Awards: Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association.

TITLE & AUTHOR

Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging*

RENNISON, L

Brash and outrageous journal of 14-year-old Georgia captures the misadventure of adolescence while she tries to catch the attention of handsome hunk, Robbie.

Body Of Christopher Creed

When class freak and whipping boy Christopher Creed vanishes without a trace, speculation as to what happened runs rampant in town, causing accusations that changes several lives forever.

Giver

Jonas is given a huge task by the Elders of the Committee - to be responsible for receiving and keeping all memories of the past.

Hard Love*

John's friendship with Marisol helps him deal with his buried feelings about his family in this honest and engaging look at a teenage boy's first love.

Island Like You: Stories Of The Barrio

Simultaneously funny and serious collection of short stories revealing the isolated lives of teenagers wobbling between two clashing cultures - childhood and adulthood.

Kit's Wilderness

The bonds of family from one generation to the next are examined when Kit Watson allows his new friend Askew to take him into the coal mine, where their relatives have worked and died.

Midwife's Apprentice*

This is the story of a spirited young woman in Medieval England. Homeless, nameless and alone, she persuades the village midwife to take her in.

Monsters

16-year-old Steve Harmon, on trial as an accomplice to a murder, records his trial in the form of a film script as he tries to sort out who he is and what is real.

Out Of The Dust

As dust storms and the Great Depression ravage Oklahoma, Billie Jo comes of age within the landscape of failing farms, personal tragedy, and family relationships that are badly in need of repair.

Skellig

When Michael's baby sister becomes seriously ill and he discovers a creature not quite human in the crumbling garage in the backyard, Michael knows that the well-being of this creature is somehow linked to his sister's recovery.

Speak

Melinda enters high school as an outcast - silent, angry and traumatized by rape. Her black humor and honest depiction of the high school experience will resonate with many teens.

Stuck In Neutral*

Cerebral Palsy traps Shawn McDaniel in a world where he can't speak or control his movement. No one knows that he is more than he seems - that he thinks, reads and understands that his dad wants him dead.

Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963

An engaging novel of a middle-class black family's trip from Flint, Michigan, to Birmingham, Alabama, in the tumultuous days of the Civil Rights movement.