Dunlap/Philomel)
  • Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)
  • Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey (Viking)
  • Napping House, by Audrey Wood (Harcourt)
  • Stellaluna, by Janelle Cannon (Harcourt)
  • The Story of Ferdinand the Bull, by Munro Leaf & Robert Lawson (Viking)
  • Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak (HarperCollins)

Booksellers should vote for one title in each of the first six categories. The top vote getter in each will win the Indies Choice Book Award, and the remaining finalists will be designated Indies Choice Honor Books. In the Picture Book Hall of Fame category, booksellers should choose up to three favorites; the top vote getters will be the first inductees into the Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame.

All booksellers at ABA member stores are encouraged to vote; only one ballot will be accepted per person. Electronic ballots must be submitted by March 31; paper ballots may be returned via fax or mail to be received by April 7.

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

The winners will be announced in late April and will be honored at an awards ceremony at ABA's Celebration of Bookselling Luncheon at BookExpo America 2009 in New York City. (Look for details in upcoming editions of Bookselling This Week.)

The Indies Choice Book Awards finalists for Best Indie Buzz Book, Best Conversation Starter, Best Author Discovery, Best New Picture Book, and Best YA Buzz Book were selected from titles appearing on the 2008 Indie Next List Great Reads and Book Sense Picks.

Jury members selecting the 2009 finalists were Carla Jimenez of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida; Mitch Kaplan of South Florida and the Cayman Islands' Books & Books; Arsen Kashkashian of Colorado's Boulder Book Store; Valerie Koehler of Houston's Blue Willow Bookshop; Collette Morgan of Minneapolis' Wild Rumpus; and Matt Norcross of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan. The jury was chaired by ABA Board member Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado.

The electronic ballot, accessible here may also be found on BookWeb.org. The paper ballot, which may be downloaded here, is also being sent to stores in the IndieBound movement in the March Red Box.

The Indies Choice Book Awards are the successor to the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards.