In about a week, YA librarians across Nassau and Suffolk County will be getting together to hold a Mock Printz conference - basically, we're going to play judge and decide which book we would choose as the winner of the 2008 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. (See past winners here.)I was provided with a shortlist of titles that have been deemed to be worthy of the prize. I'll share that with you here, and you can play along!
Here's the list I was provided with a short summary of each book (in alphabetical order by title):
Absolute Brightness by James LecesneIn the beach town of Neptune, New Jersey, Phoebe's life is changed irrevocably when her cousin moves into her house and soon goes missing.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. PearsonIn the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about the all-male secret society that he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society in order to enliven their mediocre pranks.
Graceling by Kristin CashoreIn a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.
The Graveyard Book by Neil GaimanAfter the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
Little Brother by Cory DoctorowAfter being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.
Madapple by Christina MeldrumA girl who has been brought up in near isolation is thrown into a twisted web of family secrets and religious fundamentalism when her mother dies and she goes to live with relatives she never knew she had.
Nation by Terry PratchettAfter a devastating tsunami destroys all that they have ever known, Mau, an island boy, and Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, together with a small band of refugees, set about rebuilding their community and all the things that are important in their lives.
Paper Towns by John GreenOne month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.
We currently own most of these in the library, and if you're interested in the ones we don't have, come in and reserve them - or do that from home!
Let us know what you think of them!
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