WNBA Announces 2015 Pannell Award Winners

The winners of the 2015 Women’s National Book Association’s Pannell Awards, announced on Thursday, April 15, are Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois, in the general bookstore category and Once Upon a Time in Montrose, California, in the children’s specialty category.

Anderson’s Bookshop co-owner Becky Anderson, a former ABA president and a newly elected member of the Naperville City Council, said, "We are absolutely beyond thrilled to win the Pannell Award. Our entire staff is so excited. We were in incredibly good company with the other award nominees."

Once Upon a Time owner Maureen Palacios expressed her delight and said, “The entire staff of Once Upon a Time, the young-at-heart readers, and the community that has continued to support us for 49 years, all share in this prestigious honor. Thank you!”

The award, which is co-sponsored by Penguin Young Readers Group, recognizes independent bookstores that “enhance their communities by bringing exceptional creativity to foster a love of reading in their young patrons.” Each of this year’s winners will receive a $1,000 check and a piece of original art from a children’s book illustrator at BookExpo America’s Children’s Book and Author Breakfast.

This year’s other nominees included:

General Bookstore

• {pages} A Bookstore (Manhattan Beach, CA)
• Astoria Bookshop (New York, NY)
• Bookshop West Portal (San Francisco, CA)
• Busboys and Poets Books (Washington, DC)
• Changing Hands Bookstore (Tempe, AZ)
• Frugal Bookstore (Roxbury, MA)
• Landmark Booksellers (Franklin, TN)
• Laurel Book Store (Oakland, CA)
• Left Bank Books (St. Louis, MO)
• MainStreet BookEnds of Warner (Warner, NH)
• Mostly Books (Gig Harbor, WA)
• Page & Palette (Fairhope, AL)
• Prairie Lights Books (Iowa City, IA)
• Skylight Books (Los Angeles, CA)
• Source Booksellers (Detroit, MI)
• The Bookstore Plus (Lake Placid, NY)
• Towne Center Books (Pleasanton, CA)

Children’s Specialty Bookstore

• Blue Manatee Bookstore (Cincinnati, OH)
• Books of Wonder (New York, NY)
• Hooray for Books! (Alexandria, VA)
• Monkey See, Monkey Do… (Clarence, NY)
• Square Books Jr. (Oxford, MS)
• Storybook Village of Pentwater (Pentwater, MI)
• The Reading Bug (San Carlos, CA)

The winners were chosen by the Pannell Award jurors for 2015:

• Cheryl Willis Hudson, vice president and editorial director, Just Us Books
• Emma D. Dryden, children’s editorial and publishing consultant, drydenbks LLC
• Josalyn Moran, children’s publishing consultant
• Lisa Von Drasek, curator of Children’s Literature Research Collections, University of Minnesota
• Roger Sutton, editor in chief, The Horn Book

The WNBA Pannell Award co-chairs are Sally M. Kim, senior marketing manager at Chronicle Books, and Susan Knopf, president and founder of Scout Books & Media, Inc.