BookSense 2002 Finalists

Finalists for the Book Sense Book of the Year were announced on February 13. Here's a look at the finalists in the Adult Fiction category. The winners will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling on Friday, May 3, at this year's BookExpo America, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Adult Fiction

• The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn (MacAdam/Cage)
• Empire Falls, Richard Russo (Knopf)
• The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)
• Peace Like a River, Leif Enger (Atlantic Monthly)

Adult Nonfiction

• Ava's Man, Rick Bragg (Knopf)
• The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World, Michael Pollan (Random House)
• Fast Food Nation, Eric Schossler (Houghton Mifflin)
• Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich (Metropolitan/Holt)
• Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Laura Hillenbrand (Random House)

Children's Literature

• Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison (HarperCollins)
• Love That Dog, Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares (Delacorte)
• Witness, Karen Hesse (Scholastic)
• You Read to Me and I'll Read to You, Janet Schulman, ed. (Random House)

Children's Illustrated

• The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)
• Olivia Saves the Circus, Ian Falconer (Atheneum)
• Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon, Patty Lovell, illustrated by David Catrow (Putnam)
• Take Me Out of the Bathtub: And Other Silly Dilly Songs, Alan Katz, illustrated by David Catrow (Margaret McElderry Books/S&S)
• The Water Hole, Graeme Base (Abrams)

Rediscover

• Enchantress From the Stars, Sylvia Louis Engdahl (Walker)
• Freddy the Detective, Walter R. Brooks, illustrated by Kurt Wiese (Overlook/Penguin)
• Handling Sin, Michael Malone (Sourcebooks)
• My Father's Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannell, illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannell (Random House)
• Time Stops for No Mouse, Michael Hoeye (Putnam)

BookSense Book of the Year, 2001

The Book Sense Book of the Year Award -- formerly known as the "ABBY Award" -- was inaugurated on June 2 at BookExpo America 2000. Winners are chosen by independent booksellers across the country who vote for the titles they most enjoyed handselling to their customers in the previous year.

This year two new categories have been added, making four in all: Adult Fiction, Adult Non-fiction, Children's Literature, and Illustrated Children's Book.

Winners were announced at this year's BEA in Chicago. Congratulations to all the winners!

the finalists

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

House of Sand & Fog by Andre Dubus III

The Red Tent
by Anita Diamant

In the Bible, the story of Dinah is peripheral to the more familiar chapters about her father, Jacob, and his dozens of sons in the Book of Genesis. But now Anita Diamant tells of Dinah's life as a midwife and the fills out the stories and perspectives of female life in the age that shaped our civilization and our values.

the finalists

The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams by Nasdijj

Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

Woman by Natalie Angier

Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
by Ross King

Even today, in an age of soaring skyscrapers, the cathedral dome of Santa Maria del Fiore retains a rare power to astonish. Ross King brings its creation to life in a fifteenth-century chronicle with twenty-first-century resonance. It is the story of how Filippo Brunelleschi bent men, materials, and the very forces of nature to build this architectural wonder.

the finalists

Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech, David Diaz (Illustrator)

Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo

In a first novel recalling the fiction of Harper Lee and Carson McCullers, the narrator -- ten-year-old Opal -- describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen because of her big, ugly dog, Winn-Dixie.

the finalists

Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin (Illustrator)

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen, Mark Teague (Illustrator)

I Love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose A. Lewis, Jane Dyer (Illustrator)

Stranger in the Woods by Jean Stoick, Carl R. Sams, II (Illustrator)

Olivia
by Ian Falconer

Whether at home getting ready for the day, enjoying the beach, or at bedtime, Olivia is a feisty pig who has too much energy for her own good. Of course, it's another story for Olivia's exhausted mother.

In its second year, the BookSense Book of the Year award has expanded to encompass the four categories here.

Last Year's Book Sense Book of the Year Award Winners

Adult Trade:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Children's Book:
The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau, Gail de Marcken (Illustrator)

A wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Booksellers Association, BSI administers the Book Sense integrated marketing and branding campaign. Book Sense, comprised of 1200 bookstore locations in 50 states, seeks to build a national identity for independent bookstores while celebrating the unique character of each store; to create awareness of independent booksellers across the country; and to underscore the collective strength of independent booksellers to consumers.