Teens

Awards

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) offers six literary awards to honor the best books for teens each year.

  • The Alex Award is sponsored by the Margaret A. Edwards Trust. Edwards pioneered young adult library services and worked for many years at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore. Her work is described in her book Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts. The Alex Awards are named after Edwards, who was called “Alex” by her friends.

The ten 2011 winners are: The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson (Vintage Books, Random House); Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray (Hyperion); Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok (Riverhead Books, Penguin Group); The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni (Amy Einhorn Books, Penguin Group); The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press); The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel by Aimee Bender, (Doubleday, Random House); The Radleys by Matt Haig (Free Press, Simon & Schuster); The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel by Alden Bell (Holt Paperbacks, Henry Holt and Company); Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown and Company, Hatchette Book Group); The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: A Novel by Helen Grant (Delacorte Press, Random House)

  • The Margaret A. Edwards Award, established in 1988, honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.  The annual award is administered by YALSA and sponsored by School Library Journal magazine. It recognizes an author’s work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.

Sir Terry Prachett, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2009 for his services to literature, is the recipient of the 2011 Margaret A. Edwards Award, honoring his significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens for the following nine titles: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (HarperCollins Children’s Books); The Wee Free Men (HarperCollins Children’s Books); A Hat Full of Sky (HarperCollins Children’s Books); Going Postal (HarperCollins Publishers); The Colour of Magic (HarperCollins Publishers); Guards! Guards! (HarperCollins Publishers); Equal Rites (HarperCollins Publishers); Mort (HarperCollins Publishers); and Small Gods (HarperCollins Publishers).

  • The William C. Morris YA Debut Award, since 2009 honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens. The award’s namesake is William C. Morris, an influential innovator in the publishing world and an advocate for marketing books for children and young adults. The William C. Morris YA Debut Award celebrates the achievement of a previously unpublished author, or authors, who have made a strong literary debut in writing for young adult readers. The work cited will illuminate the teen experience and enrich the lives of its readers through its excellence, demonstrated by: 1) compelling, high quality writing and/or illustration, 2) the integrity of the work as a whole, 3) its proven or potential appeal to a wide range of teen readers.

The 2011 winner is The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston (Carolrhoda Lab, Lerner Publishing Group).

  • Since 2008 the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production has been jointly given and administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and YALSA, and is sponsored by Booklist.

Listening Library, an imprint of Random House Audio Publishing Group, producer of the audiobook The True Meaning of Smekday, written by Adam Rex and narrated by Bahni Turpin, is the 2011 winner.

  • 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 YALSA.  The award is sponsored by Booklist.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group) is the 2011 winner.

  • The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18).

Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel (Amulet/Abrams) is the 2011 winner.