The Color of Courage—A Boy at War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski (Aquila Polonica Publishing, Nov. 2014) won the Gold Award for Interior Design (1-2 Color) and the Silver Award for Autobiography/Memoir in the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Awards. Winners were announced at a ceremony held in Austin, Texas, Friday evening, April 10, 2015. Now in its 27th year, the Benjamin Franklin Award, sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), is the premier awards competition in independent publishing, recognizing excellence in independent publishing. There were nearly 1,400 entries this year. More info at:
www.polww2.com/2015BenFranklinAwards
In his Foreword to this remarkable diary of a boy soldier during World War II, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lech Walesa calls The Color of Courage “a superb lesson of humanity.” The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, writing the Introduction to the book, praises The Color of Courage as “an inspiring read.” Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic & International Studies, says: “Compelling, readable, and very moving.”
“We’re absolutely thrilled to learn that The Color of Courage has won the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Awards,” said Aquila Polonica president Terry Tegnazian. “It’s so exciting to be both a Gold and a Silver winner! We knew we had something special with this rare look at World War II through the eyes of a young boy soldier, and we took special care in creating the book. We’re gratified that the Ben Franklin judges agree with us!” To learn more: www.polww2.com/AboutCourage
Julian Kulski was a 10-year-old Boy Scout living in Warsaw when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. His diary follows his wartime experience from ages 10 to 16. He quickly begins his own personal war against the Germans with small acts of sabotage but soon, at age 12, is recruited into the Underground Army by his Scoutmaster, where he is trained in weapons handling and military tactics. Kulski undertakes a secret mission into the Warsaw Ghetto, is captured by the Gestapo, beaten, sentenced to Auschwitz, rescued, fights in a Commando unit during the vicious street fighting of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and ends as a 16-year-old German POW...finally risking a dash for freedom onto an American truck instead of waiting for “liberation” by the Soviets. Watch the book trailer: www.polww2.com/CourageTrailer
Kulski’s diary is enriched by more than 150 photos and illustrations, 13 maps, and 11 “Digital Extras,” which are short videos created by Aquila Polonica from historical film and audio material that bring Kulski’s story to life in an unprecedented way. Watch sample Digital Extras: www.polww2.com/SampleDigitalExtras
Interior design, typesetting and cover art are the work of talented Los Angeles designer Ewa Wojciak, Senior Lecturer of Fine Arts at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Although this is her first book for Aquila Polonica, Wojciak has an extensive background as a designer and creative director primarily for the entertainment industry, with a client list that includes Disney, CBS, HBO, Sony, Universal Pictures and Fox, as well as in advertising agencies and print media. Winning the Gold Award for her design of The Color of Courage, Wojciak brings a fresh, contemporary look to this historical memoir, with pull quotes that draw the reader through the text, organic placement of images within the text, and an innovative use of thumbnail images and QR codes augmented by URLs to incorporate the multimedia Digital Extras into the print book.
Aquila Polonica is an award-winning independent publisher based in Los Angeles, specializing in publishing the Polish WWII experience in English. The company is a member of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). Aquila Polonica’s titles are distributed to the trade in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, Australia and New Zealand by National Book Network, www.nbnbooks.com.
All of Aquila Polonica’s books to date have won one or more awards. Aquila Polonica titles have been reviewed in major media such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic and Publishers Weekly; they have been chosen as Selections of the History Book Club, the Military Book Club and the Book-of-the-Month Club; audio rights have been acquired by Audible.com and Brilliance. Translation rights for various titles have been acquired by foreign publishers in a number of countries—including most recently Brazilian rights to The Color of Courage, which were acquired by Editora Valentina.
See more at: www.AquilaPolonica.com
