What's best to read

Book awards, bestsellers, and book clubs

We at ByWay Books hope to help you make your next book purchase a great one. Book covers with shiny gold and silver medallions announce that one book is a Pulitzer Prize Winner and another received the John Newbery Medal. Other book covers proclaim to be a choice of Oprah’s Book Club, a Reese’s Book Club Pick, or a New York Times Bestseller.  What does it all mean? Do you want to read a book because Oprah liked it? Do you wonder if you’d like a New York Times bestseller more than one recommended by your local librarian? We want to help you make sense of all these awards and accolades and help you find the books you will love, books that will increase your love of reading and, most important, books you’ll be glad you bought. 

 

There are two main categories of book awards: those for children and those for adults. Within these main categories are numerous subcategories including books by genre, prestigious literary awards, and book club recommendations. We’ll start this series with adult awards, to be followed by a review of children’s awards.

 

 

Adult literary awards and endorsements

The Pulitzer Prize is generally accepted as a mark of excellence. There are seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction now includes short stories, novellas, novellettes, and poetry. Other Pulitzer Prizes for writing include non-fiction such as history, biography/memoir, drama, and journalism.

 

Another notable award is Booker Prize. The aim of the Booker Prize is to stimulate the reading and discussion of contemporary fiction. This award recognizes long-form fiction written in English. Likewise, there is the International Booker Prize that recognizes a work of fiction from any non-English speaking country which contains translation to English. Recently awarded the Booker Prize in 2023 was The Prophet Song by Irish writer Paul Lynch. The International Booker Prize in 2023 was awarded to Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel for Time Shelter.

 

One more distinctive award is the Kirkus Prize. The Kirkus Review is a literary publication which examines books in three categories: Fiction, Nonfiction and Young Readers’ Literature. The Kirkus Review evaluates books based on their literary and artistic merit. Kirkus Reviews occur prepublication and offer the author and publisher marketing material with a good review. The review team are a professional mix from the book industry that includes librarians, booksellers and nationally published journalists. In 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride won the Kirkus Prize for Fiction.

 

An interesting award is the National Book Award granted through the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is “to celebrate the best literature published in the United States, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in our culture.” Their mission is reflected in the panel of reviewers which includes a blend of authors, educators, librarians, booksellers, and literary arts professionals. Awards are given in five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, Young People’s Literature. Justin Torres, author of Blackouts won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction.

 

However, the Nobel Prize in Literature, presented by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden is the most prestigious. According to the will of Alfred Nobel, the award goes to those who, “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” The Nobel Committee for Literature is invited to participate through a formal letter process and members are elected for three years by the Academy. The award for Literature goes to the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction. In 2023 Norwegian author Jon Fosse was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”

 

 

 

Children’s literary awards and endorsements

Let’s begin with our childhood classics such as Island of the Blue Dolphins, Sounder and A Wrinkle in Time, Out of the Dust. These books earned the Newbery Medal award. The Newbery Medal is an award given to American authors of children’s literature by the Association for Library Service to Children. The award signifies a literary contribution to American Literature for children based on the text. Other notable titles we may have thought earned this award, but were actually runner-ups were Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Charlotte’s Web, Frog and Toad Together, and Because of Winn Dixie.

 

Another well known children’s book award is the Caldecott. The Caldecott is annually awarded to the artist of an American picture book by the Association for Library Service to Children. This award recognizes the illustrator’s depiction of the storyline by providing the children with a visual experience of the story. Several Caldecott award winners we know were Make Way For Ducklings, The Snowy Day, The Polar Express and Officer Buckle and Gloria.

 

Other notable picture books were Madeline, Stone Soup, Little Bear’s Visit and Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. One of my favorite runner-ups is Freight Train by Donald Crews which I often read to my son. He loved it as much as I did. With few words and very colorful images, it opens up a lot of engagement.

 

In my opinion these award-winning books recognized by the Association for Library Service to Children really do merit their awards. These books jump start our children’s love of text and art. A child’s imagination is stirred and the illustrated books gives a child the chance to build and expand their vocabulary and create connections.