Pop Culture Classroom Announces Finalists For The 2018 Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards

DENVER, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ Pop Culture Classroom, the educational non-profit behind Denver Comic Con, today announced the finalists for the 2018 Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards on an event live-streamed exclusively by KidLit TV at approximately 1 p.m. EDT.

The event is available for re-streaming on demand now from the KidLit TV website at the following URL: https://kidlit.tv/ExcellenceInGraphicLiteratureAwards2018.

Pop Culture Classroom created the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards to help grow awareness, legitimacy and respect for the comics medium, the graphic novel format and its creators, and drive growth for the graphic novel publishing category.

This is the inaugural year of the awards, with winners scheduled to be announced at Denver Comic Con in June.

"We are both thrilled and honored to officially unveil the finalists for 2018, our inaugural year of the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards," said Bruce MacIntosh, director of programming for Pop Culture Classroom. "We'd like to express our deepest thanks and congratulations to the nominees, our esteemed judging committees, our advisory board, and to all the creators, editors and publishers who submitted entries."

"Since our very first meeting to develop Denver Comic Con as a fun way to support our programs and spread the word about our educational non-profit, we have been planning an awards program to truly showcase the best in graphic novel publishing," continued MacIntosh. "We waited until the time was right to create a program that not only validates the comics medium and graphic novel format, but also provide educators, librarians and booksellers with a resource to identify the most effective books, and in turn drive sales and growth opportunities across the industry."

In Partnership with KidLit TV

Earlier this year, Pop Culture Classroom established a partnership with leading children's literature authority and content streaming website KidLit TV. The partnership grants KidLit TV the rights to stream announcements for the awards leading up to Denver Comic Con 2018.

The first of these streams occurred earlier today at approximately 1 p.m. EDT from the KidLit TV studios in New York City.

During the event, hosts Rocco Staino of KidLit TV and Carol Fitzgerald of The Book Report Network introduced the Judging Committee Chairs for each of the following award categories. The Committee Chairs each unveiled their finalist picks, reporting onsite from local book stores, comic shops, and libraries from across the U.S.

• 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

Finalists: 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)

Finalists: 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

Finalists: 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)

Finalists: 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)

Finalists: 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)

Finalists: 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)

About Pop Culture Classroom

Pop Culture Classroom is the educational non-profit organization behind Denver Comic Con. Founded in 2011, Pop Culture Classroom is on a mission to ignite a love of learning, increase literacy, celebrate diversity and build community through the tools of popular culture and the power of self-expression. Learn more at www.PopCultureClassroom.org.

About the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards

The Excellence in Graphics Literature program was begun by Pop Culture Classroom to help define and grow needed awareness for quality graphic literature, grow legitimacy and respect for the format, the comics medium and its creators, and drive growth for the graphic novel publishing category. Learn more at www.popcultureclassroom.org/egl.

About KidLit TV

KidLit TV (KLTV) is a winner of the Parents' Choice Gold Award, the Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy,and one of the American Library Association's Great Websites for Kids. KLTV is available in over 600,000 schools worldwide via our website and video distribution partners. We're a diverse group of parents, educators, librarians, kid lit creators, and award-winning filmmakers, working together tocreate fun new ways toreinforcean appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Learn and see more at KidLit.TV.

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