2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature

Presented annually since 1967, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards are customarily given in three categories: Fiction and Poetry, Picture Book, and Nonfiction. This year, as happens occasionally, the judges also awarded a Special Citation.

The 2008 winners are:
Nonfiction
The Wall by Peter Sís (Foster/Farrar)
Fiction and Poetry
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney (Little)

Picture Book
At Night by Jonathan Bean (Farrar)

Special Citation
The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Levine/Scholastic)

Among the most honored author-illustrators in the field, Peter Sís is a three-time recipient of a Caldecott Honor award (including one this year for The Wall) as well as the winner of a 2003 MacArthur Fellowship and a 1999 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Tibet: Through the Red Box.

Novelist Sherman Alexie is new to young adult literature but not to acclaim. A 1995 PEN/Hemingway Award recipient for his first collection of short stories for adults, he is also a poet, a film director, and a standup comic. Last fall, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Jonathan Bean is the newcomer of this trio. A 2005 graduate of Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts, he made his debut as an author-artist with At Night.
Shaun Tan, whose wordless graphic novel, The Arrival, was singled out by the judges for excellence in graphic storytelling, has an international following. Winner of the Best Picture Book of the Year Award in his native Australia and named Best Artist at the World Fantasy Awards in 2007, he also received a Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2007 citation from the New York Times.

For the full story and the two honor books link here.