January 1, 2018 | strande
Each book below is a recipient of a different literature award. Check the websites of the various awards for more winners and honor books. Books aimed at younger audiences are at the top of the list, but may appeal to a variety of readers.
Dylan is someone who notices things. His mom is someone who doesn't. So try as he might, Dylan can't get his mom to listen to the man playing the violin in the subway station. But Dylan is swept away by the soaring and swooping notes that fill the air as crowds of oblivious people rush by. Based on the winner of the 2014 Indie Book Awards for best Children's Picture Book.
In 1914, Harry Colebourn rescued a baby bear. Harry Colebourn's real-life great-granddaughter tells the true story of a remarkable journey--from the fields of Canada to a convoy across the ocean to an army base in England...and finally to the London Zoo, where Winnie made another new friend: a real boy named Christopher Robin. Based on the 2016 Caldecott Medal winner.
Prosper and Bo are orphans on the run from their cruel aunt and uncle. The brothers decide to hide out in Venice, where they meet a mysterious thirteen-year-old who calls himself the Thief Lord. Soon the boys are thrust into circumstances that will lead them to a fantastic, spellbinding conclusion. Winner of the 2003 Batchelder Award.
Knowing herself to be a girl despite her outwardly male appearance, George is denied a female role in the class play before teaming up with a friend to reveal her true self. Winner of the 2016 Stonewall Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.
What if "Luke, I am your father" was just a stern admonishment from an annoyed dad? In this hilarious and sweet comic reimagining, Darth Vader is a dad like any other-except with all the baggage of being the Dark Lord of the Sith. Winner of the 2013 Eisner Award for best Humor publication.
Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town, but the witch in the forest rescues the children and delivers them to welcoming families. An epic coming-of-age fairy tale destined to be a modern classic, and winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal.
By Fall 1963, the Civil Rights Movement is an undeniable keystone of the national conversation, and as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is right in the thick of it. The 25-year-old heads to Alabama to risk everything in a historic showdown that will shock the world. Winner of the 2017 Coretta Scott King Author Award, the 2017 Printz Award, the 2017 Sibert Medal, and the 2016 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
Eighteen-year-old Finn, an outsider in his quiet Midwestern town, is the only witness to the abduction of town favorite Roza, but his inability to distinguish between faces makes it difficult for him to help with the investigation, and subjects him to even more ridicule and bullying. Winner of the 2016 Printz Award.
In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned 3 continents and leaped over ethical challenges. Winner of the 2013 Sibert Medal.
In Ontario, Pen is a sixteen-year-old girl who looks like a boy. She's fine with it, but everyone else is uncomfortable--especially her Portuguese immigrant parents and her manipulative neighbor who doesn't want her to find a group of real friends. Winner of the 2017 Lambda Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.
Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900s Asia, a teenage girl struggles to survive the trauma of war. She shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both. Winner of the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.
One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it. A 2015 Michigan Notable Book.
When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family. Winner of the 2012 National Book Award for fiction.
Presents the stories of six Japanese mail-order brides whose new lives in early twentieth-century San Francisco are marked by backbreaking migrant work, cultural struggles, children who reject their heritage, and the prospect of wartime internment. Winner of the 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award.
Describes the life of the young Pakistani student who advocated for women's rights and education in the Taliban-controlled Swat Valley, survived an assassination attempt, and became the youngest nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Winner of the 2013 Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir.
In the near future, scarce fossil fuels have ended America's era of prosperity, sent small-town Americans to precarious vertical trailer parks at urban fringes, and the entire population into the OASIS, an immersive virtual reality, for education and escape. Winner of the 2012 Prometheus Award for Best Novel.
Lauren Olamina was only eighteen when she fled north and founded Acorn, a peaceful community based on a religion of her creation. But outside the tranquil group's walls, America is changing for the worse and before long Acorn is plunged into a harrowing fight for its very survival. Winner of the 1999 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed presents this epic work that tells the story of the Hemingses, an American slave family, and their close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson. Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History.
It begins in Toronto in 1945 when Laura Chase, 25 years old, drives a car off a bridge. Iris Chase Griffen, her older sister and wife of a wealthy and conniving businessman, seems more concerned with the proper attire for her trip to the reporter-ringed morgue than with her sister's fate. Winner of the 2000 Man Booker Prize.
This historically relevant biography establishes Shirley Jackson as a towering figure in American literature and revives the life and work of a neglected master. Winner of the 2017 Edgar Award for best Critical/Biographical book.
Darcy Anderson's husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his routine business trips when the unsuspecting Darcy looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a hidden box under a worktable and in it she discovers a trove of horrific evidence that her husband is two men. "A Good Marriage" is one of the novellas in the winner of the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection: Full Dark, No Stars.
When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes. Winner of the 2016 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel.