Alex Awards
About
The Alex Awards were first given annually beginning in 1998. The titles were selected by the YALSA Adult Books for Young Adults Task Force from the previous year's publishing and were part of the Adult Books for Young Adults Project, which explored the role of adult books in the reading lives of teenagers and was funded by the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust. Edwards was a young adult specialist for many years at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore. Her work is described in her book Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts, and over the years she has served as an inspiration to librarians who serve young adults. With the approval of the Trust, the task force appointed to develop and implement the project named the awards the Alex Awards after Edwards, who was called “Alex” by her friends.
The task force decided to select ten titles annually, and also decided to select a top ten list rather than a single title or a long list because of the popularity of the concept and because it parallels the Top Ten titles selected by the Best Books for Young Adults and Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers committees. The task force members also believed that selecting more than one book provided a greater variety of titles, whereas a longer list would be less selective than desired. A top ten list also allows for a more balanced list—fiction and nonfiction, as well as various genres. The task force also wanted to make diversity a priority in the lists.
In 2002 the Alex Awards were approved as an official ALA award, and the Task Force was superseded by the Alex Awards Committee.
The major sponsor of the Alex Awards continues to be the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust. Booklist is also a sponsor.
Administered by:
Sponsors:
Award Information
| Title | Year | |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By Temi Oh. Published by Saga Press/Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Inc. |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By Angie Cruz. Published by Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers. |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By Maia Kobabe. Published by Lion Forge, an imprint of Oni Press |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By Sara Quin and Tegan Quin. Published by MCD, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and imprint of Macmillan Publishers. |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By AJ Dungo. Published by Nobrow |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By Seanan McGuire. Published by Tor.com Publishing, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, a division of Macmillan. |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By Casey McQuiston. Published by St. Martin’s Griffin, a division of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By Colson Whitehead. Published by Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By Lisa Lutz. Published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC |
2020 - Winner(s) |
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2020 Alex Award Winners
2020 - Winner(s) By C. A. Fletcher, published by Orbit, a division of Hachette Group |
2020 - Winner(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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The Book of Essie
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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Educated: A Memoir
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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Green
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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Home After Dark
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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How Long ’Til Black Future Month?
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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Lawn Boy
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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Spinning Silver
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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Circe
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
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The Black God’s Drums
2019 - Selection(s) |
2019 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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All systems red
2018 - Selection(s) Stuck on a distant planet with an exploratory crew, a Security Robot kills time watching soaps. After a group of scientists is killed, the robot... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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The Clockwork Dynasty
2018 - Selection(s) Automata Elena and Peter are "born" in Peter the Great's Russia… or are they? Can they really live in the power-hungry world of humans? And... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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down among the sticks and bones
2018 - Selection(s) In this dark fable, twins Jillian and Jacqueline venture to a dangerous world where they must choose one of two paths. As they discover their... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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Electric Arches
2018 - Selection(s) Wielding words and images like lasers, and bending genres to her will, Ewing’s poetry and prose tells stories both personal and universal. With humor and... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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hope more powerful than the sea
2018 - Selection(s) This gripping account follows Doaa Al Zamel's journey to Egypt and her harrowing days at sea as she leaves her war-torn home for the promise... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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malagash
2018 - Selection(s) Already grieving for her dying father, Sunday plans to release a computer virus that memorializes his words and laugh. But she begins to realize that... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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Roughneck
2018 - Selection(s) In the snowy recesses of northern Canada, a down-and-out former hockey player must confront his past when his long-lost sister returns to town battling demons... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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She Rides Shotgun
2018 - Selection(s) Polly, an 11-year-old girl with “gunfighter eyes,” her teddy bear, and her estranged father suddenly find themselves struggling for survival in a world ruled by... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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Things We Have in Common
2018 - Selection(s) Yasmin wants to be close to the most beautiful girl in her school, but surely a freak like her has no chance. Unless, that is... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
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An Unkindness of Magicians
2018 - Selection(s) The Wheel is turning and Sydney is determined to have fate spin her way. Meanwhile, magic is faltering and there are people who will do... |
2018 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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Arena
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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Die Young with Me: A Memoir
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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Every Heart a Doorway
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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Romeo and/or Juliet: A Choosable-Path Adventure
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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The Queen of Blood
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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The Regional Office is Under Attack!
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
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The Wasp that Brainwashed the Caterpillar
2017 - Selection(s) |
2017 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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Keija Parssinen
2016 - Winner(s) Published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers (ISBN: 9780062319098) Mercy, a high school basketball star, lives under the thumb of her grandmother, a fierce... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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Ryan Gattis
2016 - Winner(s) Published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers (ISBN: 9780062378798). Los Angeles, 1992: in the chaos of a rioting city, between settling scores and surviving... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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Ta-Nehisi Coates
2016 - Winner(s) Published by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC (ISBN: 9780812993547). Coates writes to his 15-year-old son... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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Camille DeAngelis
2016 - Winner(s) Published by St. Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250046505). Sixteen-year-old Maren literally eats the ones who love her, bones and all. When her mother abandons her, Maren... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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David Wong
2016 - Winner(s) Published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250040190). Zoey never had much ambition beyond being a barista, but when her... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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Sara Nović
2016 - Winner(s) Published by Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC (ISBN: 9780812996340). Ana's early life was ravaged by the 1991 Balkan wars... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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Joe Abercrombie
2016 - Winner(s) Published by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company (ISBN: 9780804178426). A bloodthirsty girl... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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Brandon Stanton
2016 - Winner(s) Published by St. Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250058904). In pictures and interviews that captivate, puzzle and reveal, photojournalist Brandon Stanton collects an immeasurable range of human... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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Liz Suburbia
2016 - Winner(s) Published by Fantagraphics Books Inc. (ISBN: 9781606998410). Adults have disappeared, and Ben Schiller is trying to keep things together until their return in this unsettling... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
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Dan-el Padilla Peralta
2016 - Winner(s) Published by Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC (ISBN: 9781594206528). Overstaying his visa in the U.S. before he was in kindergarten, Padilla... |
2016 - Winner(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Wolf in White Van
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| All the Light We Cannot See
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| Bellweather Rhapsody
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| Bingo’s Run
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| Confessions
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| Everything I Never Told You
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| Lock In
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| The Martian
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| The Terrorist’s Son: A Story of Choice
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| Those Who Wish Me Dead
2015 - Selection(s) |
2015 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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The Sea of Tranquility
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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The Universe Versus Alex Woods
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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Brewster
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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The Death of Bees
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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Golden Boy
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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Help for the Haunted
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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Lives of Tao
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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Lexicon
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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Mother Mother
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
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Relish
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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The Round House
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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Tell the Wolves I’m Home
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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Where’d You Go, Bernadette
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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Caring is Creepy
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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Girlchild
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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Juvenile in Justice
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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My Friend Dahmer
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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One Shot at Forever
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
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Pure
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
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The Talk-Funny Girl
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
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The Night Circus
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
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In Zanesville
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
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Big Girl Small
2012 - Winner(s) |
2012 - Winner(s) |
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The Lover's Dictionary
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
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The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
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Ready Player One
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
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Robopocalypse: A Novel
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
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Salvage the Bones
2012 - Selection(s) |
2012 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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The Vanishing of Katharina Linden
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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The Lock Artist
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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Girl in Translation
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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The Radleys
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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The Reapers Are the Angels
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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The House of Tomorrow
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
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Room: A Novel
2011 - Selection(s) |
2011 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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The Magicians
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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My Abandonment
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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Stitches: A Memoir
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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Tunneling to the Center of the Earth
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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The Bride's Farewell
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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Everything Matters!
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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The Good Soldiers
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
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The Kid's Are All Right: A Memoir
2010 - Selection(s) |
2010 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
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Three Girls and Their Brother
2009 - Selection(s) This witty satire of show-biz politics, told from the perspective of four New York teenage siblings in the eye of a publicity tornado, provides a... |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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Sharp Teeth
2009 - Selection(s) A fast-paced ride through the brutality of L.A.’s wilderness of drugs, gangs, and the connections people make with one another. The fact that most of... |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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The Oxford Project
2009 - Selection(s) In this riveting sociological study, the residents of Oxford, Iowa were photographed in 1984 and then again in 2005. Their compelling life stories, vividly expressed... |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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Mudbound
2009 - Selection(s) At the close of WW II, two soldiers return to their home in the South to find racial tensions as explosive as the battlefields of... |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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City of Thieves
2009 - Selection(s) Two teenage boys encounter cannibals, murderers, prostitutes, and assassins as they struggle to complete an impossible task during the freezing Siege of Leningrad in this... |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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Over and Under
2009 - Selection(s) Andy and Tom’s fourteenth summer is defined by adventures in the woods and caves near their home, a strike that polarizes their small town, and... |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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The Dragons of Babel
2009 - Selection(s) In this original steampunk fantasy, young Will embarks on a quest that takes him to the dizzying heights and gritty depths of the postindustrial world... |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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Finding Nouf
2009 - Selection(s) After a 16-year-old girl from a wealthy Saudi family is found dead in the middle of the desert, a devout Muslim guide and a young... |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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The Good Thief
2009 - Selection(s) In this suspenseful and unpredictable adventure, Ren, a one-handed eighteenth-century orphan, becomes apprenticed to a con man. Surprisingly, Ren seems born to it. |
2009 - Selection(s) |
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Just After Sunset: Stories
2009 - Selection(s) Modern terrors abound—a porta-potty prison, class warfare on an apocalyptic afternoon—in this wickedly compelling collection of macabre, absurd, and gleefully vulgar stories. Scary, dirty fun. |
2009 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| American Shaolin
2008 - Selection(s) A college student tells his fascinating, funny story about traveling from Kansas to China’s Shaolin Temple, where he attempts to master kung fu and find... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| Bad Monkeys
2008 - Selection(s) Jane Charlotte earns her living by killing bad people for good reasons in this high-octane, clever thriller of conspiracies, revenge, and secret government agencies. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| Genghis: Birth of an Empire
2008 - Selection(s) Temujin, the abandoned son of a khan, survives the harsh Asian tundra to become one of the world’s greatest military leaders in this absorbing historical... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| The God of Animals
2008 - Selection(s) After her older sister elopes, 12-year-old Alice is left behind on the family’s rundown Colorado horse farm to cope with her distant parents and the... |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
2008 - Selection(s) Beah tells, in his own words, his harrowing experiences as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone civil war. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| Mister Pip
2008 - Selection(s) On a war-torn Pacific island, 13-year-old Matilda describes how an eccentric white teacher fires the imaginations of the village children by reading Great Expectations aloud. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| The Name of the Wind
2008 - Selection(s) Homeless thief Kvothe wins a place at the school of magic, where he hopes to learn more about the mysterious Chandrian, who murdered his parents. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| The Night Birds
2008 - Selection(s) Asa, a Minnesota boy growing up in the nineteenth century, learns secrets about his family’s violent, complicated past following the bloody Dakota Conflict of 1862. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| The Spellman Files
2008 - Selection(s) Isabel can’t quit her private investigator job; she works for her family, and they’ll kill her if she tries to leave. A quickly paced, quirky mystery. |
2008 - Selection(s) | |
| Tales from the Farm: Essex County, v.1.
2008 - Selection(s) In this stark, moving graphic novel, Lester, a recently orphaned 10-year-old, finds escape in a private fantasy world of aliens and superheroes with his friend... |
2008 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| The Book of Lost Things
2007 - Selection(s) Stephen King meets the Brothers Grimm in this gruesome fairy tale about a motherless boy transported to a world where the path home leads home... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| The Whistling Season
2007 - Selection(s) Rose, "who can’t cook but doesn’t bite" arrives in Montana, bringing joy and order to three motherless boys and their father. |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| Eagle Blue
2007 - Selection(s) Life in a remote Alaskan village is transformed by the championship aspirations of the high-school basketball team. |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| Water for Elephants
2007 - Selection(s) Suddenly orphaned and penniless during the Depression, a veterinary student jumps a third-rate circus train and finds romance, danger, and a bond with a special... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| Color of the Sea
2007 - Selection(s) Raised in the samurai tradition, a teenager struggles to live within this code, even as he decides to fight for the U.S. after the bombing... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| The Floor of the Sky
2007 - Selection(s) Toby, 72, is about to lose the family ranch when Lila, her pregnant granddaughter comes for the summer. Lila uncovers family secrets while trying to... |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.
2007 - Selection(s) A dying woman’s wish leads an abused 15-year-old from the streets of Memphis to a loving family, an education, and a professional football career. |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| Black Swan Green
2007 - Selection(s) In the British village of Black Swan Green, 13-year-old Jason survives ghost sightings, bullies, a first kiss, and his parents divorce. |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| The World Made Straight
2007 - Selection(s) When 17-year-old Travis Shelton discovers a marijuana farm in the Appalachian woods, he begins a confrontation with the subtle evils within his rural world. |
2007 - Selection(s) | |
| The Thirteenth Tale
2007 - Selection(s) Margaret, a shy, unknown biographer, has to sift truth from fiction as she becomes the first person to hear the secrets of a reclusive best-selling... |
2007 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Upstate
2006 - Selection(s) Teens Antonio and Natasha try to keep their love alive through letters after he goes to prison. As Natasha excels in school, Antonio frights for... |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| Anansi Boys
2006 - Selection(s) After Fat Charlie Nancy’s father drops dead on a karaoke stage, Charlie meets Spider, a brother he never knew he had and isn’t sure he... |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| As Simple As Snow
2006 - Selection(s) After his girlfriend mysteriously disappears, high-school student Cayne looks for clues in Anna’s cryptic behavior during their five months together. |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| Never Let Me Go
2006 - Selection(s) There’s a dark secret at the Hailsham School, where the students live in carefully planned, idyllic isolation, ignorant of the future that’s been planned for... |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| Gil's All Fright Diner
2006 - Selection(s) In this gruesome and wacky tale, can two travelers (one vampire, one werewolf) save a roadside diner, besieged by zombies and ghouls, from dark forces... |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| The Necessary Beggar
2006 - Selection(s) A young merchant accused of murder and his family are banished from their otherworld home to begin a strange life of exile in an internment... |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| My Jim
2006 - Selection(s) Sadie Watson’s love and courage carry through the cruelties of slavery into life as a free woman. |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| Jesus Land: A Memoir
2006 - Selection(s) Scheere’s unflinching memoir chronicles life in rural Indiana with her disciplinarian father, fundamentalist mother, and adopted African American brothers. Each child finds a way to... |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| The Glass Castle: A Memoir
2006 - Selection(s) This empowering memoir recounts the strength and creativity of the Walls children as they overcome the poverty and social challenges their parents brought upon them. |
2006 - Selection(s) | |
| Midnight at the Dragon Café
2006 - Selection(s) After leaving China with her mother, Su-Jen enjoys her comfortable new life in Canada, but dark secrets threaten her family’s stability. |
2006 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Swimming to Antarctica
2005 - Selection(s) A long-distance swimmer describes her record-setting swims in the icy waters of the Bering Strait and Antarctica. An inspiring story of personal achievement and determination. |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| Donorboy
2005 - Selection(s) When her lesbian mothers are killed in an accident, 14-year-old Rosalind meets and moves in with her young sperm donor father. With humor and empathy... |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| Shadow Divers
2005 - Selection(s) In this vivid and thrilling account, a journalist recounts the adventures of the two deep-sea divers who discover a WWII German U-boat off the coast... |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| Work of Wolves
2005 - Selection(s) In this moving, romantic novel, a gifted Lakota boy, a German exchange student, and a horse trainer rescue three abused horses, dramatically changing their lives. |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| Truth & Beauty: A Friendship
2005 - Selection(s) As young writers Patchett and Lucy Grealy began a once-in-a-lifetime friendship that lasted until Lucy’s tragic death. With intimacy, grace, and humor, Patchett’s memoir captures... |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| My Sister's Keeper
2005 - Selection(s) Thirteen-year-old Anna knows that she was conceived in order to provide organs and other life support for her critically ill sister. After enduring multiple surgeries... |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| Thinner Than Thou
2005 - Selection(s) Three teens embark on a rescue mission through an America in which bodily perfection has become a religion. This provocative novel satirizes a world of... |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| Project X
2005 - Selection(s) School is a nightmare for eighth-grader Edwin, who suffers daily indignities and bullying. With his only friend, he plots a terrible revenge. A searing, startlingly... |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants
2005 - Selection(s) Sullivan spent a year observing the lives and deaths of New York City’s rats in this surprising, graphic, and entertaining natural history. |
2005 - Selection(s) | |
| Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America
2005 - Selection(s) Almond’s obsession with candy blends family memoir, reporting, and travelogue in a hilarious, unflinching examination of the world of sweets. |
2005 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| The Kite Runner
2004 - Selection(s) Set amid the destruction of contemporary Afghanistan, this debut novel follows two boys, linked by love, lies, sacrifice, and betrayal, whose friendship endures, despite different... |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| The Time Traveler's Wife
2004 - Selection(s) In this arresting debut romance, Henry travels through time and space and meets his bride Clare in all her stages of life, from childhood to... |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
2004 - Selection(s) The predominantly African-American characters in this debut collection of short fiction struggle to maintain their sense of self while confronting unexpected life events. |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| Stiff
2004 - Selection(s) What happens to human cadavers if they fall into the hands of scientists and researchers? Salon columnist Mary Roach explores this question in her... |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| True Notebooks
2004 - Selection(s) While teaching writing to 17-year-olds detained in the Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall, Salzman was surprised by the boys’ talent. Their heartwarming and funny... |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| Persepolis
2004 - Selection(s) In graphic novel format, the author describes her youth in revolutionary Iran. From the overthrow of the Shah to the establishment of the new... |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| Maisie Dobbs
2004 - Selection(s) In post World War I London, Maisie Dobbs takes her first case as a private investigator and experiences flashbacks to her modest upbringing and doomed... |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| Leave Myself Behind
2004 - Selection(s) Secrets of the present and past complicate 17-year-old Nick’s life when he falls in love with the boy next door. A psychologically complex and... |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| Wonder When You'll Miss Me
2004 - Selection(s) After she is sexually assaulted under the school bleachers, 16-year old Faith runs away from home, accompanied by The Fat Girl, a taunting imaginary former... |
2004 - Selection(s) | |
| The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
2004 - Selection(s) In this acclaimed and engaging debut, Christopher, an autistic math wiz, takes his life too literally and can’t relate to others. Inspired by Sherlock... |
2004 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| The Eyre Affair
2003 - Selection(s) Meet Thursday Next, a literary detective for England’s Special Operations Network. Her mission: to stop a serial killer who enters books and kills literary... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| Crow Lake
2003 - Selection(s) Now a successful zoology professor, Kate recalls her parents’ death and being brought up and sustained by her older brothers, especially Matt with whom she... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| The Year of Ice
2003 - Selection(s) Malloy’s first novel is a memorable story of the emotional complexities of American families and the complications of coming of age. High-school senior Kevin Doyle... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| When the Emperor Was Divine
2003 - Selection(s) A short and understated, but also powerful novel in which members of a Japanese-American family, forced to move from a happy California home to cramped... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| The Dive from Clausen's Pier
2003 - Selection(s) A reckless attempt to impress Carrie, Mike’s dive off Clausen’s pier rendered him paralyzed. Now Carrie finds herself torn between the loyalty she’s expected to... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| The Fall of Rome
2003 - Selection(s) The author of an award-winning young adult novel Another Way to Dance (1998) delves deeply into the social and emotional elements that unite and divide... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| 10th Grade
2003 - Selection(s) What Jeremy Reskin lacks in grammatical skill he more than makes up for in self-reflection in this record of the events of his sophomore year... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| One Hundred Demons
2003 - Selection(s) Whether she’s talking about head lice, old boyfriends, or hippies who “forgot” to pay her wages, Barry playfully explores, in “autobifictionalographical” text and art, those... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| My Losing Season
2003 - Selection(s) In this powerful memoir, best-selling novelist Conroy explores the profound effect of his final year as a point guard for the Citadel’s basketball team, interweaving... |
2003 - Selection(s) | |
| Seeing in the Dark
2003 - Selection(s) Differentiating between the nature of stargazing done by professionals in well-equipped observatories and the work of backyard scientists using homemade telescopes, Ferris invites teens to... |
2003 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in Boom-Time America
2002 - Selection(s) To find out if individuals can survive on the "wages available to the unskilled," journalist Ehrenreich spent 12 months working at a variety of minimum-wage... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| Peace like a River
2002 - Selection(s) Set in a quiet 1960s Minnesota community, this magical debut novel centers around 11-year-old asthmatic Reuben Land and his family: his father, his brother, and... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| The Wilderness Family: At Home with Africa's Wildlife
2002 - Selection(s) Kruger eagerly embraced her husband's assignment to a remote ranger station in South Africa, where her life revolved around temperamental hippos, rambunctious badgers, and three... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| Kit's Law
2002 - Selection(s) Kit lives in a ramshackle cottage with her mentally challenged mother, Josie, the town tramp, and her loving, protective grandmother, Lizzy. When Lizzy dies, Kit... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| The Rover
2002 - Selection(s) Four-feet-tall Wick, Third Level Librarian in the Vault of All Known Knowledge, is an imaginative Halfer who longs for the drama he reads about in... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| Motherland
2002 - Selection(s) Fifteen-year-old Maya must reconcile her Indian heritage with her life as a modern American teen when she goes to spend the summer with her grandmother... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self
2002 - Selection(s) Born in 1969 to civil rights activists who defied convention, Walker was a "movement child." But when the movement changed course, and her white father... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
2002 - Selection(s) A year after the plague strikes her village, Anna reflects on how the townsfolk handled their minister's request to remain in town to prevent the... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962
2002 - Selection(s) When James Meredith became the first black man to enter the University of Mississippi, he "forced America to face the contradiction of second-class citizenship for... |
2002 - Selection(s) | |
| Gabriel's Story
2002 - Selection(s) Upset when he has to leave Baltimore to join his mother and her new husband on a Kansas farm, 15-yearold African American Gabriel and his... |
2002 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Soldier: A Poet's Childhood.
2001 - Selection(s) Growing up as an African-American in a white world with a father who is harsh one minute and caring the next, means June Jordan's growing... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| Daughter of the Forest
2001 - Selection(s) A young girl must restore her six brothers who have been turned into swans by weaving each of them a shirt from a blistering plant... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.
2001 - Selection(s) The tragedy of the whaling ship Essex influenced Herman Melville when he wrote Moby Dick. Philbrick takes a close look at the whaling industry, whales... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| The Man Who Ate the 747
2001 - Selection(s) Unbeknownst to Wally Chubb he is going for a record. He will be the only person who ever ate a 747 airplane by grinding it... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| Chang and Eng
2001 - Selection(s) Conjoined brothers, Chang and Eng, were sideshow celebrities. Eng tells the stories of their lives, both as individuals and as one entity. The emotional as... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| Diamond Dogs
2001 - Selection(s) Neil is a 17-year-old bully who has an abusive, demanding father. While driving drunk, he hits and kills a pedestrian and hides the body in... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| Flags of Our Fathers
2001 - Selection(s) James Bradley's father was one of the six men who raised the famous flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. Bradley investigated to learn... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| The Sand-Reckoner
2001 - Selection(s) Archimedes is known best for his mathematical abilities, but he was also one of the first army engineers. Both skills came in handy in ancient... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| The Girl with a Pearl Earring
2001 - Selection(s) Have you ever thought about the story behind a person in a painting? Griet is the name of the girl with a pearl earring painted... |
2001 - Selection(s) | |
| Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn
2001 - Selection(s) One player stands out on the Hardin High School's girls' basketball team. Her name is Sharon La Forge, a talented but troubled teenager. During a... |
2001 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Stardust
2000 - Selection(s) Many teens will already know Gaiman from his Sandman graphic novels and Neverwhere (1997). In this book, which makes fantasy accessible to a wide audience... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey
2000 - Selection(s) Greenlaw, the captain of the Hanna Boden, sister ship to the Andrea Gail, whose loss was portrayed in 1998 Alex winner The Perfect Storm by... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child.
2000 - Selection(s) "My whole childhood, I never had a bed," begins Hart's bittersweet recollections about growing up one of six children in a migrant family that made... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| Plainsong
2000 - Selection(s) They were always connected, in the way people in small towns are: the elderly McPheron brothers, unschooled but wise in other ways; high school teacher... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| Imani All Mine
2000 - Selection(s) This deceptively simple first-person novel takes readers into the heart and mind of 15-year-old Tasha, whose love for her baby, Imani, is as plain as... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places.
2000 - Selection(s) Admittedly stubborn and driven, Breashears recounts his life story-recollections of his abusive father and tumultuous childhood; his discovery and dedication to mountain climbing, which he... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| Ender's Shadow
2000 - Selection(s) Call it a parallel novel; call it a companion. Call it sf; call it adventure. No matter what it's called, this exciting novel, by the... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| River, Cross My Heart
2000 - Selection(s) Strong-willed Alice Bynam is convinced that by moving to Georgetown, her family will have more economic and educational opportunity. That's true, but "whites still rule... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year
2000 - Selection(s) Fifth-grader Melanie instinctively knows what Codell finds out when she begins as a 24-year-old first-year teacher in an inner-city Chicago school: "You got to know... |
2000 - Selection(s) | |
| The Reappearance of Sam Webber
2000 - Selection(s) There's a strong sense of place in this ultimately warm, reassuring novel set in a poor, racially tense Baltimore neighborhood. Sam Webber doesn't like his... |
2000 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Days of Summer
1999 - Selection(s) "Dear Mr. Banks, I am a 12-year-old boy and I am dying of an incurable disease" begins the first of many letters sent by determined... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| Legends: Stories by the Masters of Modern Fantasy
1999 - Selection(s) It reads like an honor roll of modern sf/fantasy writers: Orson Scott Card, Ursula Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and more. With... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| Antarctica
1999 - Selection(s) The popular author of the Mars trilogy takes readers on a journey to a place with an equally inhospitable climate, bringing along a disparate group... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| Almost a Woman
1999 - Selection(s) The author of When I Was Puerto Rican (1993) continues to limn her past, this time focusing on her adolescence and young womanhood. In a... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| Caucasia
1999 - Selection(s) Questions about integration, intermarriage, identity, and the status of mixed-race children bubble beneath the surface of this dramatically rich, heartrending novel set in the 1970s... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
1999 - Selection(s) The photos will grab teens first: a three-masted wooden vessel broken and splintered; rugged ice-encrusted faces of the ship's crew; fields of ice stretching into... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| Getting In
1999 - Selection(s) Boylan takes wicked aim at the college mystique, bringing together three adults and four high-school seniors for a whirlwind tour of swanky eastern colleges that... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| Needles
1999 - Selection(s) "I know about needles. My sister leaves them everywhere." So begins this absorbing memoir of a growing up marked not by illegal drugs but by... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| At All Costs
1999 - Selection(s) That federal agents happened to be looking for someone else didn't matter once they learned that Jake and his wife, Carolyn, were on their Ten... |
1999 - Selection(s) | |
| Space
1999 - Selection(s) In a memoir so beautifully and seamlessly written that teens will think it is fiction, Kercheval tells her own story, beginning when, at age 10... |
1999 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
1998 - Selection(s) Only a handful of people have stood atop Everest. Krakauer is one of them, but the story he tells here is not of glorious triumph... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation
1998 - Selection(s) In a cleverly designed interactive book, the creator of the Black Holocaust Exhibit relates "the pain of my people." Her simple yet descriptive words tell... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven
1998 - Selection(s) Eleven-year-old Tempest doesn't like her new home in Lakeland, a planned community for African Americans. Most of her school classmates are boring, and their prissy... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last
1998 - Selection(s) Part time travel, part mystery, part comedy of errors, this clever fantasy has lots to offer YAs, not the least of which is a chance... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| The Secret Family: Twenty-four Hours inside the Mysterious Worlds of Our Minds and Bodies
1998 - Selection(s) With surprises and information on every page, Bodanis' book peels back the layers of our minds and bodies to reveal a churning world of tiny... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| All Over but the Shoutin'
1998 - Selection(s) Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize–winning correspondent, didn't start out to be a writer. In fact, he sort of fell into it. He recalls this personal journey... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America
1998 - Selection(s) Carroll captures the voices of the next generation of African American women in this collection of interviews. Teenagers will hear themselves plainly and powerfully echoed... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| What Girls Learn
1998 - Selection(s) This poignant, honest novel calls up themes that teenagers will easily recognize from reading young-adult books—family relationships, sibling rivalry, the death of a parent. In... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| Snow in August
1998 - Selection(s) A piece of history comes to life for young adults in a vivid novel about prejudice, love, courage, and miracles. Eleven-year-old Michael Devlin lives with... |
1998 - Selection(s) | |
| The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men against the Sea
1998 - Selection(s) In 1991, as Halloween nears, a cold front moves south from Canada, a hurricane swirls over Bermuda, and an intense storm builds over the Great... |
1998 - Selection(s) |
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