The Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award recognizes the most popular books among middle and high school students in the State of Colorado. Teens nominate their favorite titles and select the winner–adults do not vote. For more information, please visit the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award website.

2012 Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award Nominees:

WINTERGIRLS
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.

FIRE
by Kristin Cashore
In a kingdom called the Dells, Fire is the last human-shaped monster, with unimaginable beauty and the ability to control the minds of those around her, but even with these gifts she cannot escape the strife that overcomes her world.

BURNED
by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
As Zoey's fate hangs in the balance, her friends must figure out how to bring her back from the Otherworld while coping with serious problems of their own.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS BOOK 3: CITY OF GLASS
by Cassandra Clare
Still pursuing a cure for her mother's enchantment, Clary uses all her powers and ingenuity to get into Idris, the forbidden country of the secretive Shadowhunters, and to its capital, the City of Glass, where with the help of a newfound friend, Sebastian, she uncovers important truths about her family's past that will not only help save her mother but all those that she holds most dear.

ARTEMIS FOWL: THE TIME PARADOX
by Eoin Colfer
Artemis's mother has contracted a deadly disease – and the only cure lies in the brain fluid of African lemurs. Unfortunately, Artemis himself was responsible for making the lemurs extinct five years ago. Now he must enlist the aid of his fairy friends to travel back in time and save them. Not only that, but he must face his deadliest foe yet – his younger self.

THE MAZE RUNNER
by James Dashner
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

THE LOST BOOKS: CHOSEN
by Ted Dekker
As the land of the Forest Dwellers is increasingly decimated by the Horde, Thomas Hunter, supreme commander of the Forest Guard, chooses four sixteen-year-old recruits for a special mission – to find the seven lost Books of History that have power over the past, present and future.

MY FATHER'S SON
by Terri Fields
Kevin's life of high school classes, crushes, basketball and shuttling between his parents' homes falls apart when his father is arrested as a suspected serial killer, leading Kevin to a new understanding of his family and himself.

HUSH, HUSH
by Becca Fitzpatrick
Sixteen-year old Nora Grey is partnered in biology with new student Patch, and she starts seeing things she cannot explain. At first she's both drawn and repelled by her lab partner, but when she sees V-shaped scars on his back, Nora learns Patch is fighting an ancient battle between the fallen and the immortal.

TRICKS
by Ellen Hopkins
Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family and love.

ALEX RIDER ADVENTURES: CROCODILE TEARS
by Anthony Horowitz
Targeted by a hitman and under threat of his past being exposed by the media, Alex reluctantly turns to MI6. But their help doesn't come cheap: they need Alex to spy on the activities at a GM crop plant. There he spots Desmond McCain, a high profile charity organizer, who realizes that Alex is on to him and the real plans for the money he's raising. Kidnapped and whisked off to Africa, Alex learns the full horror of McCain's plot: to create an epic disaster that will kill millions. Forced to ask MI6 for protection, Alex finds himself being manipulated in a deadly game that could lead to the destruction of an entire East African country.

CRACKER!: THE BEST DOG IN VIETNAM
by Cynthia Kadohata
A young soldier in Vietnam bonds with his bomb-sniffing dog.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE LAST STRAW
by Jeff Kinney
Middle-schooler Greg Heffley nimbly sidesteps his father's attempts to change Greg's wimpy ways until his father threatens to send him to military school.

MAXIMUM RIDE: FANG
by James Patterson
When Max and the Flock discover an unscrupulous scientist who is experimenting on humans in an effort to "improve" the human race, they decide that they must try to stop him, in spite of Angel's prediction about Fang dying.

FOUND
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
When thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces, each trying to repair the fabric of time.

EVERMORE
by Alyson Noël
Since the car accident that claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever can see auras and hear people's thoughts, and she goes out of her way to hide from other people until she meets Damen, another psychic teenager who is hiding even more mysteries.

HOUSE RULES
by Jodi Picoult
With Asperger's syndrome, teenager Jacob Hunt is unable to have the same kind of social life other boys his age have. However, like other kids with AS, he has homed in on one particular interest: forensic analysis. He normally shows up to crime scenes and helps solve the case, but this time he is the prime suspect. When a murder leads police to question Jacob, they interpret his AS symptoms as a sign of guilt and cast a very public spotlight on Jacob and his family.

PRETTY LITTLE LIARS
by Sara Shepard
When one of their tightly-knit group mysteriously disappears, four high school girls find their friendship difficult to maintain when they begin receiving taunting messages from someone who seems to know everything about their past and present secrets.

LINGER
by Maggie Stiefvater
As Grace hides the vast depth of her love for Sam from her parents and Sam struggles to release his werewolf past and claim a human future, a new wolf named Cole wins Isabel's heart but his own past threatens to destroy the whole pack.

FAKIE
by Tony Varrato
At first glance, Alex Miller seems like a typical teen – typical hair, typical clothes, typical hobbies. Look closer, and you'll see that his life is anything but typical – for Alex, fitting in has become a matter of life and death. The unfortunate witness to a murder, Alex can't forget the things he has seen, and neither can the man he helped put in jail. The Witness Relocation Program has changed the identities of Alex and his mother repeatedly, and they need to keep running to stay one step ahead of his enemies. His latest identity as a skateboarder in Virginia Beach is no easy ride – nosegrabs, ollies and kickflips are all new to him. Alex has to catch on quickly to blend in – but the biggest trick he'll have to master is staying alive.

FLIPPED
by Wendelin Van Draanen
The first time Juli Baker saw Bryce Loski, she flipped. The first time he saw her, he ran. That was in second grade. Not much changes until eighth grade, when Juli's enthusiastic infatuation wanes just as Bryce's begins to kick in.

Learn more on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award website.