Annal:2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in the year 2008. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
- Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry
- Children's books
- Children's authors
- Young Adult books
- Young Adult authors.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: A Novel
- 2008 Horn Book-fiction winner
- 2007 NBA–Youth winner
- 2007 LATimes–Young Adult finalist
- Score: 26.58
In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author’s own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
- 2008 Horn Book-fiction honor
- Score: 6.58
For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a “savvy”-a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity…and now it’s the eve of Mibs’s big day.
As if waiting weren’t hard enough, the family gets scary news two days before Mibs’s birthday: Poppa has been in a terrible accident. Mibs develops the singular mission to get to the hospital and prove that her new power can save her dad. So she sneaks onto a salesman’s bus…only to find the bus heading in the opposite direction. Suddenly Mibs finds herself on an unforgettable odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up-and of other people, who might also have a few secrets hidden just beneath the skin.
- 2008 Horn Book-fiction honor
- Score: 6.58
When twelve-year-old Jamie Dexter’s brother joins the Army and is sent to Vietnam, Jamie is plum thrilled. She can’t wait to get letters from the front lines describing the excitement of real-life combat: the sound of helicopters, the smell of gunpowder, the exhilaration of being right in the thick of it. After all, they’ve both dreamed of following in the footsteps of their father, the Colonel.
But TJ’s first letter isn’t a letter at all. It’s a roll of undeveloped film, the first of many. What Jamie sees when she develops TJ’s photographs reveals a whole new side of the war. Slowly the shine begins to fade off of Army life—and the Colonel. How can someone she’s worshipped her entire life be just as helpless to save her brother as she is?
From the author of the Edgar Award-winning Dovey Coe comes a novel, both timely and timeless, about the sacrifices we make for what we believe and the people we love.
