NHWP member and Trustee David Elliott’s latest book, Voices: the final hours of Joan of Arc, is on the short-list for the American Library in Paris Book Award.  The book is among six finalists for the prestigious award. The annual award recognizes the most distinguished books of the year, in English, about France. Elliott’s book was one of eighty-two titles submitted by authors, publishers, and others for consideration.  Voices, told in verse, is an exploration of how Joan of Arc changed the course of history and remains a figure of fascination centuries after her extraordinary life and death.

“My wife and I were in California visiting her family in Orange County,” Elliott said. “The earth shook three times that trip. The first two were the recent quakes. The third was the email telling me the book had been shortlisted.” The author had received an email from the coordinator of the award encouraging him to submit his book in April. “That email was nearly as shocking as the one informing me of the shortlist,” he said.

The American Library in Paris will notify the winner in September. If selected, the winner will receive a $5,000 prize and a trip to Paris in November where the public announcement of the winner is made.

Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc has received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and The Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books. In addition, The Wall Street Journal called the book “elegant,” “arresting,” “supple and harrowing.” The novel is appropriate for ages fourteen through adult.

The story is told through an imaginative and spellbinding treatment. Through medieval poetic forms and in the voices of the people and objects in Joan of Arc’s life, (including her family and even the trees, clothes, cows, and candles of her childhood) we follow her last day. The book is sure to revive the timeless story of an illiterate French girl, who rises to Sainthood, for new generations.

David Elliott is a NY Times bestselling children’s author. His most recent works include include the picture books In the Past and Baabwaa and Wooliam, and the Young Adult novel in verse, Bull, which received six starred reviews. Born in Ohio, Elliott lives in Warner, New Hampshire with his wife and Queequeg, a Dandie Dinmont Terrier.