Book Sense Book of the Year Awards Announced

Posted on June 13, 2001

David McCullough, author of current bestseller John Adams served as emcee for the presentation of the 2001 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards as voted by independent booksellers nationwide. The four awards were announced and presented at the Celebration of Bookselling event on Friday, June 1, during BookExpo. Before an audience of over one thousand people, the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards were presented to:

Children's Illustrated: Olivia by Ian Falconer (Atheneum)
Children's Literature: Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick)
Adult Nonfiction: Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King (Walker & Co.)
Adult Fiction: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (Picador USA)

The winning titles were chosen by independent booksellers nationwide as the titles they most enjoyed handselling over the past year. Each category had five finalists. There was a heightened level of expectancy leading up to the presentations as the winners were only known by as ABA's auditors, KPMG Peat Marwick.

David McCullough spoke glowingly about the importance of independent booksellers to free commerce and speech, and introduced each pair of booksellers who in turn announced the winners. Three of the winning authors were in attendance and gave passionate acceptance speeches, as did George Gibson, publisher of Ross King, the adult nonfiction winner. Each winner received an award plaque and a $2500 contribution is made to the winner's favorite charity.

BookSense.com is the ecommerce arm of the American Booksellers Association's Book Sense program, a national marketing campaign on behalf of the independent bookstores of America. Book Sense is comprised of 1200 bookstore locations in 50 states. Key components of the Book Sense program are the Book Sense Bestseller List, the Book Sense 76 Recommendations List, the Book Sense national gift certificate program, and BookSense.com.