Award Nominated Books for Teens

Belle Prater’s Boy ~Ruth White
Determined to learn the truth when her Aunt Belle disappears from their Appalachian community, twelve-year-old Gypsy befriends her cousin, Woodrow, who knows more than he is willing to admit about his mother’s fate.

The Ear, the Eye and the Arm ~Nancy Farmer
In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine, while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them.

The Facts Speak for Themselves ~Brock Cole
Thirteen-year-old Linda gradually reveals how her life with her unstable mother and her younger brother led to her rape and a tragic event that she witnessed.

For Mike ~Shelly Sykes
When Jeff's best friend Mike disappears in the fall of their senior year in high school, Jeff has disturbing dreams in which Mike urges him to come get him, and a secret begins to unfold.

Getting Lincoln’s Goat ~E.M. Goldman
Tenth-grader Elliot wants to be a detective when he grows up and when he discovers that Lincoln the goat, the school mascot, is missing he gets a taste of the real thing.

Hard Love ~Ellen Wittlinger
John is an unhappy loner and then he falls in love with Marisol, a self-proclaimed “rich spoiled lesbian private-school gifted-and-talented writer virgin” of her own zine.

I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This ~Jacqueline Woodson
Marie, the only black girl in the eighth grade willing to befriend her white classmate Lena, discovers that Lena is keeping a terrible secret.

The Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods ~Ann Cameron
In this funny novel, twelve-year-old Amanda gradually and painfully learns a lot about herself, her parents, and her older sister.

Somewhere in the Darkness ~Walter Dean Myers
Fourteen-year-old Jimmy accompanies his father, who has recently escaped from prison, on a trip that turns out to be an often painful time of discovery for them both.

Speak ~Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.