Congratulations, SCIBA Book Award Winners
Selected by SCIBA independent booksellers, here are our SCIBA Book Award Winners. Reflecting the diversity of the Southland, the SCIBA Book Awards celebrate the eloquent literary voices who define what it means to be a Southern Californian. To be eligible for consideration, the author and/or illustrator must reside within the SCIBA geographic region which extends from the Central Coast to the Mexican border.
Fiction Winner
Peony in Love by Lisa See
Set in 17th-century China, See's fifth novel is a coming-of-age story, a ghost story, a family saga and a work of musical and social history. As Peony, the 15-year-old daughter of the wealthy Chen family, approaches an arranged marriage, she commits an unthinkable breach of etiquette when she accidentally comes upon a man who has entered the family garden. Unusually for a girl of her time, Peony has been educated and revels in studying The Peony Pavilion, a real opera published in 1598, as the repercussions of the meeting unfold. The novel's plot mirrors that of the opera, and eternal themes abound: an intelligent girl chafing against the restrictions of expected behavior; fiction's educative powers; the rocky path of love between lovers and in families.
Non-Fiction Winner
An Alphabetical Life by Wendy Werris
Werris grew up in Los Angeles while her often-absent comedy-writer father, Snag Werris, sustained a 20-year association with Jackie Gleason. During the summer of 1970, Wendy, age 19, strolled into Pickwick Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard, a renowned venue that attracted street people as well as celebrities, intending to buy a Charles Bukowski collection, and walked out not only with the book but also with the job that would set her life's course. Werris now tells the story of her peripatetic and gutsy book-selling career in a matter-of-fact memoir that eulogizes expert and eccentric independent booksellers of yesteryear and chronicles the rise of the discount chains. Werris also adds a chapter to the story of women in the workforce as she remembers her demanding years on the road as a publisher's rep when few women traveled sales circuits solo.
Mystery Winner
L.A. Noir by Denise Hamilton
In 2004, New York-based Akashic Books launched an audacious noir series with each anthology comprised of new fiction set in one locale. With Brooklyn, Miami, London, San Francisco and others by the wayside, now comes Los Angeles Noir, which makes the mean streets of L.A. a little meaner not to mention a lot more diverse than they were portrayed during the era of J. Edgar Hoover, well-worn fedoras, and three-martini lunches at the Brown Derby. These short stories from 17 writers we all love (Connelly, Fitch, Rice, Hamilton, Tobar, Hirahara, Wagman, etc.) are cinematic, violent little gems of contemporary crime fiction that are a must-read for any true fan of noir.
Children’s Novel Winner
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Here’s a true masterpiece - an artful blending of narrative, illustration and cinematic technique, for a story as tantalizing as it is touching. Twelve-year-old orphan Hugo lives in the walls of a Paris train station at the turn of the 20th century, where he tends to the clocks and filches what he needs to survive. Hugo’s recently deceased father, a clockmaker, worked in a museum where he discovered an automaton: a human-like figure seated at a desk, pen in hand, as if ready to deliver a message. After his father showed Hugo the robot, the boy became just as obsessed with getting the automaton to function as his father had been. Throw in some excellent chase scenes and you’ve got a riveting page-turner you can’t put down.
Children’s Picture Book Winner
Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
Fancy Nancy Clancy, the charming child who likes beads, baubles and big words, returns for another fanciful adventure that will please her adoring audience. As in the first entry in the series, Nancy dresses to the nines, uses sophisticated vocabulary and tries valiantly to elevate her family's tastes from practical to fantastic. In this sequel, the Clancy family is planning to buy a puppy, and Nancy wants a French papillon like Jewel, the pampered pooch owned by their next-door neighbor. When Nancy and her family arrange to dogsit for Jewel, they realize that such a tiny, delicate breed doesn't fit their lifestyle after all. Enter Frenchy from the pound who doesn’t mind getting all frou-frou and frilly. A very fun read-aloud!
