Fiction (Grades 6-8) | Fiction (Grades 9-12) | Non-Fiction (Grades 6-12)

Fiction Nominees:  Grades 6-8

Allen, Will.  Swords for Hire.
In the ancient kingdom of Parmall, sixteen-year-old farm boy Sam Hatcher sets out with Rigby Skeet, an unconventional Royal Guard to rescue the rightful monarch, whose wicked brother is holding him captive in a faraway dungeon.

Asai, Carrie.  The Book of the Sword.
After learning that her entire life is based on falsehoods and the people she has always trusted are bent on her destruction, nineteen-year-old Heaven Kogo becomes Samurai Girl, determined to avenge her brother’s cruel death.

Brennan, Herbie.  Faerie Wars.
Distraught over his parent’s pending separation, Henry Atherton rescues Prince Pyrgus Malvae from the faerie realm and then works with him in an attempt to overcome the treacherous Faeries of the Night.

DuPrau, Jeanne.  City of Ember.
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina and her friend Doon Harrow trade jobs on Assignment Day in an attempt to decode a secret message and save the post-holocaust city of Ember from its accelerating decay.

Hale, Shannon.  The Goose Girl.
Seventeen-year-old Crown Princess Anidori of Kildenree is betrayed by her entourage en route to her wedding and becomes a goose girl until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim her crown.

Henkes, Kevin.  Olive’s Ocean.
After receiving a page of her shy, and recently deceased, classmate Olive’s diary, twelve-year-old Martha struggles to understand Olive’s written admiration for her while coming to grips with her relationship with her aging grandmother and feelings of romance for an older boy.

Horowitz, Anthony.  Skeleton Key.
Fourteen-year-old Alex Rider, reluctant teenage-spy, is sent to check out suspicious events at the Wimbledon tennis championships and finds himself ensnared in Chinese gangs, a uranium-yielding Russian general  and a ticking nuclear bomb.

Horvath, Polly.  The Canning Season.
When thirteen-year-old Ratchet is sent by her hardhearted mother to spend the summer in Maine with her eccentric and elderly great-aunts Tilly and Penpen, she finds herself hearing animated and grotesque stories from the past and finds Glen Rosa an unexpected, and welcome, haven.

Juby, Susan.  Alice, I Think.
Through journal entries, fifteen-year-old self-proclaimed misfit Alice deals with re-entry into public school after years of homeschooling, the embarrassments of ex-hippie parents, a budding romance, and her life goals.

Koja, Kathe.  Buddha Boy.
Sophomore Justin befriends Michael (or Jinsen, his spiritual name) , the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.

Orlev, Uri.  Run, Boy, Run: A Novel.
The true survival story of orphaned eight-year-old Jewish Srulik Frydman who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and survives the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Polish countryside.

Osa, Nancy.  Cuba 15.
Just turned fifteen, Violet Paz reluctantly prepares to observe her  quinceañera, a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday, in order to satisfy her Cuban granrmother’s wishes.

Pratchett, Terry.  The Wee Free Men.
Tiffany, a young witch-in-training, enters Fairyland and teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue pixies, to rescue her kidnapped baby brother and to ward off a sinister invasion from the Queen of the Elves.

Schreiber, Ellen.  Vampire Kisses.
When misfit sixteen-year-old Raven, a Goth girl with aspirations of becoming a vampire, meets the mysterious new boy who has moved into the town’s abandoned mansion, she is sure he is the answer to her dreams.

Shusterman, Neal.  Full Tilt:  A Novel.
Sixteen-year-old, responsible Blake is invited to a mysterious, invitation-only carnival by the older, beautiful Cassandra; however, his reckless younger brother Quinn steals the invitation.  When Quinn is later discovered in a coma, it is up to Blake to save his brother and battle Cassandra to the defeat of her surreal game for her victims’ souls.

Slade, Arthur G.  Dust.
It is a bone-dry summer in his Saskatchewan farm town home and eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, while the town’s children begin to disappear.

Spinelli, Jerry.  Milkweed:  A Novel.
A young orphan boy with no name or background struggles to survive and remain hopeful during the Nazi occupation in Warsaw.

Stroud, Jonathan.  The Amulet of Samarkand.
Set in modern-day London, Nathaniel, a young magician's apprentice stirs up a tumult of magical espionage, murder, and revenge by summoning up the magical djinni Bartimaeus and instructing him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Vande Velde, Vivian.  Heir Apparent.
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.

Woodson, Jacqueline.  Locomotion.
In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie C. Motion writes about his life and the pain of the death of his parents in a house fire, his separation from his beloved younger sister who is a foster home, being poor and bullied, and finding his poetic voice through the aid of an insightful and caring teacher.

Fiction Nominees:  Grades 9-12

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Purple Hibiscus.
In Kambili’s cold and wealthy family, some secrets are never told….

Libba Bray .  A Great and Terrible Beauty.
Gemma finds Victorian boarding school confining, until she discovers the delights and dangers of the otherworldly Realms.

Jennifer Donnelly.  A Northern Light.
Murder and romance complicate Mattie’s sixteenth summer in 1906.

Helen Frost .  Keesha's House.
Seven teens facing serious problems find a big house with a big heart.

Gail Giles.  Dead Girls Don't Write Letters.
Sunny’s sister Jazz is dead, right? So how can she be coming home again?

K.L. Going.  Fat Kid Rules the World.
Troy Billings finds his weight and his life unendurable, until Curt, homeless punk and legendary guitarist, asks him to join a band.

Alison Goodman.  Singing the Dogstar Blues.
Joss, about to be expelled from a university program in time-travel studies, must find a way to help her alien roommate search the past.

Mark Haddon.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Autistic Christopher is determined to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor’s dog.

Pete Hautman.  Sweetblood.
Goth chick Lucy believes diabetics like her were the origin of early vampire legends.

Angela Johnson.  The First Part Last.
Bobby, at 16, tries to juggle school, friends and parenting a newborn.

David Levithan.  Boy Meets Boy.
Humorous novel of a warm, non-judgmental high school where “it’s a wonderful world.”

Carolyn Mackler.  The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.
Plump and ordinary in a family of thin achievers, Virginia must learn to trust herself.

Graham McNamee.  Acceleration.
Duncan discovers the journal of an incipient serial killer.

Lauren Myracle.  Kissing Kate.
Lissa and Kate have been best friends forever…until now.

Jeff Parker.  The Interman.
Mutant Van Meach learns he is a failed CIA experiment and a hunted man in this graphic novel.

Adam Rapp.  33 Snowfish.
Searing, dark tale of teen runaways on the underside of life.

Douglas Rees.  Vampire High.
Cody finds himself attending Vlad Dracul Magnet School as a token non-vampire student

Philip Reeve.  Mortal Engines.
In the far future, Tom and the mysteriously scarred Hester Shaw seek a destructive relic from the ancient Sixty-Second War.

Terry Trueman.  Inside Out.
A schizophrenic overdue for his medication, Zach becomes a hostage in a coffee-shop holdup.

Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.  Sorcery and Cecelia.
Cousins Kate and Cecelia’s lively correspondence in 1817 England reveals that sinister wizardly activities endanger them both.

Nonfiction Nominees: Grades 6-12

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The story of a childhood (A/YA)
Marjane Satrapi’s wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir in graphic novel format that recalls her childhood growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

Thompson, Craig. Blankets. (Grades 10+)
Love and loss in a small Wisconsin town: A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith. In graphic novel format.

Bird, Eugenie. Fairie-ality. (Grades 6+)
Gorgeous art – a fashion book for the well-dressed sprite! Fairie haute couture specialists David Ellwand and Eugenie Bird present nearly 150 delicate outfits fit for any fairie queen.

Bonnell, Jennifer. D.I.Y. Girl: The real girl’s guide to making everything from lip gloss to lamps.
(Grades 7-10)
A step-by-step guide to making clothes, beauty products, fashion accessories, and decorative items for the home using commonly available materials.

Capuzzo, Michael. Close to shore: The terrifying shark attacks of 1916. (Grades 7+)
Details the first documented cases in American history of sharks attacking swimmers, which occurred along the coast of New Jersey in 1916.

Crowe, Chris. Getting away with murder: The true story of the Emmett Till case. (Grades 7+)
The brutal killing of a 14-year-old boy in Mississippi and the court's failure to convict the white murderers was a powerful national catalyst for the civil rights movement.

Crutcher, Chris. King of the mild frontier: An ill-advised autobiography. (Grades 8+)
Even if you’ve never read one of Crutcher’s novels, you will want to read his hilarious, heartbreaking memoir. You’ll laugh until your sides ache and cry until you’re out of Kleenex.

Freedman, Russell. In defense of liberty: The story of America’s Bill of Rights.
(Grades 5+)
A knock on the door at midnight. Torture and unfair imprisonment. Focusing on examples of ordinary citizens who have had the courage to challenge their government and raise their voices at injustice, Russell Freedman's compelling text is essential reading for every American.

Greenberg, Jan. Runaway girl: The artist Louise Bourgeois. (Grades 8+)
Louise Bourgeois is one of the most important - and controversial - artists of the twentieth century. Known for her graphic, highly personal, and sometimes disturbing sculpture, Bourgeois broke down barriers in the male-dominated art world as she struggled to make sense of her troubled past.

Hopkinson, Deborah. Shutting out the sky: Life in the tenements of New York, 1880-1924. (Grades 5-8)
The author focuses on the personal stories, told in their own words, of five young immigrants who made New York their home between 1880 and 1924.

Hoye, Jacob. Tupac: Resurrection, 1971-1996. (A/YA)
A stunningly designed, richly photographed companion to the much-anticipated documentary from MTV Films, "Resurrection" brings unprecedented clarity and soulful intimacy to the writings and life of Tupac Shakur.

Hoye, Jacob. Boards: The art and design of the skateboard. (A/YA)
Features hundreds of color images of designs of skateboard decks from some of today’s top artists and graphic designers.

Kraft, Betsy Harvey. Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit (Grades 5-9)
A biography of the energetic 26th president of the United States who loved a good fight and frequently acted like a kid but used his presidency to change things for the better.

Rifa’i, Amal and Odelia Ainbinder. We just want to live here:An unlikely teenage friendship in the two Jerusalems.  (Grades 9-12)
Moving letters between two teenage girls from Jerusalem, one Palestinian and one Israeli. They write frankly of their anger, frustrations, and fear, but also of their hopes and dreams for a brighter future.

Murphy, Jim. An American plague: The true and terrifying story of the yellow fever epidemic of 1973.
(Grades 6-10)
It's 1793, and there's an invisible killer roaming the streets of Philadelphia. This killer has a name -- yellow fever -- but everything else about it is a mystery.

Paulsen, Gary. How Angel Peterson got his name and other outrageous tales of extreme sports. (Grades 6-9)
Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evil Knievel.

Platt, Richard. Crime scene: Ultimate guide to forensic science (A/YA)
A truly absorbing book that uses case studies and amazing digital imagery to show how science helps uncover the truth about how crimes were committed and who carried them out.

Roach, Mary. Stiff: The curious lives of human cadavers. (A/YA)
An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

Salzman, Mark. True notebooks. (A/YA)
Writing workshops in a Los Angeles juvenile facility produce unexpected results. Both selections from the boys' writing and Salzman's storytelling give us multidimensional images of teenagers thrown into a justice system concerned only with punishment

Schuff, Nancy Rica. Odd jobs: Portraits of unusual occupations. (A/YA)
What will you be when you grow up? Doctor? Lawyer? Dinosaur duster? There are hundreds of hidden jobs out there and this fast-reading book will introduce readers to some of the more interesting ones available.