Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award

I wanted to tell you about a reading program that is near and dear to my heart. I know that many states have children's choice book awards, and Illinois has four of them. The one for high school students is called The Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award. This award is run by our Illinois school librarian association, and in past years, I have been on the committee to select the nominated titles. We select 22 titles every year, and there are always actual teens on the committee who get to give input and actually are allowed to chose four of the titles on their own. One of the requirements for nominees is that the book is available in paperback, so you will see there are some older books on the list, but they always come up with a great list.

The list for next year (2011-2012) has just been chosen, and here it is:

After  --  Amy Efaw   Speak     2010
Beastly --  Alex Flinn  HarperTeen     2008
Before I Die  --  Jenny Downham  *  David Fickling       2009
Carter Finally Gets It  --  Brent Crawford  Hyperion       2010
Columbine --  Dave Cullen    Twelve      2010
The Compound  --  S.A. Bodeen    Square Fish      2009
Flash Burnout  --  L.K. Madigan    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt     2010
Ghosts of War  --  Ryan Smithson      Harpercollins         2010
Going Bovine  --  Libba Bray  *     Random House      2010
How to Build a House  --  Dana Reinhardt    Wendy Lamb       2009
If I Stay  --  Gayle Forman      Speak         2010
The Looking Glass Wars  --  Frank Beddor  *     Speak        2007
Love is the Higher Law  --  David Levithan  *       Knopf          2010
The Maze Runner  --  James Dashner        Delacorte        2010
Mexican White Boy  --  Matt de la Pena        Delacorte       2010
Reality Check  --  Peter Abrahams      HarperTeen        2010
Shiver  --  Maggie Stiefvater     Scholastic        2010
Story of a Girl  --  Sara Zarr       Little, Brown      2008
Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines  --  Nic Sheff          Atheneum       2008
Why I Fight  --  J. Adams Oaks        Atheneum         2010
Wish You Were Dead  --  Todd Strasser         EgmontUSA          2010
World War Z  --  Max Brooks          Three Rivers          2007
(Starred titles chosen by Student Readers)

Students vote each year in February, so we have just revealed this year's winner. Past winners are:

• 2011 Suzanne Collins -- Hunger Games
• 2010  Cassandra Clare --  City of Bones
• 2009 Ellen Hopkins -- Crank
• 2008 Stephenie Meyer -- Twilight
  
• 2007 Scott Westerfeld -- Uglies
  
• 2006 Jodi Picoult -- My Sister’s Keeper
• 2005 Dave Pelzer -- A Child Called “It”

So I'm anxious to read the nominated titles that I haven't read yet. I will purchase all the titles (if I don't already have them) for my library. Do you know what your state does for student choice awards? Feel free to share your lists -- sometimes the titles are very comparable, and sometimes they are very different, so I'd be interested to see them!

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