Authors who won the Indies Choice Book Awards yesterday celebrated independent booksellers at the ABA's Celebration of Bookselling luncheon:
"One of the best riches is how children respond to the book. They're not just reading, but finding out about the African Serengeti, for example."--Jerry Pinkney, author of The Lion & the Mouse, winner of the best new picture book award.
"Thank you so much for your personality, perseverance and passion."--Marla Frazee, illustrator of All the World, a new picture book honoree.
"Bookstores are my synagogues and temples, places of huge happiness."--Judith Viorst, author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, one of the three new members of the picture book hall of fame. She also spoke of her youngest son, Alexander, now in his 40s, "with a wonderful wife and three children," who no longer has terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.
"I'm a huge fan of independent bookstores. Once I compared you to Iggy Pop--more alive, badder, still around despite everything."--Libba Bray, author of Going Bovine, a young adult honor book.
"You know where your light switches are. Thank you for the darkness and for bringing light every day."--Scott Westerfield, author of Leviathan, a young adult honor book, after noting that when he was on a book tour and needed to have lights dimmed for a presentation, chain store staff seemed to have problems turning down the lights.
"When Speak came out 10 years ago, I thought I knew how important you were, but then I really learned."--Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Wintergirls, a young adult honor book. (Although for many of us, she's better known as "Stephanie's mom.") Anderson also mentioned her favorite local store, River's End Bookstore, Oswego, N.Y., "which has lifted up the town."
"The wind at my back is IndieBound."--Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay, a young adult honor book.
"The premises of my books require a different sort of handselling because they're unpleasant."--Suzanne Collins, author of Catching Fire, winner of the young adult book of the year.
"Thanks to Haines & Essick bookstore, Decatur, Ill., for letting me read."--Richard Peck, author of A Season of Gifts, a middle reader honor book, recalling difficulties he had as a child finding challenging books.
"Thanks to you I get to go home on Friday and work on Al Capone 3."--Gennifer Choldenko, author of Al Capone Shines My Shoes, a middle reader honor book.
"My mom loved to go to [Womanbooks in New York City] and have her consciousness raised by the women behind the counter while I read feminist literature for children, such as Harriet the Spy, which changed me significantly."--Rebecca Stead, author of When You Reach Me, middle reader book of the year.
"Something that's harder than finding an ancient lost city is getting people interested in a book by a first-time author.... Thank you for believing in The Lost City of Z and for believing in the power of books."--David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z, the adult nonfiction book of the year.
"Tinkers was handsold from the very beginning."--Paul Harding, author of Tinkers, an adult debut honor book. He thanked his editor and booksellers, including Michele Filgate of RiverRun Bookstore, Portsmouth, N.H.
"What an incredible day. What an incredible year.... It was a slow start with 60-plus rejections--just from agents. I was prepared for no success at all.... Visiting independent bookstores across America--what an experience!"--Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, adult debut book of the year.
"Booksellers can change lives, and they did."--Kate DiCamillo, most engaging author, recalling a bookseller who, when she was eight and adored Abraham Lincoln, handsold her mother a Lincoln biography and, for no apparent reason, The Cricket in Times Square, both of which she loved.
"This is a riddle that doctors use but it applies to you, too. Question: What treatment in an emergency is administered by ear? Answer: Words of comfort."--Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone, adult fiction book of the year. He also thanked the staff at Prairie Lights, Iowa City, Iowa, whom he befriended while at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, for being "my instructors" about writing and "putting many books in my hands."
"This is the last BEA event this year I cover by offering mainly direct quotations from the speakers."--John Mutter