October 7, 2003

Book On Magic Valley Honored With The Idaho Book Award

A book illustrating the Magic Valley’s flourishing past has received its second literary award. Secrets of the Magic Valley and Hagerman’s Remarkable Horse (240 pp., $34.95, Black Canyon Communications), has received the prestigious Idaho Book Award after being named a finalist in the Independent Publishers 2003 Book Awards earlier this summer. Edited by Boise State University history professor Todd Shallat, Secrets of the Magic Valley explores a number of little-known facts about one of Idaho’s least understood regions in a richly illustrated and easy-to-read format. Adele Thomsen, Kathryn Baxter and Jim Frost also collaborated on the book. The purpose of the Idaho Book Award is to recognize and honor one book, selected from among all the books published in any one calendar year, which has made an outstanding contribution to the body of printed materials about Idaho. The award is intended to encourage the writing and publishing of books about Idaho, and to encourage excellence in writing and high standards of accuracy and readability in those books. Boise State won the Idaho Book Award in 1986 for The Literature of Idaho: an Anthology, edited by James H. Maguire, and received an honorable mention in 1994 for Snake: the Plain and its People, also edited by Shallat. Secrets of the Magic Valley is available through Black Canyon Communications and at area bookstores. Copies may also be purchased through the Boise State history department, (208) 426-1255, with $14 from the sale of each book benefiting Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. -30- Contact Todd Shallat Department of history 208 426-3701 Media Contacts Kathleen Craven communications and marketing 208 426-3275 Angela Jones communications and marketing 208 426-3196