Book awards grow like weeds, but that is not a bad thing. Acclaim (or at least recognition) is a way to find out about the notable, the rare, the special in the vast flood of books. Over the years we have discovered that some awards are more trustworthy or more relevant to our customers than others. The award winners and sometimes the nominees are featured here. A quick explanation:
the Caldecott Medal is intended for the best illustrated children’s book,
the Newbery Medal is intended for the best young adult book (flexible in definition),
the National Book Award is given by the National Book Foundation,
the National Book Critics’ Circle Award by a professional association of American book review editors and critics (originally the Algonquin Round Table),
the Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America,
the Hugo Award by the yearly World Science Fiction Convention (professional affiliation not required),
the Nebula by the Science Fiction Writers of America,
the Spur Award by the Western Writers of America,
the Booker Prize by a changing committee of eminent UK writers and critics,
and the Pulitzer Prize by Columbia University as endowed by newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer.
As a reminder, the Nobel Prize for Literature is for a lifetime body of work, not for a single work in a particular year, as are all the others featured here.
Washington Black
Washington Black
• TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, Slate
• ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Boston Globe, NPR, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Economist, Bustle
• WINNER OF THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
• FINALIST FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE, THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE, THE ROGERS WRITERS’ TRUST PRIZE
“Enthralling” —Boston Globe “Extraordinary” —Seattle Times “A rip-roaring tale” —Washington Post
A dazzling adventure story about a boy who rises from the ashes of slavery to become a free man of the world.
George Washington Black, or “Wash,” an eleven-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is terrified to be chosen by his master’s brother as his manservant. To his surprise, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning–and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, Christopher and Wash must abandon everything. What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic. What brings Christopher and Wash together will tear them apart, propelling Wash even further across the globe in search of his true self. From the blistering cane fields of the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, from the earliest aquariums of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black tells a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, of a world destroyed and made whole again, and asks the question, What is true freedom?