Mass Teen Choice Book Award List 2025

Are you searching for that winner of a book to read before school begins? You may want to check out the 2025 nominee list for the Massachusetts Teen Book Awards. The list of nominees includes both fiction and nonfiction; curated by a committee of public librarians, school library media specialists and educators. Teens are invited to read the books and vote for their favorite. Last day to vote is October 6 . 

Here are Past Winners & Nomination Lists

 

2022 Winner: Heartstopper Vol. 1 by Alice Oseman.

  2022 Nominees

 

2023 Winner: The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson. 

 2023 Nominees

 

2024 Winner: Blue Lock, Vol. 1 by Muneyuki Kaneshiro & Yusuke Nomura. 

 2024 Nominees

 

 Click here for information about the 2025 nominees.

 

Youth Media Awards 2024

Last week, at it's annual conference, the American Library Association announced top books, digital media, video and audio books for children and young adults. The most prestigious, the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults, was given to:“The Collectors: Stories,” edited by A.S. King. Four Honor Books were also named: “Fire from the Sky,” by Moa Backe Åstot, translated by Eva Apelqvist; “Gather,” by Kenneth M. Cadow; “The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption,” by Shannon Gibney; and “Salt the Water,” by Candice Iloh.

“Only This Beautiful Moment,” by Abdi Nazemian is the 2024 recipient of the Stonewall Book Award, for LGBTQIA+ books.

The Coretta Scott King Book Award recognizing an African American author of outstanding books for children and young adults went to:“Nigeria Jones,” by Ibi Zoboi.

The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults went to: “Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed,” written by Dashka Slater.  Four other books were finalists: “America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History," written & illustrated by Ariel Aberg-Riger; “Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam,” written & illustrated by Thien Pham; “From Here,” by Luma Mufleh; & “Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself,” by Monica Edinger & Lesley Younge.

The 2024 Alex Awards winners for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teens are: “Bad Cree,” by Jessica Johns; “Chain-Gang All-Stars,” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah; “Chlorine,” by Jade Song; “Fourth Wing,” by Rebecca Yarros; “The Hard Parts: A Memoir of Courage and Triumph,” by Oksana Masters; “I Will Greet the Sun Again,” by Khashayar J. Khabushani; “Maame,” by Jessica George; “Starter Villain,” by John Scalzi; “The Talk,” by Darrin Bell; and “Whalefall,” by Daniel Kraus.

Watch the announcements for all of the awards here:

What's Your Favorite?

The Massachusetts Teen Choice Book Award is the only award in the Bay State that invites students in grades 7-12 to vote for their top new books. Voting is open to all teens across Massachusetts, and will be open from September 1-23, 2022. There is no minimum number of nominated books that must be read - you may vote even if you have only read one!

The list of current nominees has been curated by a committee of public librarians, school library media specialists and educators. The top teen choices will be announced in October 2022 at the Massachusetts Library System’s Teen Summit.

 Read more about the nominees here. 

Printable list of nominees.

Vote here.

How many of the nominated titles have you read? I've read 5 of them. Would you like to read one of the nominated books that you haven't read? Click on a book cover shown below to go to the Library's catalog where you may place a hold.

Jason Reynolds is National Ambassador

Young Adult author Jason Reynolds' list of awards and achievements is long and this January the list became even more illustrious when he was named our next (and 7th) National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress,and it's two partners the Children’s Book Council, and Every Child a Reader. Previous Ambassadors were: Jacqueline Woodson, Gene Luen Yang, Kate DiCamillo, Walter Dean Myers, Katherine Paterson, and Jon Scieszka.

The National Ambassador program was established in 2008. During their two year term each ambassador travels to towns across America to talk with young people. Reynolds believes that everybody has a story, and so he is calling his platform as ambassador: “GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story.” The focus will be on empowering students to embrace and share their own personal stories. 

There are a lot of interviews with Jason Reynolds online. I encourage you to check them out, particularly the recording of the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Inauguration. It is long, so if you just want to get to know about Jason and his platform start the video at 35:10. Many of the interviews focus on Jason's journey from reluctant reader to award-winning author. I think the following short clip from a 2018 interview gets at the heart of his message on reading and writing:

Here is a description and recommendation of Reynolds' work from Ebsco's NoveList database: "Authentic characterization drives the work of award-winning author Jason Reynolds. Focusing mainly on African-American teens and kids in realistic urban settings, he crafts characters whose words, actions, and emotions ring true. Reynolds doesn't shy away from portraying painful and deeply moving situations, but presents them in an honest, accessible style that will appeal to all kinds of young readers. Start with Long Way Down (Teens); Ghost (Older Kids)."

Or you could start with Jason's own favorites: Boy in the Black Suit, 2015 (Teens), or As Brave As You, 2016 (Older Kids).

Jason Reynolds' website.

Jason Reynolds' books in our catalog.

King wins Printz

As a long time fan of A.S.(Amy Sarig) King's books, it was wonderful to hear last week's announcement from the American Library Association that she won the Michael L. Printz Award for 2020, for her latest book, Dig. Please see all of her books in the slider above. The book covers are linked to our catalog. Click here for the professional reviews of Dig(scroll down). Click here for the reader reviews on Goodreads.
I particularly recommend her books if you enjoy, as I do, character-driven offbeat stories that surprise you with magic realism. In addition to her novels you can find A. S. King in these two short story collections: Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories (The Boy Who Won't Leave Me Alone, by A. S. King, 2011); Dear Heartbreak: YA Authors on the Dark Side of Love (Own Your Heart, by A. S. King, 2018)  A.S. King only uses the initials of her first two names on her books and has said in interviews and on her blog at as-king.com, "If ever you've heard that I chose to write under the name A.S. King because it spells "asking" then you heard right.". On her writing journey, King said in an interview she gave in 2009: "It took me 7 novels and 15 years of writing to publish a book.". Like most authors who give advice on becoming a writer, King encourages people to read.

Get to know King a little though this fun reading pep talk she gave in 2016:

  

Printz 2020 Award Books

The American Library Association's Printz Award has been awarded every year since 2000, for a Young Adult book that exemplifies literary excellence.

Dig, by A.S. King,  2019. Five white teenage cousins who are struggling with the failures and racial ignorance of their dysfunctional parents and their wealthy grandparents, reunite for Easter. Genre: Magical realism. Listen to King read an excerpt from the beginning of Dig here.


The Printz committee also names up to 4 Printz Honor (the silver seals) books each year. (BTW- Please Ignore Vera Dietz, by A. S. King, was a 2011 Printz Honor book.) Here are the 2020 Printz Honor Books:

Beast Player, by Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano, 2019. Nahoko Uehashi's The Beast Player is an epic YA fantasy about a girl with a special power to communicate with magical beasts and the warring kingdom only she can save.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, 2019. Upset about her on-again, off-again relationship with her girlfriend Laura Dean, Freddy Riley depends on her friends, a local mystic, and a relationship columnist for help in dealing with her situation. Graphic novel. Genre: Realistic; Romance.

Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir, by Nikki Grimes, 2019. The author recounts her traumatic childhood, with a mother suffering from mental illness, unfortunate experiences in a series of foster homes, and her discovery of her love of writing, which eventually helped her overcome the hazards of her life. Nonfiction. Memoir in Verse.

Where the World Ends, by Geraldine McCaughrean, 2019. In the summer of 1727, a group of men and boys are put ashore on a remote sea stac to harvest birds for food. No one returns to collect them. Why? Surely nothing but the end of the world can explain why they have been abandoned. And how can they survive, housed in stone and imprisoned on every side by the ocean? Genre: Historical fiction.

Want to know more about the Printz selection process? Click here for School Library Journal's articles on Pondering the Printz on Its 20th Anniversary.

12 Dreams to Interpret

Rest, and dream a little dream this summer -- here is the third book list of the season inspired by the "Own the Night" teen summer reading theme, from newly published to classic, the list includes fantasy, historical fiction, science fiction, realistic fiction, magic realism, mystery, and paranormal romance.  At the end you will find a few nonfiction titles for interpreting dreams. 
A look in the catalog revealed that we did not have any titles on the subject of lucid dreaming, so I've ordered two (how to) lucid dreaming books for the library's collection.  Look for them (Lucid Dreaming; and Dreaming Yourself Awake) in the new book display in the teen area in August.

DREAM FICTION

Alphabet of Dreams, by Susan Fletcher, 2006.  Mitra, and her brother whose dreams foretell the future, flee for their lives in the company of the magus Melchoir, and two other Zoroastrian priests, traveling through Persia as they follow star signs leading to Bethlehem. Genre: Historical Fiction. Awards: Oregon Book Awards: Leslie Bradshaw Award for Y.A. Literature. YALSA Best Books for Y.A.: 2007.

Blue Is For Nightmares, by Laurie Faria Stolarz, 2003.  16-year-old hereditary witch Stacey Brown has nightmares of her roommate being murdered and hopes that her magick will be enough to protect Drea--unlike the last person whose death Stacey dreamed. First book in series. Genre: Occult Fiction.  Award: YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2005

The Blue Girl, by Charles de Lint, 2004.  New at her high school, Imogene enlists the help of her introverted friend Maxine and the ghost of a boy who haunts the school after receiving warnings through her dreams that soul-eaters are threatening her life. Genre: Urban Fantasy.  Awards: Great Lakes Great Books Award (Michigan): Grades 9-12. White Pine Award (Ontario). YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2005.

Dreamhunter, by Elizabeth Knox, 2006.  In a world where select people can enter "The Place" and find dreams of every kind to share with others for a fee, a 15-year-old girl is training to be a dreamhunter when her father disappears, leaving her to carry on his mysterious mission.  First book in duet.  Genre: Fantasy.  Awards: Booklist Editors' Choice-Books for Youth-Older Readers Category: 2006.  LIANZA Children's Book Awards: Esther Glen Award.  YALSA Best Books for Y.A.: 2007.

Dreamrider, by Barry Jonsberg, 2008.  Harangued by his father about his weight and bullied in all the many schools he has attended, Michael finds comfort in his ability to experience "lucid" dreaming but then notices that the things that happen in his dreams are starting to occur in the real world as well. Genre: Fantasy. Award: Children's Book Council of Australia: Notable Australian Children's Books: Older Readers.

Einstein's Dreams, by Alan Lightman, 1993.  Fictionalizes Albert Einstein as a young scientist in 1905 who is troubled by dreams, each one with a different concept of time.
Genre: Science Fiction, Biographical Fiction.

Everybody Sees the Ants, by A.S. King, 2012.  Overburdened by his parents' bickering and a bully's attacks, 15-year-old Lucky dreams 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. Genre: Realistic Fiction, Humorous.  Award: YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2012

The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1971.  George Orr discovers that his dreams possess the remarkable ability to change the world, and when he falls into the hands of a power-mad psychiatrist, he counters by dreaming up a perfect world that can overcome his nightmares.  Genre: Science Fiction, Classic.  Award: Locus Awards: SF Novel.

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure, by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, 1998.  Annoyed with his math teacher who assigns word problems and won't let him use a calculator, twelve-year-old Robert finds help from the number devil in his dreams. Genre: Fantasy, Mathematics.  Awards:  ALA Notable Children's Books: 1999. YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound - Science and Technology: 2004.

Sleepless, by Cyn Balog, 2010. Eron, a supernatural being known as a Sandman whose purpose is to seduce humans to sleep, falls in love with a sad teenaged girl who is mourning her boyfriend's death.  Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance.

The Song of the Whales, by Uri Orlev, 2010.  Mikha'el knows he is different from other boys, but over the course of three years as he helps his parents care for his elderly grandfather in Jerusalem, Grandpa teaches Mikha'el to use the gift they share of making other people's dreams sweeter.  Genre: Magic Realism.

Wake, by Lisa McMann, 2008.  Since she was 8, high school student Janie 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. First book in trilogy. Genre: Mystery, Occult Fiction. Award: YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2009.

NON-FICTION DREAM INTERPRETATION

A Dictionary of Dream Symbols: With an Introduction to Dream Psychology, by Eric Ackroyd, 2005. Call #: 154.63 ACK   A guide to the significance of more than 700 symbols, offering a wide range of possible interpretations with cross-referencing throughout.  Includes an introduction that covers the classic theories of Freud and Jung, and also more recent ideas on dream analysis.

Decoding Your Dreams, by Ray Douglas, 2005. Call #: 154.63 DOU  The dreaming self - Analyze your own dreams - The world dream - Dreams and psychoanalysis - Sharing your dreams - Dreams of the future - Dreams of other lives - The symbolism of dreams - Dream emotions - Interpreting your dreams: a summary.

The Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud, 1899. Call #: 154.6 FRE

Man and His Symbols, by Carl Jung, 1964. Call #: 153.8 JUNG

A Carousel of Verse Novels

In celebration of our upcoming 2 part writing workshop and Meet the Author evening with Holly Thompson, the second Young Adult book list of the summer features 22 novels-in-verse.  Stories told in verse format, using fewer words to build a picture than prose novels, quickly bring a cinematic quality to the reading experience. Take one for a spin, --and don't miss these two great programs scheduled here this summer:
TELLING YOUR STORIES IN VERSE: A WRITING WORKSHOP 
for Teens and Adults with HOLLY THOMPSON

Join Holly Thompson, author of the Young Adult verse novel Orchards, for a two part creative writing workshop, for teens(ages 12-19) and adults, on writing your story in verse. She will introduce verse novels and some of the poetry tools used in narrative verse, and will then lead participants to writing a scene in verse.
Holly Thompson was raised in New England (a graduate of Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School), earned a B.A. in Biology from Mount Holyoke College and an M.A. from New York University's Creative Writing Program. Long-time resident of Japan, she is a lecturer at Yokohama City University, where she teaches creative and academic writing.

Workshop dates:

Tuesday, July 10, 6:30 PM to 8 PM

Thursday, July 19, 6:30 PM to 8 PM

Bring a writing notebook/paper, and pen or pencil to the workshop.

Reserve your place in this FREE 2 part workshop. There is a 20 student limit. Sign up at the Reference desk, or call 978-468-5577.

MEET the AUTHOR: HOLLY THOMPSON 

THURSDAY, JULY 12, 6:30 PM to 8 PM
Holly Thompson, is the author of Orchards, the picture book TheWakame Gatherers, and the novel Ash. She is also the editor of Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories, a Young Adult anthology of Japan related stories to benefit teens in quake/tsunami-hit areas of Japan. Holly's fiction is often set in Japan.
Ms. Thompson's novel-in-verse Orchards, received the 2012 APALA (Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature). In it, Kana, a half Japanese and half Jewish-American girl, is sent to spend the summer with Shizuoka relatives after the death of a classmate.
Ms. Thompson will give a presentation and slide show focusing on her book, Orchards. Following the presentation there will be time for questions, and book signing.

Here is an article from Hamilton-Wenham Patch by Helen Wetherall:
Japan-based local Award Winning Author Holly Thompson to Pay a Visit

Below is a selection of Young Adult verse novels. Descriptions are from EBSCO's NoveList database.  Clicking on a title takes you to the Library's online catalog.

A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone, 2006.  When a handsome senior boy enters their mix, friends Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva soon find themselves in questionable situations where each girl must make the right decision before their personal sacrifices become too great. Awards: Texas Tayshas Reading Lists: 2007; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2007.

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins, 2004.  Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter, but she meets a boy who introduces her to drugs and becomes a very different person, struggling to control her life and her mind.  Awards: Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award; Gateway Readers Award (Missouri); Soaring Eagle Book Award (Wyoming); YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2005.

CrashBoomLove, by Juan Felipe Herrera, 1999.  After his father leaves home, sixteen-year-old Cesar Garcia lives with his mother and struggles thorugh the painful experiences of growing up as a Mexican American high school student.  Awards:Americas Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2001.

Exposed, by Kimberly Marcus, 2011.  High school senior Liz, a gifted photographer, can no longer see things clearly after her best friend accuses Liz's older brother of a terrible crime.  Awards: YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2012; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2012.

God Went to Beauty School, by Cynthia Rylant, 2003.  A novel in poems that reveal God's discovery of the wonders and pains in the world He has created.  Awards: YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2004;YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults - Religion: Relationship with the Divine (2007);YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2004.

Hard Hit, by Ann Turner, 2006. A rising high school baseball star faces his most difficult challenge when his father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Hidden, by Helen Frost, 2011. (Crossing Stones, by Helen Frost, published in 2009, is a choice on the 8th grade summer reading list this year.)  When fourteen-year-olds Wren and Darra meet at a Michigan summer camp, both are overwhelmed by memories from six years earlier when Darra's father stole a car, unaware that Wren was hiding in the back.  Awards: ALA Notable Children's Books - Older Readers, 2012.

Jinx, by Margaret Wild, 2002.  With the help of her understanding mother and a close friend, Jen eventually outgrows her nickname, Jinx, and deals with the deaths of two boys with whom she had been involved.

Karma, by Cathy Ostlere, 2011.  In 1984, following her mother's suicide, 15-year-old Maya and her Sikh father travel to New Delhi from Canada to place her mother's ashes in their final resting place. On the night of their arrival, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated, Maya and her father are separated when the city erupts in chaos, and Maya must rely on Sandeep, a boy she has just met, for survival.  Awards: Booklist Editors' Choice-Youth-Older Readers Category: 2011; YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2012

Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff, 1993.  In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother of two. Written in 66 chapters, with text lines that break at natural speaking phrases.  Awards:ALA Notable Children's Books: 1994;Golden Kite Award: Fiction; Josette Frank Award;Oregon Book Awards: Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Readers (1990-2002); Thumbs Up! Award (Michigan); YALSA 100 Best Books (1950-2000).

One Of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies, by Sonya Sones, 2004. Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.  Awards: Iowa Teen Award; Rhode Island Teen Book Award; YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2005; YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2005.

Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, 1997.  In a series of poems, fourteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.  Awards: Winner of the 1998 Newbery Medal, and the 1998 Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction award.

Psyche in a Dress, by Francesca Lia Block, 2006.  A young woman, Psyche, searches for her lost love and questions her true self in a modern retelling of Greek myths.

Purple Daze, by Sherry Shahan, 2011.  Six high school students in Los Angeles cope with everyday life amid the turbulent events of 1965, as one girl gets involved with drugs and a boy gets drafted and sent to Vietnam, in a novel told in historical data, poetic prose, and free verse.

The Realm of Possibility, by David Levithan, 2004. A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of interconnected free verse stories.  Award: YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2005

Ringside, 1925: Views From the Scopes Trial, by Jen Bryant, 2008. Visitors, spectators, and residents of Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 describe, in a series of free-verse poems, the Scopes "monkey trial" and its effects on that small town and its citizens.  Award: Oprah's Kids' Reading Lists - 12 Years and Up.

Sold, by Patricia McCormick, 2006. When she is tricked by her stepfather and sold into prostitution, thirteen-year-old Lakshmi becomes submerged in a nightmare where her only comfort is the friendship she forms with the other girls, which helps her survive and eventually escape.  Awards: Booklist Editors' Choice-Books for Youth-Older Readers Category, 2006; California Young Reader Medal: Young Adult; Quill Book Awards (2005-2007); Texas Tayshas Reading Lists: 2007; YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2007; YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound - Social Sciences: 2009.

Song of the Sparrow, by Lisa Ann Sandell, 2007.  In 5th-century Britain, nine years after the destruction of their home on the island of Shalott brings her to live with her father and brothers in the encampments of Arthur's army, 17-year-old Elaine describes her changing perceptions of war and the people around her as she becomes increasingly involved in the bitter struggle against the invading Saxons.  Award: Texas Tayshas Reading Lists: 2008

Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, by  Margarita Engle, 2009. Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee dreams of finding his parents again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets of her own, and discovers that the Nazi darkness is never far away.  Award: Sydney Taylor Book Awards: Teen Readers

The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices From the Titanic, by Allan Wolf, 2011.  Recreates the1912 sinking of the Titanic as observed by millionaire John Jacob Astor, a beautiful young Lebanese refugee finding first love, "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, Captain Smith, and others including the iceberg itself.  Awards: Booklist Editors' Choice-Books for Youth-Older Readers, 2011; YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2012

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials, by Stephanie Hemphill, 2010. A fictionalized account, told in verse, of the Salem witch trials, told from the perspective of three of the real young women living in Salem in 1692--Mercy Lewis, Margaret Walcott, and Ann Putnam, Jr.  Award: School Library Journal Best Books: 2010

BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCED

Whether you prefer your fiction to be realistic, romantic, a fantasy, or a mystery, there is something here to satisfy most every taste.  Clicking on a book cover will take you to the book in the Library's online catalog, where you may place a hold, and read reviews.  The descriptions for the award winners are from the catalog. 

The 2012 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature is:

Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley

Seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter's summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin's death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother's sudden disappearance. “Straightforward, yet increasingly complex, this novel masterfully weaves together themes of brotherhood, friendship, loss and religious obsession,” said Printz Award Committee Chair Erin Helmrich.
2012 Printz Award Honor Books:  This group of four runner ups includes: a murder mystery set in Australia; a carnivorous horse racing fantasy; a realistic humorous story about dating, souvenirs, and breaking up; and a war story set in a medieval fictional society.

2011 Massachusetts Book Awards

The Massachusetts Center for the Book, through judging committees, each year publishes a list of "Must Reads" in each of four award categories -- fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children's/young adult literature -- that have been written by Massachusetts writers or are about Massachusetts. Then, in the Fall of each year they name a winner out of the "Must Reads" from each of the categories. The Massachusetts Center for the Book is the Commonwealth affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. There is a State Center for the Book in all 50 states.

2011 Young Adult Massachusetts Book Award winner:

The Other Side of Dark, by Sarah Smith.  

Since losing both of her parents, fifteen-year-old Katie can see and talk to ghosts, which makes her a loner until fellow student Law sees her drawing of a historic house and together they seek a treasure rumored to be hidden there by illegal slave-traders. Set in Boston. Part ghost story, part romance, part historical mystery.
(I gave this book 4 stars after I read it last year. It's on the 8th grade Justice Unit bibliography.)

The other 2011 Young Adult "Must Reads" include: a dark fantasy about criminals with extra sensory powers; a realistic revenge/friendship story set in New Mexico; and a survival tale of 2 boys forced into a war in Burma. Bamboo People is also on the Justice Unit bibliography.

2012 Newbery Medal Winner:

Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos.

In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, 12-year-old Jack spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with an unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.

Click on the link below to hear a funny interview with Jack Gantos about winning the Newbery Medal and about his life, which aired this past weekend on the NPR show, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!.

Newbery Medal Winner Jack Gantos Plays Not My Job

Find out more about Gantos and the story he tells on NPR in his autobiography :
Hole In My Life, by Jack Gantos, 2002.
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.