Novelist Karen Kingsbury took away the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's (ECPA) prestigious Christian Book of the Year Award last night at a ceremony celebrating the best in Christian books.

Kingsbury's Ever After (Zondervan) was chosen from 31 finalists in six categories. She received her grand winner trophy from ECPA President Mark Kuyper, who noted that the Book of the Year prize took into account sales achievement as well as judges' marks.

Last year, the top prize in the first presentation of the ECPA's new awards program-with fewer categories and a revised judging process-went to an academic work, Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, general editor (Baker Academic/Baker Publishing Group). Kuyper said that the since-amended criteria meant that the Book of the Year would go to a title not only to recognize its quality and excellence, but also how it "connected strongly with readers."

Other winners were: Bibles: Archaeological Study Bible, NIV (Zondervan); Bible Reference & Study: The IVP Atlas of Bible History by Paul Lawrence (IVP Academic/InterVarsity Press); Children & Youth: Sexy Girls by Hayley DiMarco (Revell/Baker Publishing Group); Inspiration & Gift: Pearls of Great Price by Joni Eareckson Tada (Zondervan); Christian Life: What Jesus Demands from the World by John Piper (Crossway Books); and Fiction: When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin (Thomas Nelson).

Special ECPA Awards were also presented to "Left Behind" series co-authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and to R.C. Sproul.

LaHaye and Jenkins received the ECPA's first Pinnacle Award in recognition of the outstanding success of their apocalyptic Tyndale House Publishers series, which has sold more than 65 million copies since the first title came out in 1995.

Accepting his award, LaHaye said the "Left Behind" books has been "probably the greatest gift that God has given me in my life" next to salvation and his wife, with whom he recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Jenkins said working on the books had been "the privilege of a lifetime."

Sproul received the Jordon Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his authorship of more than 60 books, including The Holiness of God (Tyndale) and Scripture Alone (P&R Publishing). The award is named after the late Charles "Kip" Jordon, former publisher of Word Publishing, who died in 1997.

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