Why, Yes There Are! (many thanks to our readers)

Well, I was wrong. The Chinese American Librarians Association awards a Best Book Award every year in the categories of Adult and Young Readers. I'm looking into this and will post more information as I find it.

There is also an award sponsored by the Asian/Pacific American Libraries Association (APALA) called the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, or APAAL. According to their press information, this award is to honor and recognize individual work about Asia/Pacific Americans and their heritages based on literary merit and artistic merit. The books are chosen among those by or about Asian Pacific Americans.

This is great news, and I've gotten our submissions for the 2007 award out to them today. If you're curious, here were last year's winners in their three categories:

Adult Title:

Aloft by Chang-rae Lee

Young Readers Text only:

Kira Kira by Cynthia Kahodata

Young Readers Illustration only:

Firekeeper’s Son by Linda Sue Park and Julie Downing (Illustrator)

For the entire list of winners and honor books, click here.

Thanks to Grace Lin for the information.

Tags: book+awards asian+pacific+americans