Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland’s ‘Spill Zone’ Wins EGL Book of the Year Award

Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland’s Spill Zone, Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham’s Real Friends, and Melanie Gillman’s As the Crow Flies were among the winning graphic novels in this inaugural Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards, which were presented Saturday evening at Denver Comic Con.

The awards were created and administered by Pop Culture Classroom, the educational non-profit behind Denver Comic Con.

Here’s the full list of awards, in order of presentation:

• Best in Children’s Books: Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (First Second)
• Best in Middle-Grade Books: As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman (Iron Circus Comics)
• Best in Young-Adult Books: Home Time: Book One by Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf)
• Best in Adult Books: The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson and Landis Blair (First Second)
• Mosaic Award: The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Abrams Comic Arts)
• Book of the Year: Spill Zone by Scott Westerfield and Alex Puvilland (First Second)

The Mosaic Award “celebrates stories that come from our diverse communities, ethnicities, nationalities, faiths, and orientation,” according to Pop Culture Classroom.

Darryl McDaniels, aka DMC of Run DMC, presented the Mosaic award, and Len Vlahos, co-owner of the Tattered Cover bookstore, presented the Book of the Year award.

The Book of the Year and the Mosaic winners received Saga sculptures, and the winners in the other categories received Saga Medallions. The sculptures and medallions were created by Colin Pooleand Kristine Poole.

The chairs for the award juries were:

• Best in Children’s Books — Committee Chair: Betsy Bird
• Best in Middle Grade Books — Committee Chair: Dr. Katie Monnin
• Best in Young Adult Books — Committee Chair: Mike Pawuk
• Best in Adult Books — Committee Chair: Alicia Holston
• Mosaic Award — Committee Chair: Alicia Holston
• Book of the Year — Committee Chair: Betsy Bird

Here is the full list of nominees:

Best in Children’s Books

Fiction

• Bolivar by Sean Rubin (BOOM! Studios)
• Good Night, Planet by Liniers (TOON Books)
• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (First Second)
• The Big Bad Fox by Benjamin Renner (Macmillan)
• Where’s Halmoni? By Julie Kim (Little Bigfoot)

Nonfiction

• Bats: Learning to Fly by Falynn (Koch First Second)

Best in Middle-Grade Books

Fiction

• As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman (Iron Circus Comics)
• Cici’s Journal by Joris Chamblain and Aurelie Neyret (First Second)
• Dawn and the Impossible Three by Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan (Scholastic Graphix)
• Solution Squad by Jim McClain (Solution Squad Publishing)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag (Scholastic Graphix)
• Brave by Svetlana Chmakova (YEN Press)**

** Honorable Mention

Best in Young Adult Books

Fiction

• Home Time: Book One by Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf)
• I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina, Stacey Robinson, and John Jennings (TU Books/Lee & Low)
• Quince by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner, and Emma Steinkellner (Fanbase Press)
• Spill Zone by Scott Westerfield and Alex Puvilland (First Second)
• The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne and Veronica Fish (Supergenius/Papercutz)

 Nonfiction

• Fire! The Zora Neale Hurston Story by Peter Bagge (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green (Lion Forge)
• Poppies of Iraq by Brigitte Finakly and Lewis Trondheim (Drawn & Quarterly)
• The Senses by Matteo Farinella (Nobrow Press)
• Spinning by Tillie Walden (First Second)

Best in Adult Books

Fiction

• Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata (Gallery 13)
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Park Bench by Christophe Chaboute (Gallery 13)
• Roughneck by Jeff Lemiere (Gallery 13)
• The Sound of the World by Heart by Giacomo Bevilacqua (Lion Forge)

Nonfiction

• Calamity Jane: The Calamitous Life of Martha Jane Cannary by Christian Perrissin and Mattheiu Blanchin (IDW Publishing)
• Hostage by Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 (Penn State University Press)
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Abrams Comic Arts)
• The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson and Landis Blair (First Second)

Mosaic Award

• As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman (Iron Circus Comics)
• Good Night, Planet by Liniers (TOON-Books) Spanish and English lang. versions
• Monstress Vol. 2 by Marjorie Liu and (Image)
• Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata (Gallery 13)
• Quince by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner and Emma Steinkellner (Fanbase Press)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Abrams Comic Arts)
• Where’s Halmoni? By Julie Kim (Little Bigfoot)

Book of the Year

• Bats: Learning to Fly by Falynn Koch (First Second)
• Cici’s Journal by Joris Chamblain and Aurelie Neyret (First Second)
• Home Time: Book One by Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf)
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (First Second)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• Spill Zone by Scott Westerfield and Alex Puvilland (First Second)
• The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson and Landis Blair (First Second)

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