And The Award Goes To...

This year I was honored to be included as a judge for the Massachusetts Book Awards, nonfiction category, for the first time. The Executive Director of the Massachusetts Center for the Book, Sharon Shaloo, sent out an email last fall asking for volunteers to judge the fiction, nonfiction, poetry and childrens lit/young adult submissions to be announced at this year's Massachusetts Library Association conference the end of April. Being an avid reader, I jumped at the chance. And you could keep the books - how great is that?!

A few weeks into January the first box arrived. I was so excited, like Christmas had arrived all over again. Then the second. Still excited, but doing a mental count. Then the third. Uh-oh.

As I lugged them into my car, I devised my strategy...first, go through the pile and find any that might be disqualified. Sharon and her staff had done a great job filtering, so that left about 95% of the potential awardees. (sigh) The awards were being given in April, so that left 12 weeks, divided by the number left...OK, I could do this! Would take a bit of speed reading, but I forgot we had to come up with a short list by the end of March. OK, I could still do this. But we should come up with it mid-March in order to agree amongst ourselves what should be on that short list, and if there was a stand out we could all agree upon. Uh-oh.

I read like I'd never read before...even in college, cramming for finals. I read during every meal. I read while talking on the phone...ok, listening on the phone, I don't think I said much that was intelligible. At stop lights, in the doctor's office, at Fantastic Sam's, I always had a book in hand. And in the end, days away from the deadline, we had our list. And our winner!

Most of the books joined our library collection or went into the book sale, although I did snag the Louisa May Alcott for myself (we already had that one). And I was impressed overall with the quality of the works submitted, as well as the professionalism of my fellow judges. Would I do it again? Definitely. I'll just need to stock up on eyedrops.