Voting Opens for 2014 Indies Choice/E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards

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Booksellers at all ABA member stores invited to cast ballots

The finalists for the 2014 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards are being announced today by the American Booksellers Association. Booksellers at ABA member stores across the country will choose the winners in eight categories in online balloting between Thursday, March 20, and midnight EDT on Friday, April 11.

All of this year’s finalists represent the types of books that indie booksellers champion best. The E.B. White Read-Aloud finalists also 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 17 and will be feted along with the honor book recipients at ABA’s Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards Luncheon on Thursday, May 29, at BookExpo America 2014 in New York City.

The finalists in the Indies Choice Book Award categories of Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, and Adult Debut were chosen by a jury of six ABA member booksellers from titles appearing on the 2013 Indie Next Lists. 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 were chosen by a jury of six children’s booksellers from the ABC Children’s Group at ABA. Finalists were chosen from titles appearing on the 2013 Kids’ Indie Next Lists, with additional titles for the E.B. White awards nominated by ABC Group members. The finalists for the 2014 Indie Champion Award were chosen by both juries.

This year’s finalists are:

BOOK OF THE YEAR – ADULT FICTION

  • Gun Machine: A Novel, by Warren Ellis (Mulholland Books)
  • Life After Life: A Novel, by Kate Atkinson (Reagan Arthur Books)
  • Snow Hunters: A Novel, by Paul Yoon (Simon & Schuster)
  • The Son: A Novel, by Philipp Meyer (Ecco)
  • A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel, by Ruth Ozeki (Viking)
  • Tenth of December: Stories, by George Saunders (Random House)

BOOK OF THE YEAR – ADULT NONFICTION

  • The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown (Viking)
  • Men We Reaped: A Memoir, by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury)
  • My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, by Ari Shavit (Spiegel & Grau)
  • A Reader’s Book of Days: True Tales From the Lives and Works of Writers for Every Day of the Year, by Tom Nissley, Joanna Neborsky (Illus.) (W.W. Norton)
  • The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese, by Michael Paterniti (Dial Press)
  • This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett (Harper)

BOOK OF THE YEAR – ADULT DEBUT

  • Burial Rites: A Novel, by Hannah Kent (Little, Brown)
  • A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A Novel, by Anthony Marra (Hogarth)
  • The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel, by Helene Wecker (Harper)
  • In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods: A Novel, by Matt Bell (Soho)
  • Norwegian by Night: A Novel, by Derek B. Miller (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • We Need New Names: A Novel, by NoViolet Bulawayo (Reagan Arthur Books)

BOOK OF THE YEAR – YOUNG ADULT

  • Dark Triumph, by Robin LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)
  • Eleanor & Park: A Novel, by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin)
  • More Than This, by Patrick Ness (Candlewick)
  • Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion)
  • The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Arthur A. Levine Books)

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

  • Counting By 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Dial Books for Young Readers)
  • Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo, K.G. Campbell (Illus.) (Candlewick)
  • The Mouse With the Question Mark Tail, by Richard Peck, Kelly Murphy (Illus.) (Dial Books for Young Readers)
  • Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy, by Karen Foxlee (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
  • Rooftoppers, by Katherine Rundell, Terry Fan (Illus.) (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
  • The Year of Billy Miller, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books)

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

  • Crankenstein, by Samantha Berger, Dan Santat (Illus.) (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
  • The Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt, Oliver Jeffers (Illus.) (Philomel)
  • Dream Animals: A Bedtime Journey, by Emily Winfield Martin (Random House Books for Young Readers)
  • Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
  • Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great, by Bob Shea (Disney-Hyperion)
  • Warning: Do Not Open This Book! by Adam Lehrhaupt, Matthew Forsythe (Illus.) (Paula Wiseman Books)

PICTURE BOOK HALL OF FAME

  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle (Holt Books for Young Readers)
  • Eloise, by Kay Thompson, Hilary Knight (Illus.) (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
  • Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.) (HarperCollins)
  • If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff, Felicia Bond (Illus.) (HarperCollins)
  • Jumanji, by Chris Van Allsburg (HMH Books for Young Readers)
  • Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow)
  • Millions of Cats, by Wanda Gag (Putnam Juvenile)
  • Olivia, by Ian Falconer (Atheneum)
  • Stellaluna, by Janell Cannon (HMH Books for Young Readers)
  • Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
  • Swimmy, by Leo Lionni (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
  • Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, by William Stieg (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
  • Tikki Tikki Tembo, by Arlene Mosel, Blair Lent (Illus.) (Holt Books for Young Readers)

INDIE CHAMPION AWARD

The Indie Champion Award, formerly called Most Engaging Author, is presented to the author or illustrator who booksellers feel has 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. ABA invites readers to learn more about the finalists by clicking on their names below:

To help booksellers promote the finalists in newsletters and other marketing materials, the Indies Choice and E.B. White awards logos are available in BookWeb’s Designs and Downloads.

Members of this year’s Indies Choice Book Awards jury for the adult categories are Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books, Mystic , Connecticut (chair); Josh Cook, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Sheryl Cotleur, Copperfield’s Books, Sebastopol, California; Libby Manthey, Riverwalk Books, Chelan, Washington; Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi; and Carol Schneck Varner, Schuler Books & Music, Okemos, Michigan.

The 2014 jury members for the children’s categories are Cathy Berner, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Texas (chair); Hannah Johnson-Breimeier, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Marika McCoola, Northshire Bookstore, Saratoga Springs, New York; Hannah Moushabeck, Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, Massachusetts; Maureen Palacios, Once Upon a Time, Montrose, California; and Tegan Tigani, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, Washington.

All ABA member booksellers are invited to cast their ballots; then up to three booksellers per ABA member store location can reserve a spot at the Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Lunch at BookExpoAmerica 2014.