2003 Book Sense Book of the Year Winners Announced

Posted on June 13, 2003

The winners of the 2003 Book Sense Book of the Year awards were announced by the American Booksellers Association during the Celebration of Bookselling at BookExpo America 2003 held in Los Angeles. Based on the nominations of ABA member booksellers, the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards fall into six categories: Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature and Children's Illustrated Book, Rediscovery, and, new this year, Paperback.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Little, Brown) won the Book Sense Book of the Year Award as best adult fiction title. The winner for adult nonfiction was Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (Random House).

The winner of the paperback award -- presented for the first time this year -- was given to Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (Perennial). In the children's category, the award for illustrated book went to Dear Mrs. LaRue by Mark Teague (Scholastic). Cornelia Funke, author of The Thief Lord (Chicken House/Scholastic) took home the Children's Literature category award. In the Rediscovery category, the winner was The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston (Odyssey/Harcourt).

Nominations were drawn from the top Book Sense 76 picks of 2002. The Book Sense 76 is a unique bimonthly list of independent booksellers' recommendations.

The Book Sense Book of the Year was first awarded in 2000, as a successor to the ABBY, the American Booksellers Book of the Year, which was established in 1991, to honor the books that independent booksellers most enjoyed selling. The Book Sense Book of the Year award was inaugurated at BookExpo America 2000. In 2000, the Book Sense Book of the Year was awarded in both the Adult and Children's categories. In 2001, two more categories were added, Children's Illustrated and Adult Nonfiction. In 2002, Rediscovery, and, in 2003, Paperback were added to the growing list of categories.