Awards

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book celebrates outstanding books, authors, and literary achievement through four signature awards: The Baker’s Dozen: Thirteen Best Books for Family Literacy, The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, and Pennsylvania Great Reads from Great Places. Together, these programs recognize excellence in family literacy, children’s poetry, graphic novels, and books that reflect Pennsylvania’s rich literary heritage. By honoring exceptional literary works and connecting readers with engaging and meaningful stories, the Pennsylvania Center for the Book promotes lifelong reading, literacy, and a love of literature across the Commonwealth and beyond.

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My Seneca Village

By Marilyn Nelson

Published by Namelos, 2015

Young Readers

Pennsylvania Center for the Book Awards

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award 2016 Honor Book

Nelson has crafted a poetic ode to a forgotten community that comes alive through her words. Her spare meticulous verse is at times achingly beautiful & heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful and uplifting.

Marilyn Nelson's verse-driven revisiting a not-so-familiar subject of Seneca Village reminds us of poetry's ability to unearth treasures that might be lost in any other approach, of poetry's ability to pry open the present as well as preserving a past. As readers are introduced to a community they've never known they'll feel so much a part of the characters, they'll feel as though they had always been there.