State Book Awards

As a librarian in Missouri, I promote our state book awards. Every year, students are given a list of books to read and if they read four or more titles they may vote for the awards in March and winners are announced in April. I make it my goal to try and read all the nominees between now and April since that's when I start school visits for Summer Reading. I'm hoping this year I can actually meet my goal of reading them all! This week the award nominees for 2009-2010 were announced, so I thought I'd share them with you. Have you read any of these titles? Do you think the books that got picked will be of interest to their readers?

2009-2010 Truman Award Nominations-Grades 6-8
Shark Girl. Kelly Bingham
Eighth Grade Bites: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. Vol. 1. Heather Brewer
Atherton: The House of Power. Patrick Carman
Diamonds in the Shadow. Caroline Cooney
Carpe Diem. Autumn Cornwell
Into the Wild. Sarah Beth Durst
Games. Carol Gorman
The One where the kid nearly jumps to his death and lands in CA. Mary Hershey
Cracker. Cynthia Kadohata
Tapestry: Hound of Rowan. Henry Neff
Zen and the Art of Faking It. Jordan Sonnenblick
First Light. Wendy Lamb. Rebecca Stead

2009-2010 Gateway Award Nominations-Grades 9-12
Twisted Laurie Halse Anderson
Thirteen Reasons Why Jay Asher
Beauty Shop for Rent -- : fully equipped, inquire within Laura Bowers
Billie Standish was here Nancy Crocker
Deadline Chris Crutcher
Tallgrass Sandra Dallas
November Blues Sharon Draper
Beastly Alex Flinn
Right Behind You Gail Giles
Wicked Lovely Melissa Marr
Unwind Neal Shusterman
Peak Roland Smith
First Shot Walter Sorrells
Boot Camp Todd Strasser
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac Gabrielle Zevin