2023 NAIWE Informational Nonfiction Book Winner

 

Unemployable: How I Hired Myself

Author: Alysia Silberg

People grow into one of two mindsets. One group of people are really good at what they do, and they are also good at following directions. Therefore, they are good at being employees. There is another group of people who have a set of skills and are also good at seeing opportunities. They are independent minded, marching to their own beat.

In Unemployable: How I Hired Myself, the author Alysia Silberg describes her upbringing in the poor and crime-ridden side of Johannesburg, South Africa. However, her father, a former Hollywood makeup artist, brought light into her world through his pharmacy and costume store. He would tell her that she was a gifted seller, that she had a “divine sparkle.”

Even beginning at the young age of five, Alysia Silberg could spot an opportunity. Desiring to purchase a pair of roller skates, she decided to highlight a product her father had in his store and sell it on the sidewalk in front of the shop to earn enough money for the skates. She accomplished this goal, and after purchasing the skates she realized that it wasn’t actually the skates she had wanted. She had had a goal, one that seemed unattainable, and she found an opportunity to help her reach the goal.

At the age of nine, she spotted another opportunity and tried to convince her parents to buy a piece of land between two major cities. Her parents laughed, probably in part because it was an unattainable goal with their poor living situation, but she was so convinced of this opportunity that she went to the bank, seeking a loan. Though she did not get the loan to buy the land, she had been correct, and the piece of property became “one of the most valuable stretches of property in all of South Africa.”

As Alysia Silberg grow up, she continues to struggle with the limited opportunities she is afforded, but that doesn’t stop her. She is always open to seeing opportunities and beginning new business adventures. This outlook on life led her to starting her first business at age 11, and this outlook has continued as she has gone through life and spotted bigger and better opportunities.

This book presents a positive outlook to show that it doesn’t matter where one come from, that it is the person’s mindset and the outlook on life that will take someone on an incredible journey. The challenges and the heartaches don’t matter as well, perhaps they even help to mold the person in their natural bent. This is an inspiring and delightful book that helps to encourage one going through the struggles of an entrepreneurial life. Perseverance and love of the American Dream can be desired no matter where one lives.

Congratulations, Alysia Silberg’s Unemployable: How I Hired Myself for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

2023 NAIWE Young Adult Book Winner

 

Find Me in the Time Before

Author: Robin Stevens Payes

In Find Me in the Time Before, the author Robin Stevens Payes has succeeded in the challenge of writing in the language used by teenagers as well as in first person and in present tense—and also finding ways to weave in history lessons!

Being that this is book 4 in the series, the reader may not have read the prior three books, but enough information is shared through the storyline to keep the reader from being lost. Also, the references to previous adventures will intrigue readers to enjoy all of Charley’s time travel books.

Payes keeps the plot in her book very close to real life. Charley wants to experience high school life by attending home coming, while Billy would rather be taking college courses, though his parents won’t let him. Charley and Billy are both highly intelligent students, leading them to have some difficulties in school with their peers, teachers, and parents, as well as even more adventures.

Through their time travel, Charley and Billy visit famous happenings of the past. Payes uses an entertaining plot to bring history to life to educate youth on some important events. To enhance the history, Payes uses images throughout her novel. She includes photos of statues, locations, and famous people that are visited or discussed by Charley and Billy. These photographs allow the reader to better understand what or who Charley and Billy are discussing and seeing.

Because Charley and Billy are highly intelligent, sometimes when they speak about time travel the story can become hard to follow, but the passages are never long, and they reinforce the intelligence of the characters.

Even at 400+ pages, this is a quick and entertaining read, in part because Charley speaks as a typical teenager in fragments and with a lot of hashtags and abbreviations. This informative read would be a nice supplemental book to accompany a student’s history lesson. It is representative of the joy of loving learning—being entertained while learning!

Congratulations, Robin Stevens Payes’s Find Me in the Time Before for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

2023 NAIWE Genre Book Winner

 

Stolen Diary

Author: Kathryn Lane

The author Kathryn Lane has a strong grasp of the English language and a vast knowledge of the life and culture of those living in Mexico. In Stolen Diary, the author periodically includes Spanish words and phrases to remind the reader that the characters are speaking Spanish to one another. To keep the reader from becoming confused by the Spanish language, Kathryn Lane includes a glossary in the beginning of the book with all of the Spanish phrases that will be included.

Kathryn Lane does an excellent job of introducing the characters to the reader. She descriptively describes them and skillfully places them into the storyline. Since this novel has many characters, Kathryn Lane also includes a list of characters at the beginning of the novel.

Kathryn Lane is an accomplished writer who draws upon her own life experiences and then builds upon those to develop exciting and intriguing stories. This book makes the reader aware that every family has secrets and what can happen because of those secrets.

Even with over 250 pages, many readers will not put this novel down without first reading it from cover to cover.

Congratulations, Kathryn Lane’s Stolen Diary for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

2023 NAIWE Poetry Book Winner

 

Changing Tides: Poetry of Love, Loss and New Life

Author: Katy Hoover

Life includes love, loss, and new life, but it seems unnatural every time a parent outlives a child. In Changing Tides, a collection of poems shares how one mother can feel love, loss, and joy all at the same time. Through the processing of her grief, Katy Hoover has discovered how these emotions can be connected while not allowing one emotion to overtake another. She learns how some choices and some relationships mean more to her now than they once did.

 

You lost a child

I did not know

I said, “so heartbreaking”

And went on to happier things

Now I know

I look to you

to see that I too, can survive

Grief has a way of sneaking up on the living, and Katy Hoover relays just how it has done so during holidays, at a particular location, or while driving down a road. However, as time has passed, the author has learned to control the grief and allow herself to feel joy in the moment.

In a second

I decided

Not to feed the grief

For today

I will feel it

Not share it

Not be overwhelmed by it

The prologue, titled “Journey,” introduces the voyage of the loss of the author’s son, but as one reads the poems, the reader goes on this ride with Katy Hoover as she works through the grief, learns about her son’s unborn child, and helps his other children to not forget their father.

We would be a family

A few weeks later

Kody’s widow sent an ultrasound image

Of their precious unborn daughter

Zoey

As I looked at this miracle of life

I experienced pure joy

In that moment I knew that I had a choice

To mentally review all the reasons

That made her life bittersweet

Or to choose…..Joy

This collection of poems is a beautiful, comforting compilation to help others process their grief. Many of the poems can be read over and over again and bring a bittersweet hug from one person to another, to help one not feel quite so alone.

Congratulations, Katy Hoover’s Changing Tides: Poetry of Love, Loss and New Life for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

2023 NAIWE Narrative Nonfiction Book Winner

 

To Where You Are

Author: Jason Fisher

When a couple gets married and makes the commitment until death do us part, they often imagine that the parting will occur many years later, likely when they are old and have had a long life together. However, that is not what happened to Jason Fisher.

In his memoir, To Where You Are, Jason Fisher opens the book with only 15 minutes before an early morning conference call. He helps his daughter with breakfast and then to the playroom, and his wife to their bed to rest after experiencing back pain.

By 9:15 am, Jason is calling an ambulance, and a few hours later his wife is dead.

The introduction to this novel was very compelling and powerful, allowing the reader to feel the roller coaster that the author was on that fateful day. Before the reader can catch their breath, Jason takes them to the days when he and his wife met, their dreams, and their short marriage together.

The Fishers had dreams of having three children and a dog. They were excited by the news that they were pregnant and thought it would be best to move back to Alabama to be close to family. Sadly, compilations arose, forcing their baby girl to be born at 27 weeks via emergency C-section weighing a mere 1 ½ pounds. Their daughter, Mackenzie, would spend the next four months in NICU and face many challenges, including being born with a brain bleed and later being diagnosed with a rare syndrome.

Jason Fisher writes about the love and heartache that filled his life for nearly a decade and how he created a new path in life with his nonverbal daughter.

To Where You Are emphasizes that one can find the strength and the reason to continue living in the midst of shattered dreams and without the love and support of a spouse.

Congratulations, Jason Fisher’s To Where You Are for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

2023 NAIWE Literary Book Winner

 

The Islander

Author: David W. Berner

The author, David W. Berner, has an excellent handle on the English language. He quickly captures the moment with life on an island off the coast of Ireland, connecting the reader with the characters and leaving the reader not wanting to depart from the characters’ lives as the book ends.

The main character Seamus is a man who lives alone on an island, although people do visit the island to have picnics or to take hikes. While Seamus would not describe himself as a recluse, he does like to spend time alone. In the early morning, he rises before the sun to enjoy the beauty of first light “over the bay and the mainland, and the evening sun fall across the sea.” He spends his time writing, mostly poetry.

As a young man, Seamus was married and he fathered a child, Aiden. Due to Seamus’s indiscretions and his word-focused life, his relationship with his son is strained. Aiden is now married with two daughters, and he believes that his father has forgotten important family events such as their birthdays.

Aiden, who lives on the mainland across from the island, finds himself forced to speak with, and even care for, his father when his father’s untreated diabetes causes his father to fall into a state of unconsciousness.

In the entire novel, there are only a handful of characters in the entire novel. However, every single character is dynamic, exploring new ideas and gaining realizations by the end of the novel.

This book is an excellent read, one that helps the reader grow in their own relationships with others.

Congratulations, David W. Berner’s The Islander for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

2023 NAIWE Coffee Table Book Winner

 

How Not to Make Small Talk: The Unauthorized Rules for Inoffensive Small Talk

Author: Erin Berkery

Life is filled with situations calling for small talk. Company meeting. Office holiday party. Family get together. Supermarket run in. Community event.

However, many people are not good at making in small talk. In this book, Erin Berkery amusingly highlights the entertaining aspects of the pointless conversations people have almost every day.

The book began with an introduction that seemed a bit long for a quick read until the topic was unveiled. Setting the stage for the rest of the book, the author’s enjoyable and humorous tone made this well-known human interaction an entertaining topic (rather than the mild agony of stepping on a Lego, the author’s metaphor for participating in some forms of small talk).

Part 1 highlights some topics that should never be part of small talk conversations — some of which are! Erin provides reasons why each should not be a topic and includes sample conversations to highlight the points. The author even makes up statistics that almost sound plausible to add humor to the topic.

Erin’s numerous footnotes revel in the humorous tone, which add more personal thoughts on the topic and may stir up more smiles and laughter from the reader.

At the conclusion of each topic is a selection of three slightly horrible strategies to try. These small talk conversation starters never to try are witty and humorous. Although the selection seems a bit random and may have been more beneficial to the reader if the “horrible strategies” directly related to the topic that had just concluded.

The final section of the book includes several lists. First is a list of divisive small talk ideas, followed by a list of questions to confuse others. These lists are equally entertaining and include a few items the reader may want to try purely for the entertainment factor. The book concludes with a list of ways to end a conversation. While some may be a bit outrageous, others may be good ways to end a conversation that is dragging on.

This 95-page book with 57 witty footnotes makes for a fun read while waiting to be called into a doctor’s office or your boss’s office, preparing you for what not to say!

Congratulations, Erin Berkery’s How Not to Make Small Talk: The Unauthorized Rules for Inoffensive Small Talk for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!

2023 NAIWE Children’s Book Winner

 

Pebbles and the Biggest Number

Author: Joey Benun

Children love to learn, and children love color, and Pebbles and the Biggest Number plays into both elements, attracting kids of a variety of ages. Even before opening the book, the attractiveness of the cover easily catches a reader’s attention, and the illustrations show that this will be a fun book about big numbers.

Readers will quickly find out that the copyright page is the insightful navigator of the book as it includes questions for children to ponder, tips on how to explore the book, and ideas for interacting with the numbers.

This is not a typical book that teaches children about numbers. The book does not begin with the number one and continue through a handful of numbers. Instead, Pebbles the butterfly loves numbers but is bored with the small numbers that surround him. And so he set off on a journey to find the biggest number.

On his journey, Pebbles asks his animal friends for the biggest number they know, each sharing a number and relating that number to another learning concept.

As if learning about numbers wasn’t enough, the book includes additional information to pique the interest of readers. Science Spot teaches about the insect and animal characters. Number Note teaches about another way to think about the number explored on the given page. Did You Know teaches a concept related to the scene on the page. Fun Fact adds even more information for the readers to learn.

Pebbles and the Biggest Number concludes with a Dig Deeper section, which includes new words for the reader to learn. These pages continue with the colorful theme and include images of the friends Pebbles has met along his journey. This section ends with a nice summary chart of the numbers learned throughout the book, showing them in another format to help the reader understand them even better.

This was a delightful book to read, and the effort that went in to making this book highly educational and extremely inviting and entertaining was obvious. Such an informative read even for the parents who can learn about the big numbers of life!

Congratulations, Joey Benun’s Pebbles and the Biggest Number for being a NAIWE 2023 Book Award winner!