It’s April 1 – traditionally a day for pranks and teases–but the announcement this morning of this year’s winners of the Kiriyama Prize is no joke to people who love to read. For over a decade, this prize has been given to books that promote understanding of and empathy for the people who live in South Asia and the Pacific Rim– one fiction title and one nonfiction. The prize this year has been given to The Fragile Edge by Julia Whitty and Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones.

Both of these books are ones that will appeal to book-loving teenagers and may well tempt adolescent reluctant readers as well. Julia Whitty’s wonderful introduction to the world of the ocean is from the perspective of a deep sea diver, and is high adventure as well as an environmental wake-up call. War-wrenched Papua New Guinea is the setting for Mr. Pip, where a young girl’s life is changed when a man begins to read aloud Great Expectations to the children of her village.

In addition to choosing the two books that win the Kiriyama Prize each year, judges also select a group of books that they feel are particularly notable. These books are listed on the Kiriyama website and this year has a separate category for children’s titles. These lists are a great resource for teachers, librarians, parents, and anybody who is looking for something good to read. Take a peek!

Posted by: Janet | This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Reading the World, The Tiger’s Bookshelf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Tags: Julia Whitty, Kiriyama Prize, Lloyd Jones, Mr. Pip, reluctant readers, The Fragile Edge, Young Adult Books