Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Readers' Choice Award
The Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Readers' Choice Award is sponsored by the Association of Illinois School Library Educators. The award got its start in 2005.
A steering committee, made up of school librarians, teachers, public librarians, and students determine the final twenty nominated titles. Illinois high schools promote the books and teens who have read at least four of the titles are eligible to vote for the winner.
More information about this award can be found at this site.
A steering committee, made up of school librarians, teachers, public librarians, and students determine the final twenty nominated titles. Illinois high schools promote the books and teens who have read at least four of the titles are eligible to vote for the winner.
More information about this award can be found at this site.
2025
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Find out Spring, 2025!
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed.
"After discovering the body of fourteen-year-old Jawad Ali in Jackson Park, seventeen-year-old journalism student Safiya Mirza begins investigating his murder and ends up confronting white supremacy in her own high school"--OCLC. - Love in English by Maria E. Andreu.
"Feeling blocked after moving from Argentina to New Jersey, a sixteen-year-old poet finds herself torn between a cute American boy in her math class and a Greek student who understands the struggles she is facing in an ESL class"--OCLC. - All That's Left in the World by Erik J. Brown.
"Putting their trust in one another, two boys, Andrew and Jamie, search for civilization in a world ravaged by a deadly pathogen, but their secrets could cost them everything as they try to find the courage to fight for the future, together"--OCLC. - Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole.
"Follows 16-year-old Alicia, who feels isolated and alone after being sexually abused by a teacher, then cast as the slut who asked for it, until she receives mysterious letters hinting at another victim, forcing her to face her trauma and fight back"--Provided by publisher. - The Getaway by Lamar Giles.
"Jay discovers that mountain resort where he lives and works with his friends and family is also a doomsday oasis for the rich and powerful who expect top-notch customer service even as the world outside the resort's walls disintegrates"--OCLC. - Belladonna by Adalyn Grace.
"Nineteen-year-old orphan Signa Farrow confronts Death--and her own deathly powers--when she investigates the mysterious murder of a relative at the Thorn Grove estate." -- From Follett. - We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds.
"When seventeen-year-old Avery moves to rural Georgia to live with her ailing grandmother, she encounters decade-old family secrets and a mystery surrounding the town's racist past." -- From Follett. - Cracking the Bell by Geoff Herbach.
"Isaiah loves football. In fact, football saved Isaiah's life, giving him structure and discipline after his sister's death tore his family apart. But when Isaiah gets knocked out cold on the field, he learns there's a lot more to lose than football"--Provided by publisher. - Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby.
"2199. Deep-space exploration is a reality and teleportation is routine. But this time something has gone very, very wrong. Seventeen-year-old Jessica Mathers wakes up in a lander that's crashed onto the surface of Carver 1061c, a desolate, post-extinction planet fourteen light-years from Earth. The planet she was supposed to be viewing from a ship orbiting far above." -- Provided by the publisher. - Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim.
"The exiled Princess Shiori must unravel the curse that turned her six brothers into cranes, and she is assisted by her spurned betrothed, a capricious dragon, and a paper bird brought to life by her own magic"--OCLC. - Skyhunter by Marie Lu.
"Talin is a Striker, a member of an elite fighting force that stands as the last defense for Mara, the only free nation in the world, but when a mysterious prisoner is brought from the front to Mara's capital, Talin senses there is more to him than meets the eye"--OCLC. - More Than a Pretty Face by Syed M. Masood.
"When self-proclaimed 'not very bright' nineteen-year-old Danyal Jilani is chosen for a prestigious academic contest, he hopes to impress a potential arranged marriage match, only to begin falling for the girl helping him study instead"--Provided by publisher. - We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride.
"When hospitalized for her clinical depression, Whimsy connects with a boy named Faerry, who also suffers from the traumatic loss of a sibling, and together they work to unearth buried memories and battle the fantastical physical embodiment of their depression." -- From Follett. - I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy.
"A . . . memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor--including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother--and how she retook control of her life"--Provided by publisher. - The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz.
"Cam disguises herself as a man to inherit her father's money and estate, and though she tries to keep a low profile, she ends up falling for Crown Princess Brie"--Provided by publisher. - Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely.
"Author Kindra Neely recounts her journey to healing after surviving a mass shooting during her first year of college"--Provided by publisher. - Little Thieves by Margaret Owen.
"Posing as a royal to rob the nobles blind, seventeen-year-old Vanja Schmidt is thrilled by her luck until she crosses the wrong god and is cursed to turn into the jewels she covets unless she can pay back her debts--quickly." -- From Follett. - Victory, Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith, Dawud Anyabwile, and Derrick Barnes.
"A groundbreaking and timely graphic memoir from one of the most iconic figures in American sports-and a tribute to his fight for civil rights. On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice inflicted upon African Americans. Both men were forced to leave the Olympics, received death threats, and faced ostracism and continuing economic hardships. In his first-ever memoir for young readers, Tommie Smith looks back on his childhood growing up in rural Texas through to his stellar athletic career, culminating in his historic victory and Olympic podium protest"-- Provided by publisher. - Chaos Theory by Nic Stone.
"A senior at Windward Academy, Shelbi, who has a diagnosed mental illness, keeps to herself until she forms a connection with Andy Criddle, who is battling addiction, but the closer they get, the more the past threatens to pull them apart." -- From Follett. - This Golden State by Marit Weisenberg.
"Seventeen-year-old Poppy takes a home DNA test and unravels her parents' identities and their decades of careful work to keep their family anonymous, allowing the past to come dangerously close to catching up to them." -- Provided by Follett.
2024
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- You'd Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow.
"After a fatal car accident that reveals Emory's brother Joey's opioid addiction, Emory struggles to help him on his road to recovery and make herself heard in a town that insists on not listening"--OCLC.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo.
Sixteen-year-olds Camino Rios, of the Dominican Republic, and Yahaira Rios, of New York City, are devastated to learn of their father's death in a plane crash and stunned to learn of each other's existence. - Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli.
Best friends Kate Garfield and Anderson Walker share a love of theater and crushes on the same guys, but when one of their long-distance crushes shows up at their school, real feelings might end their friendship. - Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy.
"Huda F. is starting high school in a new town and needs to figure out where she fits in"--Provided by publisher. - Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder.
"Tyler Feder shares her story of her mother's first oncology appointment to facing reality as a motherless daughter in this frank and refreshingly funny graphic memoir"--Provided by publisher. - You Know I'm No Good by Jessie Ann Foley.
"Mia is officially a Troubled Teen--she gets bad grades, drinks too much, and has probably gone too far with too many guys. But she doesn't realize how out of control she seems until she is taken from her home in the middle of the night and sent away to Red Oak Academy, a therapeutic girls' boarding school in the middle of nowhere. While there, Mia is forced to confront her painful past at the same time she questions why she's at Red Oak. If she were a boy, would her behavior be considered wild enough to get sent away? But what happens when circumstances outside of her control compel Mia to make herself vulnerable enough to be truly seen?"--Provided by publisher. - Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry.
- When nonbeliever Michael transfers to a Catholic school in eleventh grade, he quickly connects with a secret support group intent on exposing the school's hypocrisies one stunt at a time.
- The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson.
"When Springville residents--at least the ones still alive--are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation--Maddy did it. An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life. But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret--one that will cost them all their lives"--Provided by publisher. - We Are Not Broken by George M. Johnson.
A memoir of Black non-binary writer and activist George M. Johnson's childhood in New Jersey, growing up with their brother and two cousins, all under the supervision of their larger-than-life grandmother. - Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado.
Overweight sixteen-year-old Charlie yearned for her first kiss while her perfect best friend, Amelia, fell in love, so when she finally starts dating and learns the boy asked Amelia out first, she is devastated. - Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis.
"Lost in the Great Smoky Mountains, rising high school senior Ashley Hawkins must fight for survival without any tools, growing in awareness that the world is not tame, and neither are people"--OCLC. - #murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil.
Falsely accused of murdering her stepsister, seventeen-year-old Dee fights to survive paid assassins on Alcatraz 2.0, the most popular prison on social media. - I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston.
After seventeen-year-olds Chloe and Shara, Chloe's rival for valedictorian, kiss, Shara vanishes leaving Chloe and two boys, who are also enamored with Shara, to follow the trail of clues she left behind, but during the search, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to Shara and her small Alabama town than she thought. - I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys.
"In a country governed by isolation, fear, and a tyrannical dictator, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer, but he decides to use his position to try to outwit his handler, undermine the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country"--OCLC. - The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe.
"When seventeen-year-old Nora O'Malley, the daughter of a con artist, is taken hostage in a bank heist, every secret she is keeping close begins to unravel"--OCLC. - All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir.
A family extending from Pakistan to California, deals with generations of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness. - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
"Ryland Grace has been asleep for a very, very long time. He's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. He can't remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance"--OCLC. - The Assignment by Liza Wiemer.
"Standing in opposition to a class assignment to debate Hitler's Final Solution, seniors Cade and Logan become embroiled in turmoil involving their teacher, principal, Commissioner of Education, white supremacists, and their entire community"--Provided by publisher. - Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang.
"Gene Luen Yang understands stories -- comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn't get sports. As a kid, his friends called him 'Stick' and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it's all anyone can talk about. The men's varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that's been decades in the making. Each victory brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the California State Championship. Once Gene meets these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he's seen on a comic book page. He knows he has to follow this epic to its end. What he doesn't know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons' lives, but his own life as well"--Provided by publisher. - In the Wild Ligh t by Jeff Zentner.
Attending an elite prep school in Connecticut on a scholarship with his best friend (and secret love) science genius Delaney Doyle, sixteen-year-old Cash Pruitt, from a small town in East Tennessee, struggles with emotional pain and loss until his English teacher suggests writing poetry.
2023
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- The Loop by Ben Oliver.
"Luka Kane has spent 736 days wrongfully imprisoned inside the Loop awaiting his execution. Each day is the same. Each day is torturous. But things are starting to change. Whispers of war are circulating. Strange things are happening to the prisoners. And the warden delivers a message: Luka, you have to get out... Now Luka must decide whether breaking out of the Loop is his only way to survive, especially if there's any chance of saving the ones he loves. But the population on the outside may be far more terrifying than anything he could have imaged. And in order to save his family, he'll have to discover who is responsible for the chaos that has been inflicted upon the world"--Dust jacket.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide.Devon
Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, two students at Niveus Private Academy, are selected to be part of the elite school's senior class prefects and struggle against an anonymous bully who reveals all of their secrets. - How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi.
Fleeing to Rome in the wake of coming out to his Muslim family, a failed relationship, and blackmail, eighteen-year-old Amir Azadi embarks on a more authentic life with new friends and dates in the Sistine Chapel before an encounter with a U.S. Customs officer places his hard-won freedom at risk. - Love from A to Zby S. K. Ali.
Eighteen-year-old Muslims Adam and Zayneb meet in Doha, Qatar, during spring break and fall in love as both struggle to find a way to live their own truths. - Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley.
Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths. - We Are Not Free by Tracey Chee.
For fourteen-year-old budding artist Minoru Ito, his two brothers, his friends, and the other members of the Japanese-American community in southern California, the three months since Pearl Harbor was attacked have become a waking nightmare: attacked, spat on, and abused with no way to retaliate--and now things are about to get worse, their lives forever changed by the mass incarcerations in the relocation camps. - Legendborn by Tracey Deonn.
"To discover the truth behind her mother's mysterious death, a teen girl infiltrates a magical secret society claiming to be the descendants of King Arthur and his knights"--Provided by publisher. - Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles.
"High school junior Del Rainey unwittingly joins a Purity Pledge class at church, hoping to get closer to his long-term crush, Kiera"--Provided by publisher. - Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir by Robin Ha.
The author recounts how she and her mother moved from South Korea to the United States. - Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson.
"When legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots Enchanted Jones at an audition, her dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until Enchanted wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. Who killed Korey Fields? Before there was a dead body, Enchanted's dreams had turned into a nightmare. Because behind Korey's charm and star power was a controlling dark side. Now he's dead, the police are at the door, and all signs point to Enchanted"--Provided by publisher. - Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean.
After learning that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan, Izumi travels to Tokyo, where she discovers that Japanese imperial life--complete with designer clothes, court intrigue, paparazzi scandals, and a forbidden romance with her handsome but stoic bodyguard--is a tough fit for the outspoken and irreverent eighteen-year-old from northern California. - You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson.
"Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school, after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through she is forced to turn to her school's scholarship for prom king and queen, which plunges her into the gauntlet of social media which she hates and leads her to discoveries about her own identity and the value of true friendships"--Provided by publisher. - Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.
An autobiographical comic in which the author discusses their path to identifying as nonbinary and asexual, and coming out to family and society. - Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger.
"Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day. Elatsoe lives in this slightly strange America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family"--Provided by publisher. - Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo.
1954, in San Francisco's Chinatown, seventeen-year-old Lily Hu falls in love with Kathleen Miller. - Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez.
Seventeen-year-old Camila Hassan, a rising soccer star in Rosario, Argentina, dreams of playing professionally, in defiance of her fathers' wishes and at the risk of her budding romance with Diego. - Game Changer by Neal Shusterman.
"All it takes is one hit on the football field, and suddenly Ash's life doesn't look quite the way he remembers it. Impossible though it seems, he's been hit into another dimension--and keeps on bouncing through worlds that are almost-but-not-really his own. The changes start small, but they quickly spiral out of control as Ash slides into universes where he has everything he's ever wanted, universes where society is stuck in the past . . . universes where he finds himself looking at life through entirely different eyes"--Publisher's description. - Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon.
"Throughout the years both Rowan and Neil have been at competition with one another on everything from who has the best ideas for school functions to which one will be their graduating class's valedictorian. However, in the twenty-four hours left they have as high school students, the two learn they share something much deeper than a rivalry"--Provided by publisher. - Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas.
"When Stephen moves to the small, midwestern town where his father grew up, he quickly falls in with punk girl Cara and her charismatic twin brother, Devon. But the town has a dark secret, and the twins are caught in the middle of it"--Provided by publisher. - Check, Please!: Book 1, #Hockey! by Ngozi Ukazu.
Eric Bittle may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur patisser, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge
2022
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
When a Connecticut teenager inherits vast wealth and an eccentric estate from the richest man in Texas, she must also live with his surviving family and solve a series of puzzles to discover how she earned her inheritance.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo.
Teen mother Emoni Santiago struggles with the challenges of finishing high school and her dream of working as a chef. - The Companion by Katie Alender.
The other orphans say Margot is lucky. Lucky to survive the horrible accident that killed her family. Lucky to have her own room because she wakes up screaming every night. And finally, lucky to be chosen by a prestigious family to live at their remote country estate. But it wasn't luck that made the Suttons rescue Margot from her bleak existence at the group home. Margot was handpicked to be a companion to their silent, mysterious daughter, Agatha. At first, helping with Agatha--and getting to know her handsome older brother--seems much better than the group home. But soon, the isolated, gothic house begins playing tricks on Margot'smind, making her question everything she believes about the Suttons . . . and herself. Margot's bad dreams may have stopped when she came to live with Agatha - but the real nightmare has just begun. - Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Penelope Bagieu.
In graphic novel format looks at the lives of twenty-nine charismatic women in history, including Josephine Baker, Betty Davis, Cheryl Bridges, and many others. - Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake.
- When Mara's twin brother Owen is accused of rape by her friend Hannah, Mara is forced to confront her feelings about her family, her sense of right and wrong, a trauma from her past, and the future with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie.
- Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly.
Isabelle is one of Cinderella's ugly stepsisters, who cut off her toes in an attempt to fit into the glass slipper; but there is more to her story than a maimed foot, for the Marquis de la Chance is about to offer her a choice and the opportunity to change her fate--there will be blood and danger, but also the possibility of redemption and triumph, and most of all the chance to find her true self. - Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes.
Author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the truth of a harrowing childhood in a compelling and moving memoir in verse. - The Dark Matter of Mona Starr by Laura Lee Guiledge.
Tells the story of Mona who has crippling depression and anxiety. She battles to understand her mental illness and tries to find her creative genius. - Allegedly by Tiffancy Jackson.
A young girl, convicted of murder as a child, serves her sentence only to be placed in a group home, where, upon her release, she must grapple with starting over and an unplanned pregnancy. - Dig by A.S. King.
Only a generation removed from being simple Pennsylvania potato farmers, Gottfried and Marla Hemmings managed to trade digging spuds for developing subdivisions and now sit atop a seven-figure bank account, wealth they've declined to pass on to their adult children or their teenage grand children. Now the five teenagers are lost in a tangled maze of family secrets. One of the teens sells pot; one has cancer; all are estranged from the family. As they come together for Easter dinner, will they be able to find their ways back to each other? - Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer.
How much does the internet know about YOU? What if the internet knows everything about you? What if it knows you better than you know yourself? What if the internet were a sentient A.I. who loves cat pictures? Steph hasn't stayed in one place longer than six months. Her only constant is an online community called CatNet--a social media site where users upload cat pictures--a place she knows she is welcome. What Steph doesn't know is that the admin of the site, CheshireCat, is a sentient A.I. When a threat from Steph's past catches up to her and ChesireCat's existence is discovered by outsiders, it's up to Steph and her friends, both online and IRL, to save her - #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women edited by Mary Beth Leatherdale & Lisa Charleyboy.
An eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse, humiliation, and stereotyping are countered by the voices of passionate women making themselves heard and demanding change. - Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu.
In a small Texas town where high school football reigns supreme, Viv, sixteen, starts a feminist revolution using anonymously-written zines. - The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe.
When Norris, a Black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as cliches from "a bad 90s teen movie." - Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi.
A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning. - Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson.
When apprentice librarian Elisabeth is implicated in sabotage that released the library's most dangerous grimoire, she becomes entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy that could mean the end of everything. - If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo.
Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew. - We Are Not from Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez.
Teens from Guatelama escape through Mexico and attempt to reach the U.S. border - Frankly in Love by David Yoon.
High school senior Frank Li takes a risk to go after a girl his parents would never approve of, but his plans will leave him wondering if he ever really understood love--or himself--at all. - Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam.
A novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated.
2021
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson.
Stevie dreams of attending prestigious Ellingham Academy not only to escape her boring school and conservative parents, but also to solve the decades-old mystery of the kidnapping of the school founder’s wife and daughter at the hands of someone identified only as Truly Devious. When a classmate turns up dead, Stevie suddenly has two cases to solve. Is Truly Devious back after all this time?
NOMINATED BOOKS
- All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater.
Beatriz, Daniel, and Joaquin are Sorias, meaning they are part of the family in the desert of Colorado that can perform miracles. Beatriz and Joaquin made a pirate radio station that they broadcast at night, even though there doesn’t seem to be a point to it at first since there aren’t many people in range to listen. Daniel decides to go against the family rules and helps a pilgrim who had sought a miracle, causing his own darkness to be brought forth, so he leaves in order to protect his family. Now, Beatriz and Joaquin realize their radio broadcast is more important than ever. Maybe it can help their cousin beat his darkness and come home. - Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi.
"Am I black enough?" is the question connecting a rich variety of 17 short stories in this anthology edited by Ibi Zoboi. Black teenagers from diverse cultures and experiences discover what it means to be themselves as they question their identities, beliefs, families, relationships, and dreams in ways both humorous and serious. Authors include Lamar Giles, Justina Ireland, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, and Renee Watson. - Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. Darius Kellner doesn’t quite seem to fit in; he has clinical depression, likes Lord of the Rings, watching Star Trek with his dad, knows a lot about teas, and he’s half Perisan, half white. His parents decide it’s time to visit their family in Iran as Darius’s grandfather’s brain tumor is incurable. Darius is nervous; he’s never been to Iran or even seen his grandparents other than through a webcam. But Iran exceeds Darius’s expectations allowing him to find connections to his family, his heritage, and a new friend, Sohrab.
- Devils Within by S.F. Henson.
Killing isn’t supposed to be easy. But it is. It’s the after that’s hard to deal with.
Nate was eight the first time he stabbed someone; he was eleven when he earned his red laces—a prize for spilling blood for “the cause.” And he was fourteen when he murdered his father (and the leader of The Fort, a notorious white supremacist compound) in self-defense, landing in a treatment center while the state searched for his next of kin. Now, in the custody of an uncle he never knew existed, who wants nothing to do with him, Nate just wants to disappear. - Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney C. Stevens.
As the tomboy daughter of the town’s preacher, Billie McCaffrey has always struggled with fitting the mold of what everyone says she should be. When she realizes she has conflicting feelings for two of her best friends, Woods and Janie Lee, she keeps it to herself. She doesn’t want anyone slapping a label on her sexuality or otherwise before she can understand it herself. She wants to come to understand love and life on her own terms. In her small town that’s not easy, but with the help of her friends, the hexagon, Billy will try her best. - Dry by Neal Shusterman & Jarrod Shusterman.
Southern Californians were asked to conserve water during the drought, and everyone complained. Now they’ve completely run out of water, and FEMA is already tied up dealing with a hurricane on the East Coast. Citizens are hoarding, looting, rioting -- even dying. When their parents don’t come back from a trip to find water for them, Alyssa and her little brother Garrett team up with a gun-happy boy from the weird “prepper” family next door and a viciously anti-social goth girl. They’re on the run, desperately searching for enough water to stay alive until their government can provide water for everyone to survive. But that’s taking too long and things keep getting worse. - Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea by Sungju Lee.
When Sungju’s father fell out of favor with government officials in North Korea, his family was sent to the countryside to live in poverty. Sungju’s parents leave him in order to find food, but when they don’t return, he’s left to survive on his own. Together with a group of his friends, Sungju learns how to steal to survive, how to fight to win, and how to hold on to hope even in the bleakest moments. - A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti.
Annabelle is running across the country. No matter how far she runs, she can’t escape the pain and the tragedy of the past year. Though she is supported by family and cheered on by strangers, the guilt she feels is overwhelming. Annabelle knows that the end of the run means facing her demons and confronting what lies ahead, but is not sure she will ever be able to move forward. - Heroine by Mindy McGinnis.
Mickey Catalon is a star catcher for her high school softball team. She is in the car with her best friend and pitching teammate when she suddenly finds herself face down with a mouth full of dirt, staring at her overturned car. The two girls are seriously injured in the winter car accident, leaving many question marks in the air as to whether or not they'll be ready for their senior softball season.
Mickey's hip requires surgery that results in three screws. She is prescribed oxycontin to feel relief from the pain, but this prescription sends Mickey into a downward spiral that ends with her eventually shooting up heroin. Throughout though, Mickey thinks that her drug use doesn't mean she's a junkie. It means that she is pain free and pushing herself to be ready to help her team win state. She is in denial that her use of painkillers and heroin mean she is an addict. These choices result in death for some of the characters, and the reality of the problem with addiction and pain killers in this country is apparent. - Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction by Jarrett J. Krosoczka.
"It is said that books save lives, but I also say that empty sketchbooks save lives too. I filled up many, and there is no doubt they saved mine.” (From the Author’s Note)
With the absence of his father, and a mother who struggles with heroin addiction, this moving and heartfelt memoir--both written and illustrated by Jarrett--follows his own experiences being raised by his grandparents from a young age and into his teen years. With memorable “characters” and a distinct style of illustration and collage, Jarrett re-examines the definition of family while finding solace in his artwork. - Internment by Samira Ahmed.
Layla has a normal life with a boyfriend and parents who love her. But she lives in a near-future America where all Muslim Americans are suddenly pulled from their homes by the government and moved to internment camps. Faced with constant surveillance, segregation even within the camp, and a complete loss of rights, what will Layla do? - The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.
Elwood , a promising black student on his way to his first college classes, makes an innocent mistake and ends up in Nickel Academy, a horrible juvenile reformatory. Based on the real story of a now-notorious Florida reform school. - Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life with OCD by Allison Britz.
Allison has a dream that she is dying from brain cancer. Convinced this is a bad omen of things to come, Allison devises a plan to outwit this disease. Her plan is to avoid any treacherous items including hair dryers, bananas, cell phones, anything green, and, of course, stepping on cracks. Allison is so caught up in these rituals that everything in her life falls apart: school, relationships, sports, and, most importantly, her health. By the time Allison’s parents realize there is a problem, Allison has fully developed obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This is the true story of the author’s sophomore year: the year she almost died from obsessive-compulsive disorder. - Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay.
Filipino-American Jay Reguero hasn't seen his cousin Junsince they were 10, but they formed a tight bond during the short time they spent together in the Philippines. Now 17 and counting the days until graduation, Jay is shocked to hear that Jun is dead. Not satisfied with the scant information relayed by his father, Jay determines to find out what really happened to his cousin, even if that means returning to the Philippines, alone, to confront his extended family. With help from Jun’s younger sister, Grace, Jay begins digging into family secrets, gradually uncovering uncomfortable truths about his family, the country he has idealized for years, and his own worldview. - Price of Duty by Todd Strasser.
Jake got to come home. Jake is getting a Silver Star. Jake is grateful, but he’s not sure it was worth it-- or that he deserves it. Some of his buddies didn’t make it home. In his military family, can Jake find a way to speak his truth and do what he feels is right? This book addresses some of the many difficulties that service members face at home, at war, and inside their own minds. It also addresses issues of recruitment and war glorification from multiple points of view. - Slay by Brittney Morris.
Kiera has a secret: she’s the game developer for SLAY, a video game that she created to celebrate Black excellence. For Kiera, one of the only Black students in her high school, it’s a place where she really feels at home, with a character that looks like her, players who understand her, and no risk of hearing racist insults like she did in the last video game she played. But she doesn’t think her family or friends would approve of her playing video games, and she KNOWS her boyfriend Malcolm wouldn’t approve, so no one knows she SLAYs. When a 16-year-old is murdered over an in-game dispute, people start to talk: Is SLAY racist? To make matters worse, a troll has made a SLAY account and is constantly harassing her & other players and threatening to sue her for discrimination... and Kiera’s pretty sure it’s one of her classmates. Kiera wants to get rid of this troll & speak up to defend this game that means so much to her and is being misrepresented in the media, but doing so might jeopardize all of her relationships and put a target on her back. - They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott Harmony Becker.
In this moving graphic novel, George Takei powerfully
describes his family experience living in a Japanese internment camp. George was young when the order to relocate came and so he didn’t understand at the time that this move was not an adventure. Flashing back and forth through time George unpacks a flurry of emotions as his family is forced from their home to a horse stall and ultimately a prison camp. Sharing throughout his tale the courage of his mother and leadership of his father to keep their family safe in the face of unimaginable circumstances. Within the narrative, the authors weave information about the politics behind this historical injustice. Moving into more current times the book makes connections between recent events and the atrocities that occurred during World War II. Ultimately the story that is told is the making of an activist with courage, compassion, and love. - A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi.
Sixteen-year-old Muslim girl Shirin is tired of being stereotyped in the wake of 9/11. She is starting her third high school in less than two years, and just wants to remain under-the-radar and enjoy breakdancing with her brother. Enter: Ocean James. When Ocean shows an interest in Shirin she’s unsure how to let her guard down and bring together their seemingly incompatible worlds. - We'll Fly Away by Bryan Bliss.
Thanks to Luke’s wrestling scholarship, he and his best friend Toby dream of escaping their small town and all of the heartache it brings. Their friendship and loyalty are tested as each teen makes choices that set them on an irreversible course ending in tragedy. Weaving the story of their senior year with Luke’s letters to Toby from death row, We’ll Fly Away will leave readers on the edge of their seats as they question the true meaning of justice.
2020
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.
In a near-future New York City where a service alerts people on the day they will die, teenagers Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio meet using the Last Friend app and are faced with the challenge of living a lifetime on their End Day.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater.
This riveting nonfiction book for teens about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment tells the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California. - The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan.
After her mother's suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she never met, determined to find her mother who she believes turned into a bird. - Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.
Seventeen-year-old Zelie, her older brother Tzain, and rogue princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are ruthlessly pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic will mean the end of the monarchy. - Dear Martin by Nic Stone.
Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him - Don't Get Caught by Kurt Dinan.
To his great surprise, uncool eleventh-grader Max Cobb is invited to join the Chaos Club, an exclusive group of students responsible for some of the biggest pranks at his high school. - Far from the Tree by Robin Benway.
Being the middle child has its ups and downs. But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. - The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis.
Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn't feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence. - Hooper by Geogg Herbach.
For Adam Reed, basketball is a passport. Adam's basketball skills have taken him from an orphanage in Poland to a loving adoptive mother in Minnesota. When he's tapped to play on a select AAU team along with some of the best players in the state, it just confirms that basketball is his ticket to the good life: to new friendships, to the girl of his dreams, to a better future. But life is more complicated off the court. When an incident with the police threatens to break apart the bonds Adam's finally formed after a lifetime of struggle, he must make an impossible choice between his new family and the sport that's given him everything. - How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana.
Presents the story of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who tells the tale of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism. - I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez.
"Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga's role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed. - Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds.
As Will, fifteen, sets out to avenge his brother Shawn's fatal shooting, seven ghosts who knew Shawn board the elevator and reveal truths Will needs to know. - Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson.
Claudia's friend Monday goes missing and she is the only one who seems to care. - Nyxia by Scott Reintgen.
Emmett accepts an interstellar space contract but learns en route that to win the promised fortune he and nine other recruits face a brutal competition, putting their very humanity at risk. - Only Child by Rhiannon Navin.
Squeezed into a coat closet with his classmates and teacher, first grader Zach Taylor can hear gunshots ringing through the halls of his school. A gunman has entered the building, taking nineteen lives and irrevocably changing the very fabric of this close-knit community. While Zach's mother pursues a quest for justice against the shooter's parents, holding them responsible for their son's actions, Zach retreats into his super-secret hideout and loses himself in a world of books and art. Armed with his newfound understanding, and with the optimism and stubbornness only a child could have, Zach sets out on a ... journey towards healing and forgiveness, determined to help the adults in his life rediscover the universal truths of love and compassion needed to pull them through their darkest hours. - The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.
Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. - Sadie by Courtney Summers.
Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him. When West McCray--a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America--overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late. - The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon.
Natasha is a girl who believes in science and facts. Daniel has always been a good son and good student. But when he sees Natasha he forgets all that and believes there is something extraordinary in store for both of them. - Turtles All the Way Down by John Green.
Aza Holmes is a young woman navigating daily existence within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. - Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley.
Teenagers Rachel and Henry find their way back to each other while working in an old bookstore full of secrets and crushes, love letters and memories, grief and hope.
2019
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does-or does not-say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- All We Have Left by Wendy Mills.
A haunting and heart-wrenching story of two girls, two time periods, and the one event that changed their lives--and the world--forever. - American Street by Ibi Zoboi.
Fabiola Toussaint, a young Haitian immigrant to the United States, must navigate her life, school and relationships, while dealing with her loud cousins after her mother is detained by the United States immigration department. - Beartown by Fredrik Backman.
A small town rallies around their new ice rink in the hopes of their junior hockey team competing in the national semifinals. - Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah.
Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents' indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa's tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. - Fat Boy vs. the Cheerleaders/Gabe Johnson Takes Over by Geoff Herbach.
When the high school cheerleading team takes over a soda vending machine's funds, which were previously collected by the pep band, Gabe Johnson, an overweight "band geek" tired of being called names and looked down on, declares war. - Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow.
As she struggles to recover and survive, seventeen-year-old homeless Charlotte "Charlie" Davis cuts herself to dull the pain of abandonment and abuse. - Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner.
Looks at a teen's life after the death of his best friend and how he navigates through the guilt and pain by celebrating their lives--and ultimately learning to forgive himself. - Illuminae by Ami Kaufman, Jay Kristoff.
The planet Kerenza is attacked, and Kady and Ezra find themselves on a space fleet fleeing the enemy, while their ship's artificial intelligence system and a deadly plague may be the end of them all. - A List of Cages by Robin Roe.
Adam,a high school senior, rescues Julian, a freshman, from an abusive situation - Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona.
Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City - until she's suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm! When Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them, as well. Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts? Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to bear? - One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus.
When the creator of a high school gossip app mysteriously dies in front of four high-profile students all four become suspects. It's up to them to solve the case. - Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang.
In the early hours after Halloween of 1988,four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hitseries about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood. - The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore.
Explores the story of radium poisoning to young American women during WWI from the paint used on watch dials, and the ensuing legal consequences that occured as a result of these work health hazards. - Scythe by Neal Shusterman.
In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants. The one who becomes a scythe must kill the one who doesn't. - The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee.
Five teens struggle to find their footing in the world atop high-tech luxury in New York City one-hundred years into the future. - Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake.
On an island where a set of triplets are born in every generation, three sisters, all equal heirs to the crown and possessor of magic, must now fight for the title in a game of life or death. - We Are Okay by Nina LaCour.
After leaving her life behind to go to college in New York, Marin must face the truth about the tragedy that happened in the final weeks of summer when her friend Mabel comes to visit. - When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon.
When Dimple Shah and Rishi Patel meet at a Stanford University summer program, Dimple is avoiding her parents' obsession with "marriage prospects" but Rishi hopes to woo her into accepting arranged marriage with him. - Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin.
The first book in a duology about an alternate version of 1956 where the Axis powers won WWII, and hold an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents to commemorate their victory.
2018
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction--if they don't kill each other first
NOMINATED BOOKS
- All American Boys by Jason Reynold, Brendan Kiely.
When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. - Denton Little's Deathdate by Lance Rubin.
In a world where everyone knows the day they will die, a teenage boy is determined to outlive his upcoming expiration date. - Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy.
Danny Wright, seventeen, joined the Idaho Army National Guard to serve the country as his father had, but when the Guard is sent to an anti-government protest in Boise and Danny's gun accidently fires, he finds himself at the center of a conflict that results in the federal government declaring war on Idaho. - An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir.
Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution - Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston.
At cheerleading camp, Hermione is drugged and raped, but she is not sure whether it was one of her teammates or a boy on another team--and in the aftermath she has to deal with the rumors in her small Ontario town, the often awkward reaction of her classmates, the rejection of her boyfriend, the discovery that her best friend, Polly, is gay, and above all the need to remember what happened so that the guilty boy can be brought to justice. - Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley.
Agoraphobic sixteen-year-old Solomon has not left his house in three years, but Lisa is determined to change that--and to write a scholarship-winning essay based on the results. - March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell.
Presents in graphic novel format events from the life of Georgia congressman John Lewis, focusing on his youth in rural Alabama, his meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement. - Nimona by Noelle Stevenson.
Lord Ballister Blackheart seeks to bring down the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics with the aid of his new shapeshifting sidekick Nimona. - Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik.
Profiles the life of feminist pioneer and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her fight for gender equality and civil rights. - Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez.
Loosely based on a school explosion that took place in New London, Texas, in 1937, this is the story of two teenagers: Naomi, who is Mexican, and Wash, who is black, and their dealings with race, segregation, love, and the forces that destroy people. - The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness.
What if you aren't the Chosen One? The one who's supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you're like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week's end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions. - Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys.
As World War II draws to a close, refugees try to escape the war's final dangers, only to find themselves aboard a ship with a target on its hull. - The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner.
The son of a Pentecostal preacher faces his personal demons as he and his two outcast friends try to make it through their senior year of high school in rural Forrestville, Tennessee without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. - Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older.
When the murals painted on the walls of her Brooklyn neighborhood start to change and fade in front of her, Sierra Santiago realizes that something strange is going on--then she discovers her Puerto Rican family are shadowshapers and finds herself in a battle with an evil anthropologist for the lives of her family and friends. - These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly.
A young woman in nineteenth-century New York City must struggle against gender and class boundaries when her father is found dead of a supposed suicide, and she believes there is more than meets the eye, so in order to uncover the truth she will have to decide how much she is willing to risk and lose. - To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han.
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved-five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control. - When We Collided by Emery Lord.
Can seventeen-year-old Jonah save his family restaurant from ruin, his mother from her sadness, and his danger-seeking girlfriend Vivi from herself? - The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh.
In this reimagining of The Arabian Nights, Shahrzad plans to avenge the death of her dearest friend by volunteering to marry the murderous boy-king of Khorasan but discovers not all is as it seems within the palace. - Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee.
As seventeen-year-old Carr 'the Raptor' Luka rises to fame in the weightless combat sport of zeroboxing, he learns a devastating secret that jeopardizes not only his future in the sport, but interplanetary relations.
2017
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.
In a world divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver-blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities--seventeen-year-old Mare, a Red, discovers she has an ability of her own. To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. But Mare risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard--a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith.
Finn Easton, sixteen and epileptic, struggles to feel like more than just a character in his father's cult-classic novels with the help of his best friend, Cade Hernandez, and first love, Julia, until Julia moves away. - All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.
Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, both teetering on the edge, it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another. - Bone Gap by Laura Ruby.
Eighteen-year-old Finn, an outsider in his quiet Midwestern town, is the only witness to the abduction of town favorite Roza, but his inability to distinguish between faces makes it difficult for him to help with the investigation, and subjects him to even more ridicule and bullying. - The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds.
Soon after his mother's death, Matt takes a job at a funeral home in his tough Brooklyn neighborhood and, while attending and assisting with funerals, begins to accept her death and his responsibilities as a man. - Caged Warrior by Alan Lawrence Sitomer.
From age three, McCutcheon Daniels, now sixteen, has been trained in Mixed Martial Arts and must keep winning to feed his five-year-old sister and father, but chance presents an opportunity to get out of the Detroit slums using his brain instead of his fighting skills. - Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman.
A teenage boy struggles with schizophrenia. - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.
Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from stories, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the faeries. As her feelings toward him transform from hostility to a firey passion, the threats against the faerie lands grow. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose Tamlin forever. - Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway.
Sheltered seventeen-year-old Emmy's childhood best friend Oliver reappears after disappearing with his father ten years ago. - Fake ID by Lamar Giles.
An African-American teen in the Witness Protection Program moves to a new town and finds himself trying to solve a murder mystery when his first friend is found dead. - Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick.
A day in the life of a suicidal teen boy saying good-bye to the four people who matter most to him. - Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero.
Sixteen-year-old Gabi Hernandez chronicles her senior year in high school as she copes with her friend Cindy's pregnancy, her friend Sebastian's coming out, her father's meth habit, her own cravings for food and cute boys, and especially, the poetry that helps forge her identity. - Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers.
Seventeen-year-old Ismae avoids an arranged marriage by making a place for herself at the convent of St. Mortin, where she learns of her unique gifts and must determine whether she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. - I am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai.
Malala Yousafzai's describes her fight for education for girls under Taliban rule, the support she received from her parents to pursue an education, and how the Taliban retaliated against her by trying to kill her. - Laughing at my Nightmare by Shane Burcaw.
Shane Burcaw describes the challenges he faces as a twenty-one-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy. From awkward handshakes to having a girlfriend and everything in between, Shane handles his situation with humor and a "you-only-live-once" perspective on life. - The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
Seventeen-year-old Cassie, who has a natural ability to read people, joins an elite group of criminal profilers at the FBI in order to help solve cold cases - October Mourning by Leslea Newman.
Relates, from various points of view, events from the night of October 6, 1998, when twenty-one-year-old Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was lured out of a Wyoming bar, savagely beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die. - Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman.
In 1930s Munich, the favorite niece of rising political leader Adolph Hitler is torn between duty and love after meeting a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter. - Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Alberalli.
Sixteen-year-old, not-so-openly-gay Simon Spier is blackmailed into playing wingman for his classmate or else his sexual identity--and that of his pen pal--will be revealed - Through the Woods by Emily Carroll.
A collection of five spine-tingling short stories.
2016
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.
Spending the summers on her family's private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz.
Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before. - Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note. - Boy 21 by Matthew Quick.
Finley, an unnaturally quiet boy who is the only white player on his high school's varsity basketball team, lives in a dismal Pennsylvania town that is ruled by the Irish mob, and when his coach asks him to mentor a troubled African American student who has transferred there from an elite private school in California, he finds that they have a lot in common in spite of their apparent differences. - Butter by Erin Jade Lange.
Unable to control his binge eating, a morbidly obese teenager nicknamed Butter decides to make a live webcast of his last meal as he attempts to eat himself to death. - Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Betrothed to the demon who rules her country and trained all her life to kill him, seventeen-year-old Nyx Triskelion must now fulfill her destiny and move to the castle to be his wife. - The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Sixteen-year-old Ruby breaks out of a government-run 'rehabilitation camp' for teens who acquired dangerous powers after surviving a virus that wiped out most American children. - Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Feeling cast off when her twin sister outgrows their shared love for a favorite fictional character, Cath, a dedicated fan-fiction writer, struggles to survive on her own in her first year of college while avoiding a surly roommate, bonding with a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words, and worrying about her fragile father. - Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok.
Ah-Kim Chang and her mother immigrate to Brooklyn, where they work for Kim's Aunt Paula in a Chinatown clothing factory earning barely enough to keep them alive; however, Kim's perseverance and hard work earns her a place at an elite private school where she is befriended by Annette, who helps her adjust to American culture. - I Am the Weapon by Allen Zadoff
Sixteen-year-old Boy Nobody, an assassin controlled by a shadowy government organization, The Program, considers sabotaging his latest mission because his target reminds him of the normal life he craves. - I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson.
A story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal told from different points in time, and in separate voices, by artists Jude and her twin brother Noah. - If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan.
In Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death, seventeen-year-olds Sahar and Nasrin love each other in secret until Nasrin's parents announce their daughter's arranged marriage and Sahar proposes a drastic solution. - The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Hayley Kincaid and her father move back to their hometown to try a 'normal' life, but the horrors he saw in the war threaten to destroy their lives. - One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard.
Tells the story of a small-town baseball team from Illinois in 1971. - Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.
When seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer is sent to perform community service at elderly Vivian Daly's home in order to avoid juvenile hall, she discovers that the two are very much alike, despite the vast age difference. - Positive: A Memoir by Paige Rawl.
A teenager's memoir of the experiences of bullying, being HIV positive and surviving the experiences to become a force for positive change in this world. - Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry.
In a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in his older brother's footsteps and become a bounty hunter. - Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern.
Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized. When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year at Coral Hills High School, these two teens are thrust into each other's lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected. - Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.
At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an Epic, a human with superhuman powers, and now, ten years later, he joins the Reckoners--the only people who are trying to kill the Epics and end their tyranny. - This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales.
Nearly a year after a failed suicide attempt, sixteen-year-old Elise discovers that she has the passion, and the talent, to be a disc jockey.
2015
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- 5th Wave by Richard Yancey.
Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them. - Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Cas Lowood, armed with his late father's mysterious athame, set out to kill a ghost known as Anna Dressed in Blood, but what he believes will be a routine task turns deadly when he discovers Anna is unlike any ghost he has ever encountered before. - Ask the Passengers by A. S. King.
Astrid Jones, who realizes that she is a lesbian, deals with the gossip and rejection she faces by sending love up to the people on airplanes as they pass over her. - Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider.
Star athlete and prom king Ezra Faulkner's life is irreparably transformed by a tragic accident and the arrival of eccentric new girl Cassidy Thorpe. - Code Named Verity by Elizabeth Wein.
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can. - DJ Rising by Love Maia.
Sixteen-year-old Marley Diego-Dylan's career as "DJ Ice" is skyrocketing, but his mother's heroin addiction keeps dragging him back to earth. - Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden.
Chronicles the life of Dong-hyuk Shin, who was raised in a political prison camp in North Korea, and describes the inhuman conditions inside, his harrowing escape from the camp and the country, and his efforts to raise awareness of the camps to others. - Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern.
When high school sophomore Jessie's long-term best friend transforms herself into a punk and goes after Jessie's would-be boyfriend, Jessie decides to visit "the wild nerd yonder" and seek true friends among classmates who play Dungeons and Dragons. - The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd.
Dr. Moreau's daughter, Juliet, travels to her estranged father's island, only to encounter murder, medical horrors, and a love triangle. - A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.
Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss. - Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys.
Josie, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a French Quarter prostitute, is striving to escape 1950 New Orleans and enroll at prestigious Smith College when she becomes entangled in a murder investigation. - The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.
Though she is from a family of clairvoyants, Blue Sargent's only gift seems to be that she makes other people's talents stronger, and when she meets Gansey, one of the Raven Boys from the expensive Aglionby Academy, she discovers that he has talents of his own--and that together their talents are a dangerous mix. - Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.
In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents. - The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith.
Hadley and Oliver fall in love on the flight from New York to London, but after a cinematic kiss they lose track of each other at the airport until fate brings them back together on a very momentous day. - Stolen by Lucy Christopher.
Sixteen-year-old Gemma, a British city-dweller, is abducted while on vacation with her parents and taken to the Australian outback, where she soon realizes. that escape attempts are futile, and in time she learns that her captor is not as despicable as she first believed. - Swim the Fly by Don Calame.
Swim team members and best friends Matt, Sean, and Coop, set themselves the summertime goal of seeing a live girl naked, and while the chances of that happening seem very dim, Matt's personal goal to swim the one-hundred-yard butterfly to impress the new girl on the team seems even less likely to happen. - The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau.
Sixteen-year-old Malencia (Cia) Vale is chosen to participate in The Testing to attend the University; however, Cia is fearful when she figures out that her friends who do not pass The Testing are disappearing. - The Selection by Kiera Cass.
Sixteen-year-old America Singer is living in the caste-divided nation of Illea, which formed after the war that destroyed the United States. America is chosen to compete in the Selection--a contest to see which girl can win the heart of Illea's prince--but all she really wants is a chance for a future with her secret love, Aspen, who is a caste below her. - Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.
After she has served a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, Crown Prince Dorian offers eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien her freedom on the condition that she act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. - Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
A biography of Olympic runner and World War II bombardier, Louis Zamperini, who had been rambunctious in childhood before succeeding in track and eventually serving in the military, which led to a trial in which he was forced to find a way to survive in the open ocean after being shot down. - Winger by Andrew Smith.
Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates.
2014
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.
Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Across the Universe by Beth Revis.
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet 300 years in the future, but 50 years before the ship's scheduled landing, Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber. - Ashes by Ilsa Bick.
Alex has run away and is hiking through the wilderness with her dead parents' ashes, about to say goodbye to the life she no longer wants to live. But then the world suddenly changes. An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky zapping every electronic device and killing the vast majority of adults. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who has changed. - Cinder by Marissa Meyer.
As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world from the lunar people who are waiting to make their move. - Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor.
Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague boarding school, carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters--the chimaerae who form the only family she has ever known. - Divergent by Veronica Roth.
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all. - Everybody Sees the Ants by A. S. King.
Overburdened by his parents' bickering and a bully's attacks, fifteen-year-old Lucky Linderman begins dreaming of being with his grandfather, who went missing during the Vietnam War, but during a visit to Arizona, his aunt and uncle and their beautiful neighbor, Ginny, help him find a new perspective. - Every Day by David Levithan.
Every morning A wakes in a different person's body, in a different person's life, learning over the years never get too attached, until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. - Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John.
Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates' popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along. - Hate List by Jennifer Brown.
Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain. - How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr.
Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated. - I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
Seventeen-year-old Jazz learned all about being a serial killer from his notorious "Dear Old Dad," but believes he has a conscience that will help fight his own urges and right some of his father's wrongs, so he secretly helps the police apprehend the town's newest murderer, "The Impressionist." - Legend by Marie Lu
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-old Day--a famous criminal, and prodigy June--the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy. - Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork.
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm. - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways. - The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez.
Gaby Rodriguez shares her experience growing up in the shadow of low expectations, reveals how she was able to fake her own pregnancy, and reveals all that she learned from the experience. But more than that, Gaby's story is about fighting stereotypes, and how one girl found the strength to forge a bright future for herself. - Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick.
While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali. - Ready player one by Ernest Cline.
In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the Oasis. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines - puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. - Room by Emma Donoghue.
It's Jack's birthday and he's excited about turning five. Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real. Until the day Ma admits that there's a world outside. - Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.
Orphaned by the Border Wars, Alina Starkov is taken from obscurity and her only friend, Mal, to become the protégé of the mysterious Darkling, who trains her to join the magical elite in the belief that she is the Sun Summoner, who can destroy the monsters of the Fold. - Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach.
Just before his sixteenth birthday, Felton Reinstein has a sudden growth spurt that turns him from a small, jumpy, picked-on boy with the nickname of "Squirrel Nut" to a powerful athlete, leading to new friends, his first love, and the courage to confront his family's past and current problems. - Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.
2013
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.
When Clay Jenkins receives a box containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends the night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.
When Anna's romance-novelist father sends her to an elite American boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school, she reluctantly goes, and meets an amazing boy who becomes her best friend, in spite of the fact that they both want something more. - Bruiser by Neil Shusterman.
Inexplicable events start to occur when sixteen-year-old twins Tennyson and Brontë befriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, aptly nicknamed Bruiser, and his little brother, Cody. - Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams.
In a polygamous cult in the desert, Kyra, not yet fourteen, sees being chosen to be the seventh wife of her uncle as just punishment for having read books and kissed a boy, in violation of Prophet Childs' teachings, and is torn between facing her fate and running away from all that she knows and loves. - Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.
When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Fell's older brother suddenly vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London's dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother. - Dark Song by Gail Giles.
After her father loses his job and she finds out that her parents have lied to her, fifteen-year-old Ames feels betrayed enough to become involved with a criminal who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. - Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta.
Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and replaced by an imposter, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow-exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere. - The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another. - Impluse by Ellen Hopkins.
Three teens that meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never have with their parents or anyone else in their lives. - Impossible by Nancy Werlin.
When seventeen-year old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to save them both. - Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically engineered beasts. - Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.
After being interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security after a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, Marcus is released into what is now a police state and uses his expertise in computer hacking to set things right. - Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 by Alexander Gordon Smith.
When fourteen-year-old Alex is framed for murder, he becomes an inmate in the Furnace Penitentiary, where brutal inmates and sadistic guards reign, boys who disappear in the middle of the night sometimes return weirdly altered, and escape might just be possible. - Matched by Ally Condie.
All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, whom to marry. When she is matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn't be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky's face show up on her match disk as well? - Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey.
In 1888, twelve-year-old Will Henry chronicles his apprenticeship with Dr. Warthrop, a New England scientist who hunts and studies real-life monsters, as they discover and attempt to destroy a pod of Anthropophagi. - North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley.
Terra, a sensitive, artistic high school senior born with a facial port-wine stain, struggles with issues of inner and outer beauty with the help of her Goth classmate Jacob. - Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.
When a dark prophecy begins to come true, sixteen-year-old Evie of the International Paranormal Containment Agency must not only try to stop it, she must also uncover its connection to herself and the alluring shapeshifter, Lend. - Riker’s High by Paul Volponi.
Arrested on a minor offense, a New York City teenager attends high school in the jail facility on Rikers Island, as he waits for his case to go to court. - Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi.
In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl. - Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson.
In the months after her sister dies; seventeen-year-old Lennie falls into a love triangle and discovers the strength to follow her dream of becoming a musician. - WAR by Sebastian Junger.
Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm," turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat in this on-the-ground account that follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. - Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green.
When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined as one begins dating the other's best friend, who produces a play revealing his relationship with them both.
2012
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- The Maze Runner by James Dashner.
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- After by Amy Efaw.
In complete denial that she is pregnant, straight-A student and star athlete Devon Davenport leaves her baby in the trash to die, and after the baby is discovered, Devon is accused of attempted murder. - Beastly by Alex Flinn.
A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form. - Before I Die by Jenny Downham.
A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do before she dies. - Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford.
Awkward freshman Will Carter endures many painful moments during his first year of high school before realizing that nothing good comes easily, focus is everything, and the payoff is usually incredible. - Columbine by Dave Cullen.
An account of the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, focusing on the teenage killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, drawing from interviews, police files, psychological studies, and writings and tapes by the boys to look at the signs they left that disaster was looming. - The Compound by S.A. Bodeen.
After his parents, two sisters, and he have spent six years in a vast underground compound built by his wealthy father to protect them from a nuclear holocaust, fifteen-year-old Eli, whose twin brother and grandmother were left behind, discovers that his father has perpetrated a monstrous hoax on them all. - Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan.
After he takes a photograph of a woman who is living on the streets and discovers it to be the meth-addicted mother of his closest friend Marissa, Blake finds himself spending more time with Marissa than with his girlfriend. - Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson.
Recounts the author's experiences as an Army engineer in the Iraq War. - Going Bovine by Libba Bray.
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure. - How to Build a House by Dana Renhardt.
Seventeen-year-old Harper Evans hopes to escape the effects of her father's divorce on her family and friendships by volunteering her summer to build a house in a small Tennessee town devastated by a tornado. - If I Stay by Gayle Forman.
While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death. - The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.
When she is cast out of Wonderland by her evil aunt Redd, young Alyss Heart finds herself living in Victorian Oxford as Alice Liddell, and struggles to keep memories of her kingdom intact until she can return and claim her rightful throne. - Mexican White Boy by Matt de la Pena.
Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California. - Reality Check by Peter Abrahams.
After a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody's college hopes, he drops out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town; but when his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody travels cross-country to join the search. - Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.
In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity. - Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr.
In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car with an older boy, sixteen-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness. - Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff.
The author details his immersion in a world of hardcore drugs, revealing the mental and physical depths of addiction, and the violent relapse one summer in California that forever changed his life, leading him down the road to recovery. - Why I Fight by J. Adams Oaks.
After his house burns down, twelve-year-old Wyatt Reaves takes off with his uncle, and the two of them drive from town to town for six years, earning money mostly by fighting, until Wyatt finally confronts his parents one last time. - Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser.
Madison, a senior at a suburban New York high school, tries to uncover who is responsible for the disappearance of her friends, popular students mentioned in the posts of an anonymous blogger, while she, herself, is being stalked online and in-person. - World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks.
An account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the predatory undead is told from the perspective of dozens of survivors who describe in their own words the epic human battle for survival.
2011
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school mascot. - Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee.
When she is almost sixteen years old, Rosemary decides she is sick of being overweight, mocked at school and at Heavenly Hair--her mother's beauty salon--and feeling out of control, and as she slowly loses weight, she realizes that she is able to cope with her mother's cancer, having a boyfriend for the first time, and discovering that other people's lives are not as perfect as they seem from the outside. - Boot Camp by Todd Strasser.
After ignoring several warnings to stop dating his teacher, Garrett is sent to Lake Harmony, a boot camp that uses unorthodox and brutal methods to train students to obey their parents. - Deadline by Chris Crutcher.
Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos." - Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.
Frankie Landau-Banks attempts to take over a secret, all-male society at her exclusive prep school, and her antics with the group soon draw some unlikely attention and have unexpected consequences that could change her life forever. - Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin.
After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live." - Evermore: The Immortals by Alyson Noel.
Since the car accident that claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever can see auras and hear people's thoughts, and she goes out of her way to hide from other people until she meets Damen, another psychic teenager who is hiding even more mysteries. - Graceling by Kristin Cashore.
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace of killing and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king. - Hold Tight by Harlan Coben.
Mike and Tia Baye, worried about their sixteen-year-old son Adam, wrestle with whether to spy on his computer, and discover details about their son's friend Spencer's suicide while a killer stalks the neighborhood. - House Rules: A Memoir by Rachel Sontag.
The author reflects on her father's control and abusiveness and discusses how she broke free from his rules. - Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen.
Plagued by Tourette's syndrome and a stepfather who despises him, Sam meets an old man in his small Minnesota town who sends him on a road trip designed to help him discover the truth about his life. - Just Listen by Sarah Dessen.
Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life. - Paper Towns by John Green.
One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears. - Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles.
When wealthy, seemingly perfect Brittany and Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, develop a relationship after Alex discovers that Brittany is not exactly who she seems to be, they must face the disapproval of their schoolmates--and others. - Right Behind You by Gail Giles.
After spending over four years in a mental institution for murdering a friend in Alaska, fourteen-year-old Kip begins a completely new life in Indiana with his father and stepmother under a different name, but has trouble fitting in and finds there are still problems to deal with from his childhood. - Rucker Park Setup by Paul Volponi.
While playing in a crucial basketball game on the very court where his best friend was murdered, Mackey tries to come to terms with his own part in that murder and decide whether to maintain his silence or tell J.R.'s father and the police what really happened. - Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner.
Shakespeare Shapiro has always hated his name and has always gotten teased about it all the way through school; however, he may get his revenge through his memoirs, a school project, that has chronicled every detail of his life. - Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
Afghan women Mariam and Laila grow close, despite their nearly twenty-year age difference and initial rivalry, as they suffer at the hands of a common enemy--their abusive, much-older husband, Rasheed. - Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts. - Unwind by Neal Shusterman.
Three teens embark upon a cross-country journey in order to escape from a society that salvages body parts from children ages thirteen to eighteen. - Wake by Lisa McMann.
Ever since she was eight years old, high school student Janie Hannagan has been uncontrollably drawn into other people's dreams, but it is not until she befriends an elderly nursing home patient and becomes involved with an enigmatic fellow-student that she discovers her true power.
2010
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.
Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizarre world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships. - Aftershock by Kelly Easton.
In shock and unable to speak after being in a car accident in Oregon which killed his parents, seventeen-year-old Adam journeys across the country to his home in Rhode Island. - Avalon High by Meg Cabot.
Having moved to Annapolis, Maryland, with her medievalist parents, high school junior Ellie enrolls at Avalon High School where several students may or may not be reincarnations of King Arthur and his court. - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. - Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson.
On the payroll as an assistant to her coroner father, seventeen-year-old Cameryn Mahoney uses her knowledge of forensic medicine to catch the killer of a friend while putting herself in terrible danger. - Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah.
Year Eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith--without losing her identity or sense of style. - The Good Guy by Dean Koontz.
Tim Carrier, a low-profile stonemason with a mysterious past, is drawn into a life-and-death drama when he is mistaken for a hit man and feels compelled to warn the intended victim and try to save her life. - Gym Candy by Carl Deuker.
Mick Johnson works hard for a placement on the varsity team during his freshman year, and decides to use steroids in order to hold onto his edge, despite the consequences to his health and social life. - The Haunting for Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding.
As Thaniel, a wych-hunter, and Cathaline, his friend and mentor, try to destroy the terrible creatures that infest the alleys of London's Old Quarter, their lives become entwined with that of Alaizabel Cray, a woman who may be either mad or possessed. - I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter.
As a sophomore at a secret spy school and the daughter of a former CIA operative, Cammie is sheltered from "normal teenage life" until she meets a local boy while on a class surveillance mission. - Inexcusable by Chris Lynch.
High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong. - Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles.
In the year following one fateful night, Caleb Becker spends his time in juvenile detention while Maggie Armstrong spends hers in hospitals and physical therapy, and when the two come face-to-face once more, they must do their best to mend the past and heal their emotional wounds. - Life as We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer.
Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. - A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah.
This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war, goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare. - Look Me in the Eye: My Life wit Asperger's Syndrome by John Robison.
John Robison recounts his struggles to fit in and communicate with others as he grew up, describing why he had so many problems relating to others and why he often turned to machines for comfort, rather than people, and explains how his life was changed when he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at age forty. - The Luxe by Anna Gobersen.
In 1899 Manhattan, the drowning of beautiful Elizabeth Holland, daughter of New York society's ruling family, brings to the surface the scandalous behavior of several teenagers of varying social class. - Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.
The people of Sterling, New Hampshire, are forever changed after a shooting at the high school leaves ten people dead, and the judge presiding over the trial tries to remain unbiased, even though her daughter witnessed the events and was friends with the assailant. - Pride of Baghdad by Brian Vaughan.
A pride of lions escapes from the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq War and question the meaning of freedom. Presented in graphic novel format. - Rooftop by Paul Volponi.
Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on the roof of a New York City housing project, seventeen-year-old Clay is dragged into the whirlwind of political manipulation that follows. - Rule of Survival by Nancy Werlin.
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother. - Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.
Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see fairies, is drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle by Keenan, the terrifying but alluring Summer King, who determines that she must become his queen and save summer from perishing.
2009
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Crank by Ellen Hopkins.
Kristina Georgia Snow's life is turned upside-down, when she visits her absentee father, gets turned on to the drug "crank", becomes addicted, and is led down a desperate path that threatens her mind, soul, and her life.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings and Flew Away by Joyce Carol Oates.
Blaming herself for the car accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge that killed her mother, fifteen-year-old Jenna undergoes a difficult physical and emotional recovery. - The Bonemender by Holly Bennett.
In this fantasy, Gabrielle is a bonemender, a healer, who falls in love with a man whom fate seems to have forbidden her, but they must both think about war before they can think about love. - Catch by Will Leitch.
Teenager Tim Temples must decide if he wants to leave his comfortable life in a small town and go to college. - Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock.
After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her. - The Girls by Lori Lansens.
A fictional autobiography of conjoined twins told by Rose and Ruby Darlen, two young women who, nearing the age of thirty, are about to become history's oldest surviving twins to be joined at the head. - Hawksong by Amelia Atwater Rhodes.
In a land that has been at war so long that no one remembers the reason for fighting, the shapeshifters who rule the two factions agree to marry in the hope of bringing peace, despite deep-seated fear and distrust of each other. - I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak.
After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, which helps him start to get over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness. - It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini.
New York City teenager Craig Gilner succumbs to academic and social pressures at an elite high school and enters a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide. - Jennifer Government by Max Barry.
A satire of modern life in which Hack, a corporate employee in a future, extraordinarily capitalist, America, is pressured to commit murder as part of his promotion and is soon chased by a government agent--Jennifer Government--determined to punish Hack's boss, who also happens to be her ex. - The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.
After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods. - Looking for Alaska by John Green.
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. - A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly.
Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and boyfriend, takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a guest renews her determination to live her own life. - Peeps by Scott Westerfeld.
Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected. - Raiders Night by Robert Lipsyte.
Matt Rydeck, co-captain of his high school football team, witnesses the rape of a rookie player by teammates and struggles with his own use of performance-enhancing drugs. - Sold by Patricia McCormick.
A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal, is sold into prostitution in India. - Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess.
Haunted by flashbacks, fifteen-year-old Meredith learns that three years in prison has not changed the abusive father who molested her. - Taken by Chris Jordan.
Kate Bickford's 11-year-old son, Tomas is kidnapped by Capt. Steve Cutter (former Special Ops.) and he frames her for the murder of her son's baseball coach, Sheriff Fred Corso. - The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult.
Comic book artist Daniel Stone, a stay-at-home dad with a fourteen-year-old daughter Trixie, and an unfaithful wife, turns a blind eye to Trixie's first broken heart and wife Laura's affair, but the feelings of rage he has buried for years come to the surface when Trixie is raped at a party and accuses her former boyfriend. - Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.
Greg Mortenson recounts the experiences he had while trying to help impoverished villages in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya build schools for their children. - The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima.
Sixteen-year-old Jack discovers that he is one of the last warriors of the Weirlind, an underground society of magical people, and must fight to determine which house--the White Rose or the Red Rose--will rule the Weir. - What Happened to Cass McBride? by Gail Giles.
After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle Kirby decides to exact revenge on the person he holds responsible.
2008
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Bleachers by John Grisham.
When his old coach dies, high school football star Neely Crenshaw returns to his hometown after fifteen years, reunites with his former teammates, and struggles to resolve his mixed feelings about the man. - Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan.
Paul's simple high-school life is confused by his desire for another boy who seems unattainable, until Paul's friends help him find the courage to pursue the object of his affections. - A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb.
After benignly haunting a series of people for 130 years, Helen meets a teenage boy who can see her and together they unlock the mysteries of their pasts. - Dropping in with Andy Mac: The Life of a Pro Skateboarder by Andy MacDonald.
World champion skateboarder Andy Macdonald tells his life story, describing his childhood in Massachusetts and his climb to the top of his sport. - Fault Line by Janet Tashjian.
Seveteen-year-old Becky Martin, an aspiring comic, must find the courage to get the help she needs when her boyfriend Kip, a rising star in the San Francisco comedy club scene, becomes emotionally and physically abusive. - The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.
A bitter eighty-three-year-old war veteran who believes his life is meaningless dies while trying to save a little girl's life and finds himself in heaven, where five people from his past--some loved ones, some strangers--explain what his years on Earth really meant, and whether or not he succeeded in saving the child. - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
The author recalls her life growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father and distant mother, and describes how she and her siblings had to fend for themselves until they finally found the resources and will to leave home. - Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde.
While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the game quickly or be damaged herself. - The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States. - Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis by Peter Nelson.
Recalls the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of World War II, the Navy cover-up and unfair court martial of the ship's captain, and how a young boy helped the survivors set the record straight fifty-five years later. - Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson.
After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the "birdkids," who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose. - The Meq by Steve Cash.
Twelve-year-old Zianno Zezen learns that he is a member of a race know as the Meq and possess amazing powers which he endeavors to use against a sinister villain, the Flower of Evil. - Pirates!: The True and Remarkable Adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington, Female Pirates by Celia Rees.
At the dawn of the eighteenth century, Nancy Kington and Minerva Sharpe, set sail from Jamaica on a pirate vessel, hoping to escape from an arranged marriage and slavery. - Rock Star, Superstar by Blake Nelson.
When Pete, a talented bass player, moves from playing in the high school jazz band to playing in a popular rock group, he finds the experience exhilarating even as his new fame jeopardizes his relationship with girlfriend Margaret. - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.
Friends Snow Flower and Lily find solace in their bond as they face isolation, arranged marriages, loss, and motherhood in nineteenth-century China. - Tell No One by Harlen Coben.
Eight years after the disappearance of his wife, Dr. David Beck receives an e-mail message containing hints that Elizabeth is alive, prompting him to leave everyone he knows and trusts to try and find her, while being pursued by the police who believe he is responsible for her murder. - Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.
When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life. - Tithe by Holly Black.
Sixteen-year-old Kaye, who has been visited by faeries since childhood, discovers that she herself is a magical faerie creature with a special destiny. - Twenty-Four Girls in 7 Days by Alex Bradley.
Unlucky in love, teenager Jack Grammar cannot get a date to prom until his friends play a practical joke and place a personal ad in the school online newspaper on his behalf. Now Jack has twenty-four dates and just seven days until prom. - Upstate by Kalisha Buckhorn.
Seventeen-year-old Antonio and his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Natasha, find their love tested when Antonio is wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. - Yossel by Joe Kubert.
Fifteen-year-old Yossel, a Jew who only wants to be an artist, struggles to survive in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, while recording the horror he sees around him in his sketch pad in the days leading up to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.
2007
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.
Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend Shay decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen year old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Acceleration by Graham McNamee.
Stuck working in the lost and found department of the Toronto Transit Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him. - Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn.
In ancient Japan, Takeo, a sixteen-year-old saved from a massacre by the mysterious Lord Otori, struggles to reconcile his dual nature--the one given him by the Hidden, the pacifist people among whom he was born and raised, and the one inherited from his father, a celebrated assassin. - All-American Girl by Meg Cabot.
Sophomore Samantha Madison stops a presidential assassination attempt, is appointed teen ambassador to the United Nations, and catches the eye of the very cute First Son. - The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett.
A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king. - Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston.
The author recounts his harrowing experiences of being trapped for six days in Blue John Canyon in Utah and having to amputate his own right arm in order to save his life. - Blood Red Horse by K. M. Grant.
A special horse named Hosanna changes the lives of two English brothers and those around them as they fight with King Richard I against Saladin's armies during the Third Crusades. - The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon.
Presents the true story of Brent Runyon who at fourteen set himself on fire and sustained burns over eighty percent of his body, and describes the months of physical and mental rehabilitation that followed as he attempted to pull his life together. - Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.
Dexter Morgan feels the murders he commits are justified since he only kills Miami's worst criminals and deviants, but his sense of pride and accomplishment are threatened when a second serial killer arrives, copying Dexter's style and implicating him in more murders. - Donorboy by Brendan Halpin.
Rosalind, a fourteen-year-old orphan, becomes the ward of her biological father after the tragic death of her gay mother, and struggles with the adjustment of getting to know a father she never knew. - Fleshmarket by Nicola Morgan.
In nineteenth-century Scotland, following the death of his mother during surgery, Robbie decides to take revenge on the surgeon who performed the operation, Dr. Robert Knox, and in the process, makes a gruesome discovery about the lengths the medical profession will go to advance its knowledge of anatomy. - Godless by Pete Hautman.
When sixteen-year-old Jason Bock and his friends create their own religion to worship the town's water tower, what started out as a joke begins to take on a power of its own. - A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world. - Guts by Gary Paulsen.
The author relates incidents in his life and how they inspired parts of his books about the character, Brian Robeson. - High Heat by Carl Deuker.
High school sophomore and star pitcher Shane Hunter's life of affluence and private school begins to fall apart when his father, owner of a Lexus dealership, is arrested for money laundering. - A Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos.
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer. - Jude by Kate Morgenroth.
Still reeling from his drug-dealing father's murder, moving in with the wealthy mother he never knew, and transferring to a private school, fifteen-year-old Jude is tricked into pleading guilty to a crime he did not commit. - Redemption by Julie Chibbaro.
Chronicles the arduous journey of a twelve-year-old English girl and her mother as they flee with other religious protesters to the New World in the early 1500's, and the heartbreak and hope they find when they arrive. - Shattering Glass by Gail Giles.
Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the school nerd into Prince Charming. - Sickened by Julie Gregory.
The author describes her life as the daughter of a woman afflicted with Munchausen by proxy, a form of child abuse in which a parent, most often a mother, invents or induces illness in a child in order to gain attention from medical professionals, tells how she was able to save herself, and discusses her efforts to have another young girl removed from her mother's care. - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares.
Carmen decides to discard an old pair of jeans, but Tibby, Lena, and Bridget think they are great and decide that whoever the pants fit best will get them. When the jeans fit everyone perfectly, a sisterhood and a memorable summer begin. - Who Am I Without Him? by Sharon G. Flake.
Presents ten short stories about teenage girls struggling with issues of self-worth.
2006
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.
Thirteen-year-old Anna, conceived specifically to provide blood and bone marrow for her sister Kate who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at the age of two, decides to sue her parents for control of her body when her mother wants her to donate a kidney to Kate.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper.
A high school junior and his cousin suffer the ramifications of joining what seems to be a "reputable" school club. - Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek.
World-renowned concert pianist Mona Golabek shares her mother's journey through World War II and of the extraordinary gift that became her enduring legacy to her daughter, the gift of music. - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. - Earth, My Butt & Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler.
Feeling like she does not fit in with the other members of her family, who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking, fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her. - Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.
Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection in a time-altered Great Britain in which messing with the classics is a punishable offense, sets out to apprehend a criminal who is murdering characters from works of literature and has chosen Jane Eyre as his next victim. - First Part Last by Angela Johnson.
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter. - Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.
Imagines the young woman in Johannes Vermeer's mysterious painting "The Girl With a Pearl Earring" as a sixteen-year-old Dutch girl named Griet who sparks the interest of the artist when she becomes a maid in his turbulent household. - Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian.
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference in the world, tries to maintain his secret identity as the author of a web site that is receiving national attention. - Inside Out by Terry Trueman.
A sixteen-year-old with schizophrenia is caught up in the events surrounding an attempted robbery by two other teens who eventually hold him hostage. - King of the Mild Frontier By Chris Crutcher.
Chris Crutcher, author of young adult novels such as "Ironman" and "Whale Talk," as well as short stories, tells of growing up in Cascade, Idaho, and becoming a writer. - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father's servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing Hassan's son from a life of slavery to a Taliban official. - Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.
Tom, a third class apprentice in a distant future in which technology has been lost and tiered cities move about the Earth on caterpillar tracks, often absorbing smaller locales, has many dangerous adventures after being pushed off London by Thaddeus Valentine, a historian who is trying to resurrect an ancient atomic weapon. - Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier.
A graphic novel in which a father and son struggle to come to terms with the death of the family's mother. - Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz.
Odd Thomas, a short order cook at the Pico Mundo Grill, keeps his ability to speak with ghosts a secret from all but his girlfriend, Stormy, and the local police chief who he occasionally helps solve or prevent crime, but his unusual talent leads him and his fellow citizens into big trouble when a strange man comes to town followed by a horde of borachs--ghostly harbingers of mayhem. - Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez.
Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other. - Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever. - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.
Explores how human cadavers have been used throughout history, discussing how the use of dead bodies has benefited every aspect of human existence. - Sweetblood: A Vampire Novel by Pete Hautman.
After a lifetime of being a model student, sixteen-year-old Lucy Szabo is suddenly in trouble at school, at home, with the so-called vampires she has met online and in person, and most of all with her uncontrolled diabetes. - The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen.
The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally faces her grief. - Unusual Rules by Joyce Maynard.
Thirteen-year-old Wendy, grieving the death of her mother in the collapse of the World Trade Center, is taken to live with her father in California where she learns important life lessons from a variety of people before returning home to her stepfather and brother, where she feels she truly belongs. - You Remind Me of You: A Poetry Memoir by Eireann Corrigan.
A collection of poems in which the author details her struggle with eating disorders and her changed outlook on life after the suicide attempt of her boyfriend.
2005
WINNER
NOMINATED BOOKS
- A Child Called "It" by David Pelzer.
David Pelzer, victim of one of the worst child abuse cases in the history of California, tells the story of how he survived his mother's brutality and triumphed over his past.
NOMINATED BOOKS
- Angus, Thongs, & Full- Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison.
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie. - Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier.
As Dimple Lala turns seventeen, she realizes that life is about to become more complex as her best friend starts pulling away and her parents try to find a suitable boyfriend for Dimple, despite the fact that she is not interested. - Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn.
Sent to counseling for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, and ordered to keep a journal, sixteen-year-old Nick recounts his relationship with Caitlin, examines his controlling behavior and anger, and describes living with his abusive father. - Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes.
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates. - Cut by Patricia McCormick.
While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better. - Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card.
Bean must overcome his past and prove to the recruiters at the Battle School that he can help save the planet from an alien invasion. - Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King.
Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland, lost in the woods after she wanders off to escape the bickering between her mom and her brother, boosts her courage by imagining that her hero, Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon, is with her, helping her survive an unknown enemy. - Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North. - Hanging on to Max by Margaret Bechard.
When his girlfriend decides to give their baby away, seventeen-year-old Sam is determined to keep him and raise him alone. - Imani All Mine by Connie Porter.
Tasha, a fifteen-year-old mother, is proud of her baby girl and is determined to be a good parent to her child, but she must draw upon her newfound faith to go on when tragedy strikes. - Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
Pi Patel, having spent an idyllic childhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper, sets off with his family at the age of sixteen to start anew in Canada, but his life takes a marvelous turn when their ship sinks in the Pacific, leaving him adrift on a raft with a 450-pound Bengal tiger for company. - Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.
Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon, the victim of a sexual assault and murder, looks on from the afterlife as her family deals with their grief, and waits for her killer to be brought to some type of justice. - Monster by Walter Dean Myers.
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken. - Sabriel by Garth Nix.
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead. - Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.
Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared for Lily since her mother's death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina, at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August. - Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen.
Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat. - Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman.
Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent. - Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school. - Squared Circle by James Bennett.
Sonny, a university freshman and star basketball player, finds that the pressures of college life, NCAA competition, and an unsettling relationship with his feminist cousin bring up painful memories that he must face before he can decide what is important in his life. - Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill him. - Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.
The story of a small mountain village in England and housemaid Anna Frith as they try to survive the terrible plague year of 1666.