The shortlist for the 2017 Pacific Northwest Book Awards, sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, has been selected and can be seen here. Winners will be announced in January.
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Michael Morpurgo received the J.M. Barrie Award, which "is given every year by Action for Children's Arts to a 'children's arts practitioner' whose lifetime's work has delighted children and will stand the test of time," the Bookseller reported. He is the author of more than 140 books, served as children's laureate between 2003 and 2005, and was given an OBE in 2006.
Describing this year's honoree as "one of our greatest storytellers," ACA chair David Wood said: "Michael Morpurgo has thrilled and delighted huge numbers of young readers since becoming a children's author in the early 1970s.... His work will undoubtedly, like Peter Pan, stand the test of time, making him a truly worthy recipient of this award."
Morpurgo commented: "Storymakers and storytellers like Barrie, and like all the previous winners of this award, have given us the hope and faith children need, we need, to keep flying, have sustained us through dark and troubled times, have banished doubt. To touch the lives of children, to witness their listening and reading silence, is reward enough in itself. This is simply the icing on the cake."