The Great Lakes Book Awards
Established in 1995 by the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, The Great Lakes Book Awards annually honor books that capture the spirit and enhance awareness of the Great Lakes region.

2003

Children's

Winner:  Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings, by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Terry Widener
Finalists:
  • A Pitch in Time, by Robert A. Lytle
  • Gina Jamie Father Bear, by George Ella Lyon
  • Jam & Jelly by Holly & Nellie, by Gloria Whelan, illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen
  • Legend of Leelanau, by Kathy-jo Wargin, illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen
  • Look About You, by Erin Anderson, illustrated by Mary Fuscaldo
Fiction
Winner:  Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
Finalists:
  • Blue Wolf in Green Fire, by Joseph Heywood
  • Dying Embers, by Robert Bailey
  • Ohio Salt, by Frank Dupuy
  • Q Road, by Bonnie Jo Campbell
  • Rainbow's End, by Bob Adamov
  • Roofwalker, by Susan Power
  • Signs and Wonders, by Philip Gulley
General
Winner:   To Conquer the Air, by James Tobin
Finalists:
  • The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
  • Indian Summer, by Brian McDonald
  • Living Great Lakes, by Jerry Dennis
  • Voelker's Pond, by James McCullough, photographs by Ed Wargin
  • Walk on Water, by Michael Ruhlman
  • Wheels for the World, by Douglas Brinkley

2002

Children's
Winner:  Fair Weather by Richard Peck
Honor Book:  The Shoe Tree of Chagrin by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Chris Sheban
Finalists:

  • ChaseR: A Novel in E-mails, by Michael Rosen
  • Crossing the Panther’s Path, by Elizabeth Alder
  • Humble Life: Plain Poems, by Linda Oatman High, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth
  • Steamboat Annie and the Thousand-Pound Catfish, by Catherine Wright, illustrated by Howard Fine
Fiction
Winner:  The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer
Finalists:
  • Blue Guide to Indiana, by Michael Martone
  • Cold, by  John Smolens
  • The Jazz Bird, by Craig Holden
  • The Life Before Her Eyes, by Laura Kasischke
  • Root Worker, by Rainelle Burton
General
Winner:  Lake Effect by Rich Cohen
Finalists:
  • Black Eden: The Idlewild Community, by Lewis Walker and Ben C. Wilson
  • Detroit Across Three Centuries, by Richard Bak
  • Epicurean Simplicity, by Stephanie Mills
  • Everybody Pays, by Maurice Possley
  • The Final Season, by Tom Stanton
  • The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked, by David Benjamin
  • A Lynching in the Heartland, by James H. Madison
  • Vintage Views of Leelanau, by M. Christine Byron & Thomas R. Wilson

2001

Children’s: The Journey, by Sarah Stewart, illus. David Small
Fiction: Hatbox Baby, by Carrie Brown
General: Taken for a Ride: How Daimler-Benz Drove Off With Chrysler, by Bill Vlasic & Bradley Stertz


2000

Children’s: Barn Burner, by Patricia Willis
Fiction: Midnight Champagne, by A. Manette Ansay
General: Bodies in Motion and at Rest, by Thomas Lynch


1999

Children’s: Legend of Mackinac Island, by Kathy-Jo Wargin & Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen
Fiction: Four Corners of Nights, by Craig Holden
Nonfiction: The Other Side of the River, by Alex Kotlowitz
General: Places of Grace, by Gary Irving & Michal Strutin


1998

Children’s: The Broken Blade, by William Durbin
Fiction: Dewey Defeats Truman, by Thomas Mellan
General: The Haygoods of Columbus, by Wil Haygood


1997

Children’s: Big Annie of Calumet: A True Story of the Industrial Revolution, by Jerry Stanley
Fiction: Read This and Tell Me What it Says, by A. Manette Ansay
General: City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America, by Donald L. Miller


1996

Children’s: Once on this Island, by Gloria Whelan
General: Writing from the Center, by Scott Russell Sanders
History & Culture: Superior: Journeys on an Inland Sea, by Gary & Joanie McGuffin



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