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Penguin Young Readers' Lauren Myracle Wins Children’s Choice Book Award for Thirteen

Lauren Myracle, New York Times bestselling author of the popular tween books, Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen, won the CBC Children’s Choice Book Award in the Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade category for Thirteen (Dutton/Puffin). The Children’s Choice Book Awards were announced live at the awards gala held Tuesday, May 12th in New York as part of Children’s Book Week (May 11-17, 2009), the oldest national literacy event in the United States. Award winners were determined this year by over 220,000 online votes by kids across the country. The awards ceremony was hosted by Viking Children's author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka who presented the Impact Award to Whoopi Goldberg in recognition of her vast contribution to the promotion of literacy and the love of reading among young people. Other award recipients included Stephanie Meyer, Mo Willems, Dinah Williams and Jon J Muth. Lauren Myracle's new YA book, Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks (Dutton), is a novel about teen sisters growing up (and apart) in suburban Atlanta and goes on sale today. For more about Lauren Myracle, check out her website.

Watch the book trailer for Peace, Love and Baby Ducks.
 

Viking/ Penguin Author Sebastian Barry Takes Home Two Irish Book Awards

Viking/ Penguin author Sebastian Barry won both the Irish Novel of the Year and Tubridy Listeners' Choice Award for his book, The Secret Scripture, at the Irish Book Awards Ceremony last Wednesday. The award announcement came on the heels of Sebastian’s five-city tour, which included stops in NYC, Boston, Wahington, D.C., Miami, and The Cayman Islands.

For more information on the awards, click here.
 

Riverhead’s Aleksandar Hemon Receives Society of Midland Authors Fiction Award

Riverhead author and Chicago novelist Aleksandar Hemon accepted the fiction award on Tuesday at the Society of Midland Authors' annual awards banquet. He was among six winning authors and seven finalists honored for writing the Midwest's best books of 2008. Hemon, who previously won the Society's fiction award in 2002, took home the prize this year for his novel The Lazarus Project, which was just released in paperback by Riverhead Books last week. In his acceptance speech, Hemon said he recently noticed that a memorial plaque has been placed near the Lincoln Park home where Police Chief George Shippy once lived. Shippy shot and killed a young immigrant named Lazarus Averbuch at the home in 1908, sparking the mystery that inspired Hemon's novel.

Hemon’s latest title Love and Obstacles, out this week, has already received starred advance reviews from three of the trade publications. And more coverage is expected in O Magazine, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Details, The New York Times Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate.com, and Chicago Sun-Times with more to come.
 

Bad Money and Descent into Chaos shortlisted for CFR’s 2009 “Arthur Ross Book Award” 

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has announced the eighth annual Arthur Ross Book Award shortlist nominees for the best book published in the last two years on international affairs. Viking titles Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips and Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid have both been shortlisted for the award. The annual Arthur Ross Book Award recognizes nonfiction books that make an outstanding contribution to the understanding of foreign policy or international relations. The 2009 award consists of a $15,000 first prize, a $7,500 second prize, and a $2,500 honorable mention. The winners will be announced in late May and be honored at an event in June at CFR’s headquarters in New York.

For more information about the award, click here.
 

Berkley/NAL Receives Two SIBA Award Nominations

2009 marks the tenth anniversary of the Southern Independent Booksellers Association Awards (SIBA), and this year, Berkley/NAL has finalists in both the fiction and nonfiction categories.

Nominated in the fiction category is The House on Tradd Street by Karen White (NAL), the award-winning author of The Memory of Water. In Tradd Street, White combines her passion for Charleston with the air of mystery that surrounds the lowcountry. When an old man leaves practical real estate agent Melanie Middleton a historic Charleston home, she also inherits a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets.

Nominated for nonfiction is Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On: What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters That the Rest of Y’all Should Know Too by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson (Berkley). The host of popular radio show "All Things Southern," Tomlinson reveals many all-important lessons, including: how to age gracefully, how to keep a marriage fiery, and why blue eyeshadow is trashy.

Penguin Weekly Update, Literary Awards, Penguin Books