A Pirate's Quest WINS Best Children's Picture Book

A Pirate’s Quest won the Midwest Book Award for Best Children’s Picture Book!  The award was announced at the Minnesota Humanities Center with the help of special guests from Publishers Weekly and Associate Publisher Cevin Bryerman, who is a board member of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA).

The Midwest Independent Publisher’s Association hosts the annual Midwest Book Awards competition for excellence in independent, academic and non-profit publishing.  More than 667 books were reviewed before reaching winners in 25 categories in this year’s competition.  A Pirate’s Quest was also a Finalist in the Illustrations category.

A Pirate’s Quest, written by Laura Sams and Robert Sams and illustrated by Heiner Hertling, uses wildlife paintings to tell the tale of a one-legged pirate and his quest to find a peg leg -- a family heirloom passed down from his grandpappy to his pappy to him. He loses the peg leg on a tiny lake far from the sea. To find it, he must follow the moving water, from the lakes to the rivers and eventually out to the ocean.  The book is based on The Peg Leg Song in the movie The Riddle in a Bottle.

“We’re absolutely thrilled by this honor, especially since this is our first children’s picture book!” Laura Sams said.

The book also won a Mom’s Choice Award for Adventurers and Heroes, and was a Finalist for Foreword Magazine’s Children’s Picture Book of the Year.