Nominations Sought for 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards

The 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards will recognize the books that booksellers most enjoyed handselling in the past year. Nominations for Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, and Illustrated Children's Book will be drawn from the Top Ten Book Sense 76 picks of 2001. Only books published in the preceding year are eligible. Lines for write-ins are provided on the nomination form.

New in 2002 is the establishment of a "Rediscovery Award," open to any children's or adult book. Winners in each category will receive a plaque, and $2,000 will be donated to charity in each of their names.

The remaining four finalists in each category will be awarded the title of Book Sense Honor Book and each finalist will receive a memento.

Winners will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling on Friday, May 3, at BookExpo America, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Stores need not be Book Sense participating stores to nominate titles for the Book Sense Book of the Year ballot. Every current ABA-member bookstore is entitled to vote for five books in each category. Voting will begin on January 7, 2002, with a deadline of February 11, 2002.

Booksellers can nominate titles online at BookWeb.org or download the form to mail back to ABA. A nomination form will also be distributed in the January white box (sent to Book Sense stores only) and is included in the January 7 issue of BTW.

After the top five vote-getters in each category are publicly announced by March 1, 2002, booksellers will vote on these short lists for the winning titles. Publishers will be notified by ABA of the short lists, and nominated authors and illustrators will be invited to attend the Award ceremonies and the 76 Lunch, also to be held on Friday, May 3, at BEA. The Celebration of Bookselling is open to all BookExpo attendees (For more information on attending the 76 Lunch, see the full schedule of ABA programming at BEA in this week's issue.)