WinnerMost Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam WarSteve SheinkinThis account connects the Vietnam War’s history with Daniel Ellsberg’s changing views of U.S. involvement. A veteran with experience at the Pentagon and the State Department in Vietnam, Ellsberg learns how much information has been withheld from the public. After gaining access to the Pentagon Papers, he copies the secret history of the war and seeks a way to make it public.NonfictionView book detailsBoston Globe–Horn Book Awards 2016
The 2016 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards recognize nine books across nonfiction, fiction, and picture books. Steve Sheinkin's Most Dangerous receives the nonfiction award, Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree wins for fiction, and Jazz Day by Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Francis Vallejo, takes the picture book award. Six Honor Books complete the year's selections, with two in each category.
2016 Boston Globe–Horn Book AwardsSee the original list
Selections9
Published byThe Horn Book
Sections3 sections
Browse sections3 sections
Nonfiction
3 selections
WinnerMost Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam WarSteve SheinkinThis account connects the Vietnam War’s history with Daniel Ellsberg’s changing views of U.S. involvement. A veteran with experience at the Pentagon and the State Department in Vietnam, Ellsberg learns how much information has been withheld from the public. After gaining access to the Pentagon Papers, he copies the secret history of the war and seeks a way to make it public.NonfictionView book details
HonorSymphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of LeningradM.T. AndersonThis nonfiction account centers on the Siege of Leningrad and on Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony. It places the story in September 1941, when Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht encircled Leningrad. The book examines Shostakovich’s role alongside that of his symphony in the context of the siege, connecting a composer and a major work of music to wartime events in the city.NonfictionView book details
HonorVoice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights MovementCarole Boston WeatherfordThis nonfiction book tells Fannie Lou Hamer’s life in poems, using a first-person voice. It traces her path from working in Mississippi cotton fields as a child in a sharecropping family to becoming a civil rights activist and politician. The poems address her efforts to secure voting rights and political representation for African Americans in Mississippi and across the United States. Direct quotations from Hamer appear within the poems, and the book also includes an author’s note, a timeline, and source notes.NonfictionView book detailsFiction
3 selections
WinnerThe Lie TreeFrances HardingeFaith Sunderly appears to be a proper, dependable young woman who accepts her inferior place in a male-dominated world. Privately, she is driven by questions, curiosity, and secrets. Her family moves to the island of Vane after her scientist father faces a damaging scandal. When he is found dead soon afterward, Faith believes he was murdered. As she investigates, she encounters both deception and magic while trying to uncover what happened to him.FictionLexile Text Measure 860LATOS Book Level 6.4View book details
HonorThe Hired GirlLaura Amy SchlitzSet during the summer of 1911, this diary-based novel follows fourteen-year-old Joan as she seeks a better life. Working as a hired girl in Baltimore, she cleans and cooks for six dollars a week after growing up on a farm. Her entries record the hope she places in new surroundings and unfamiliar experiences, along with moments of adventure and self-discovery. Joan’s journey centers on imagining a future beyond the limits she has known.FictionView book details
HonorGoodbye StrangerRebecca SteadBridge, Emily, and Tab are close friends facing changes during seventh grade. Emily’s relationship with an older boy leads to a photo she sends being shared widely, exposing a sexist double standard that Tab challenges. Bridge still has nightmares connected to an earlier car accident and meets Sherm, who remembers it. Other storylines follow Bridge’s brother and Sherm’s strained relationship with his grandfather. Their connected experiences explore friendship, family, love, and the complications of growing up.FictionLexile Text Measure 560LATOS Book Level 3.9View book detailsPicture Book
3 selections
WinnerJazz Day: The Making of a Famous PhotographRoxane OrgillIn 1958, Esquire magazine planned an issue celebrating American jazz. Graphic designer Art Kane proposed gathering jazz musicians for a photograph outside a Harlem brownstone, despite not knowing whether anyone would appear and lacking a good camera. This book uses verse and artwork to tell the story of that photo session, bringing together the planning and uncertainty behind a well-known moment in jazz history. It centers the musicians, Harlem, and the making of the group portrait.Picture BookView book details
HonorThunder Boy Jr.Sherman AlexieThunder Boy Smith Jr. wants a name that belongs to him rather than one shared with his father, Thunder Boy Smith. Called Little Thunder, he imagines names based on his abilities, interests, powwow dancing, and dreams of traveling the world. He loves his father but wants to be himself. His father understands and announces a new name for him: Lightning. The book is based on the author’s stated Spokane heritage.Picture BookLexile Text Measure AD420LATOS Book Level 2.5View book details
HonorOne Day, the End: Short, Very Short, Shorter-Than-Ever StoriesRebecca Kai Dotlich, illustrated by Fred KoehlerNine very short stories begin with “One day” and conclude with “The end,” while nearly all of their narration appears in the illustrations. The pictures carry the plot, asking readers to follow visual details to understand what happens. One story concerns a girl with a busy imagination on the way to school, where a series of mishaps leads to an unexpectedly happy outcome. Across the collection, the repeated wording frames a range of wordless visual narratives.Picture BookView book details