Indies Choice Book Awards Voting Underway

The owners and staff at all ABA member stores are invited to cast their ballots online to choose the winners of the 2010 Indies Choice Book Awards. The winners, to be announced in April, will be honored at BookExpo America 2010 in New York City.

The American Booksellers Association announced the finalists and opened voting on Monday, March 1.

The finalists for the Indies Choice Book Awards, reflecting the spirit of independent bookstores and the IndieBound movement, are:

BOOK OF THE YEAR -- ADULT FICTION

• Border Songs, by Jim Lynch (Knopf)

• Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin (Scribner)

• The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt (Knopf)

• Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (Knopf)

• Generosity: An Enhancement, by Richard Powers (FSG)

• Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel (Holt)

BOOK OF THE YEAR -- ADULT NONFICTION

• Animals Make Us Human, by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Lit: A Memoir, by Mary Karr (HarperCollins)

• The Lost City of Z, by David Grann (Doubleday)

• Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (W.W. Norton)

• Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder (Random House)

• When Everything Changed, by Gail Collins (Little, Brown)

BOOK OF THE YEAR -- ADULT DEBUT

• The Earth Hums in B Flat, by Mari Strachan (Canongate)

• The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)

• The Piano Teacher, by Y.K. Lee (Viking)

• The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larson (Penguin Press)

• Still Alice, by Lisa Genova (Pocket)

• Tinkers, by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press)

BOOK OF THE YEAR -- YOUNG ADULT 

• Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)

• Going Bovine, by Libba Bray (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)

• If I Stay, by Gayle Forman (Dutton Juvenile)

• Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld, Keith Thompson (illus.) (Simon Pulse)

• Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)

• Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking Juvenile)

BOOK OF THE YEAR -- MIDDLE READER

• Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko (Dial)

• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly (Holt)

• Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)

• A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck (Dial)

• When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books)

• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin (Little, Brown)

BOOK OF THE YEAR -- NEW PICTURE BOOK

• All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon, Maria Frazee (illus.) (Beach Lane Books)

• The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown (Little, Brown)

• The Lion and the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown)

• Listen to the Wind, by Greg Mortenson, Susan Roth (illus.) (Dial)

• Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, by Brian Floca (Richard Jackson Books)

• Otis, by Loren Long (Philomel)

MOST ENGAGING AUTHOR

(The author who is an in-store star as well as having a strong sense of the importance of indie booksellers to the community.)

• Isabel Allende

• Laurie Halse Anderson

• Libba Bray

• Michael Chabon

• Kate DiCamillo

• Abraham Verghese

PICTURE BOOK HALL OF FAME

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz (Atheneum)

• Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban and Lillian Hoban (HarperCollins)

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr., John Archambault, and Lois Ehlert (Simon & Schuster)

• Corduroy, by Don Freeman (Viking)

• Curious George, by H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann (Putnam)

• Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow)

• The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper (Grosset & Dunlap/Philomel)

• Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)

• Napping House, by Audrey Wood (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking)

• Stellaluna, by Janelle Cannon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson (Viking)

Booksellers are asked to cast one vote in each of the Book of the Year and Most Engaging Author categories. The top vote getters will win the Indies Choice Book Awards, and the other finalists will be designated Indies Choice Honor Book Recipients. In the Picture Book Hall of Fame category, each bookseller is asked to choose up to three favorites; the top three vote getters will be inducted 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. The electronic ballot, available here and on BookWeb.org, must be submitted by midnight on March 31.

The Indies Choice Book Awards finalists were selected by Adult and Children's juries, composed of ABA members. Finalists in the Book of the Year categories were chosen from titles appearing on the 2009 Indie Next Lists.

Jury members selecting the 2010 Adult finalists were Sally Brewster of Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina; Sheryl Cotleur of Book Passage in Corte Madera, California; Joe Foster of Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado; Mark LaFramboise of Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.; Roberta Rubin of The Book Stall at Chestnut Court in Winnetka, Illinois; and Jonathon Welch of Talking Leaves in Buffalo, New York. The Adult jury was chaired by ABA Board member Betsy Burton of The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The 2010 Children's jurists were Elizabeth Bluemle of The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vermont; Diane Capriola of Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia; Ellen Davis of Dragonwings Bookstore in Waupaca, Wisconsin; Alison Morris of Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Massachusetts; and Andrea Vuleta of Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop in La Verne, California. The Children's jury was chaired by Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children.