The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Adriana Trigiani, Agincourt, American Library Association, Awards, Bernard Cornwell, Books, Boston, Clara Kramer, Clara's War, High Voltage Tattoo, Julia Quinn, Juliette Fay, Kat Von D, Libraries, Library Journal, Marvelyn Brown, Shelter Me, Show Me How, Street Art Book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The Naked Truth, Very Valentine, What Happens in London, William Kamkwamba

Awards Recap: ALA Midwinter 2010

Roughly 8,000 librarians attended the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference in Boston.

HarperCollins had a great show:   11 authors including one unforgettable performance by Adriana Trigiani who won the ALA’s Reading List Awards in the Women’s Fiction category for Very Valentine (now out in paperback!).  Watch this:

This video went out everywhere.  By the next day it was on every major library site including Library Journal’s and the American Library Association’s.

For you non-librarians, the Midwinter conference is where committees meet to determine winners of various book awards.  Harper snagged quite a few this time around.

The Reading List awards outstanding genre fiction in 8 categories. We had winners in 3 of those categories as well as a few runner ups:

Historical Fiction  – Winner
Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell

Romance – Winner
What Happens in London by Julia Quinn

Women’s Fiction – Winner
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani (see crazy video above)

Women’s Fiction Short List
The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil
Shelter Me by Juliette Fay

The Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers selection list suggests books that teens, ages 12-18, will pick up on their own and read for pleasure; it is geared to the teenager who, for whatever reason, does not like to read.  We picked up four of these:

Street Art Book: 60 Artists in Their Own Words by Ric Blackshaw and Liz Farrelly
The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive by Marvelyn Brown
Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know Instructions for Life from the Everyday to the Exotic by Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith
High Voltage Tattoo by Kat Von D.

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.  Two of the ten winning books are ours:
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson

2010 Sophie Brody Award recognizes outstanding Jewish literature
Clara’s War by Clara Kramer received an Honor Award

All winners are listed on ALA’s site: www.ala.org
Congrats to all!

-Virginia

Africa, Books, Current Affairs, Inspiration, Libraries, Life Lessons, Malawi, Memoir, Readers Advisory Book/Review Swap, TED Conference, Television, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The Daily Show, William Kamkwamba

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind on The Daily Show!

We’ve been talking about The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind for months – telling everyone who’d listen how inspiring and downright unbelievable this story is.  A boy from a village in Africa – too poor to attend school – is inspired by a librarian to read.  He picks up a book on windmills and figures out how to build one out of scraps found in a junkheap.  He generates electricity and changes the trajectory of his life and the lives of his community.  From Malawi to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  What a difference a windmill makes.  Here's a link to our previous posts.  Take a look…

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
William Kamkwamba
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

-Virginia

Africa, AIDS, Collection Development, Current Affairs, Inspiration, Libraries, Life Lessons, Malawi, Memoir, Readers Advisory Book/Review Swap, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

9780061730320

Librarians, we want to hear from you!  As you can see here, here, and here, we're wild about this book and we hope you will be, too.  Send an email to librarylovefest at harpercollins.com.  We'll send a copy of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind to you with our compliments.  The only thing ask for in return is a review of the book which we would then post on our blog. We know how busy everyone is these days so don't get hung up on the length of the review.  We just want to get the word out to readers about a book that has everyone buzzing in house.  Now we want the buzz to be outside the house! Thanks so much.

Now send us an email! (Please note, this particular offer is for librarians only.) Thanks!

Virginia Stanley
Director
Library Marketing
HarperCollinsPublishers
(212) 207-7592
virginia.stanley at harpercollins.com
www.librarylovefest.com

Africa, AIDS, Books, Collection Development, Inspiration, Libraries, Malawi, Memoir, Readers Advisory Book/Review Swap, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba

Readers Advisory Book/Review Swap

9780061730320 We send you a book and you send us your review.  Sometimes this offer will be open to the general readership and other times it will be open to librarians only.  Either way, we’ll keep your name on our list for future reviews! We’d like to kick this off with a book we’re extremely excited about. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba is a terrific book about a young boy in South Africa who discovers a book in the library and learns how to build a windmill and generates electricity.
We hope you enjoy this book as much as we do.  Check out Marketing Director Tavia Kowalchuk's guest blog on the book, as well as our original post.  Let us know if you’d like to review it on our blog by emailing your name, mailing address and library affiliation to librarylovefest@harpercollins.com. Again, this one’s for librarians only. Thanks!

-Virginia

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