Illinois Abe Lincoln High School Book Awards - 2013 Nominated Titles

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.

Here's the 2013 List of Nominated Titles (links are to my reviews):

Anna & the French Kiss	Stephanie Perkins
Bruiser	Neal Shusterman
The Chosen One	Carol Lynch Williams
Clockwork Angel	Cassandra Clare
Dark Song	Gail Giles
Finnikin of the Rock	Melina Marchetta
The Help	Kathryn Stockett
Impossible	Nancy Werlin
Impulse	Ellen Hopkins
Leviathan	Scott Westerfeld
Little Brother	Cory Doctorow
Lockdown: Escape from Furnace	Alexander G. Smith
Matched	lly Condie A
The Monstrumologist	Rick Yancey
North of Beautiful	Justina Chen Headley
Paranormalcy	Kiersten White
Rikers High	Paul Volponi
Ship Breaker	Paolo Bacigalupi
The Sky is Everywhere	Jandy Nelson
Thirteen Reasons Why	Jay Asher
War	Sebastian Junger
Will Grayson, Will Grayson	John Green & David Levithan

Red titles = chosen by the Student Reader Panel

Students vote each year in February, so we don't have this year's winner. I think it will be announced March 20th, so I'll be sure to post it then. 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”

I'm anxious to read the nominated titles that I haven't read yet. I only need to purchase two of the titles for my library--I have the rest already! 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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