The Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards

2011 Fiction Finalists

Middle Grade:

DARTH PAPER STRIKES BACK: AN ORIGAMI YODA BOOK
by Tom Angleberger
Harvey, upset when his Darth Paper finger puppet brings humiliation, gets Dwight suspended, but Origami Yoda asks Tommy and Kellan, now in seventh grade, to make a new casefile to persuade the School Board to reinstate Dwight.

GHETTO COWBOY
by Greg Neri
Twelve-year-old Cole's behavior causes his mother to drive him from Detroit to Philadelphia to live with a father he has never known, but who soon has Cole involved with a group of African-American "cowboys" who rescue horses and use them to steer youths away from drugs and gangs.

NERD CAMP
by Elissa Brent Weissman
For ten-year-old Gabe, the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment is all that he dreamed it would be, but he must work hard to write about the fun in letters to Zach, his cool future stepbrother, without revealing that it's a camp for "nerds."

THE FRIENDSHIP DOLL
by Kirby Larson
Throughout the twentieth century, Miss Kanagawa, one of fifty-eight dolls made to serve as ambassadors from Japan to the United States, travels the country learning to love while changing the lives of those who need her.

THE GREAT WALL OF LUCY WU
by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Eleven-year-old aspiring basketball star and interior designer Lucy Wu is excited about finally having her own bedroom, until she learns that her great-aunt is coming to visit and Lucy will have to share a room with her for several months, shattering her plans for a perfect sixth-grade year.

WARP SPEED
by Lisa Yee
Marley Sandelski has always felt invisible at school when he is not facing bullies, but a series of unexpected events gives him a taste of popularity and insights into some classmates, well-liked or greatly-feared.

WORDS IN THE DUST
by Trent Reedy
Zulaikha, a thirteen-year-old girl in Afghanistan, faces a series of frightening but exhilarating changes in her life as she defies her father and secretly meets with an old woman who teaches her to read, her older sister gets married, and American troops offer her surgery to fix her disfiguring cleft lip.

Young Adult:

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS
by Stephanie Perkins
When Anna's romance-novelist father sends her to an elite American boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school, she reluctantly goes, and meets an amazing boy who becomes her best friend, in spite of the fact that they both want something more.

BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY
by Ruta Sepetys
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family.

BUNHEADS
by Sophie Flack
Hannah Ward, nineteen, revels in the competition, intense rehearsals, and dazzling performances that come with being a member of Manhattan Ballet Company's corps de ballet, but after meeting handsome musician Jacob she begins to realize there could be more to her life.

EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS
by A. S. King
Overburdened by his parents' bickering and a bully's attacks, fifteen-year-old Lucky Linderman begins dreaming of being with his grandfather, who went missing during the Vietnam War, but during a visit to Arizona, his aunt and uncle and their beautiful neighbor, Ginny, help him find a new perspective.

FROST
by Marianna Baer
When Leena Thomas gets her wish to live in an old Victorian house with her two closest friends during their senior year at boarding school, the unexpected arrival of another roommate – a confrontational and eccentric classmate – seems to bring up old anxieties and fears for Leena that may or may not be in her own mind.

LEVERAGE
by Joshua C. Cohen
High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.

STUPID FAST
by Geoff Herbach
Just before his sixteenth birthday, Felton Reinstein has a sudden growth spurt that turns him from a small, jumpy, picked-on boy with the nickname of "Squirrel Nut" to a powerful athlete, leading to new friends, his first love, and the courage to confront his family's past and current problems.

2011 Science Fiction/Fantasy Finalists

Middle Grade:

A MONSTER CALLS
by Patrick Ness
Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill – an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.

BREADCRUMBS
by Anne Ursu
Hazel and Jack are best friends until an accident with a magical mirror and a run-in with a villainous queen find Hazel on her own, entering an enchanted wood in the hopes of saving Jack's life.

DRAGON CASTLE
by Joseph Bruchac
Young prince Rashko, aided by wise old Georgi, must channel the power of his ancestor, Pavol the great, and harness a magical dragon to face the evil Baron Temny after the foolish King and Queen go missing.

ICEFALL
by Matthew J. Kirby
Princess Solveig and her siblings are trapped in a hidden fortress tucked between towering mountains and a frozen fjord, along with her best friend and an army of restless soldiers, all awaiting news of the king's victory in battle, but as they wait for winter's end and the all-encompassing ice to break, acts of treachery make it clear that a traitor lurks in their midst.

THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT: A DICKENS OF A TALE
by Carmen Agra Deedy
A community of mice and a cheese-loving cat form an unlikely alliance at London's Cheshire Cheese, an inn where Charles Dickens finds inspiration and Queen Victoria makes an unexpected appearance.

THE INQUISITOR'S APPRENTICE
by Chris Moriarty
In early twentieth-century New York, Sacha Kessler's ability to see witches earns him an apprenticeship to the police department's star Inquisitor, Maximillian Wolf, to help stop magical crime and, with fellow apprentice Lily Astral, Sacha investigates who is trying to kill Thomas Edison, whose mechanical witch detector that could unleash the worst witch-hunt in American history.

TUESDAYS AT THE CASTLE
by Jessica Day George
Eleven-year-old Princess Celie lives with her parents, the king and queen, and her brothers and sister at Castle Glower, which adds rooms or stairways or secret passageways most every Tuesday, and when the king and queen are ambushed while traveling, it is up to Celie--the castle's favorite--with her secret knowledge of its never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom.

Young Adult:

ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD
by Kendare Blake
For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father's work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat, but everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.

DUSTLANDS BOOK ONE: BLOOD RED ROAD
by Moira Young
In a distant future, eighteen-year-old Lugh is kidnapped, and while his twin sister Saba and nine-year-old Emmi are trailing him across bleak Sandsea they are captured, too, and taken to brutal Hopetown, where Saba is forced to be a cage fighter until new friends help plan an escape.

MISFIT
by Jon Skovron
Seattle sixteen-year-old Jael must negotiate normal life in Catholic school while learning to control the abilities she inherited from her mother, a demon, and protect those she loves from Belial, the Duke of Hell.

The CURSE WORKERS BOOK 2: RED GLOVE
by Holly Black
When federal agents learn that seventeen-year-old Cassel Sharpe, a powerful transformation worker, may be of use to them, they offer him a deal to join them rather than the mobsters for whom his brothers work.

THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS
by Rae Carson
A fearful sixteen-year-old princess discovers her heroic destiny after being married off to the king of a neighboring country in turmoil and pursued by enemies seething with dark magic.

THE SHATTERING
by Karen Healey
When a rash of suicides disturbs Summerton, an oddly perfect tourist town on the west coast of New Zealand, the younger siblings of the dead boys become suspicious and begin an investigation that reveals dark secrets and puts them in grave danger.

2011 Young Adult and Middle Grade Nonfiction Finalists

AMELIA LOST: THE LIFE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF AMELIA EARHART
by Candace Fleming
Tells the story of Amelia Earhart's life – as a child, a woman, and a pilot – and describes the search for her missing plane.

HOW THEY CROAKED: THE AWFUL ENDS OF THE AWFULLY FAMOUS
by Georgia Bragg
A look at the deaths of several famous people throughout history and the circumstances surrounding those deaths.

INTO THE UNKNOWN: HOW GREAT EXPLORERS FOUND THEIR WAY BY LAND, SEA, AND AIR
by Stewart Ross and Stephen Biesty
Open this dynamic book and discover how the greatest explorers in history – from Marco Polo to Neil Armstrong – plunged into the unknown and boldly pieced together the picture of the world we have today.

THE MANY FACES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON: REMAKING A PRESIDENTIAL ICON
by Carla Killough McClafferty
Veteran children's author McClafferty takes a look at the life of George Washington by chronicling the fascinating process of creating life-sized statues of Washington using the latest modeling techniques.

THE NOTORIOUS BENEDICT ARNOLD: A TRUE STORY OF ADVENTURE, HEROISM, AND BRAVERY
by Steve Sheinkin
Most people know that Benedict Arnold was America's first, most notorious traitor. Few know that he was also one of its greatest war heroes. This accessible biography introduces young readers to the real Arnold: reckless, heroic, and driven. Packed with first-person accounts, astonishing battle scenes, and surprising twists, this is a gripping and true adventure tale.

UNRAVELING FREEDOM: THE BATTLE FOR DEMOCRACY ON THE HOME FRONT DURING WORLD WAR I
by Ann Bausum
In 1915, the United States experienced the 9/11 of its time. A German torpedo sank the Lusitania killing nearly 2,000 innocent passengers. The ensuing hysteria helped draw the United States into World War I. But as U.S. troops fought to make the world safe for democracy abroad, our own government eroded freedoms at home, especially for German-Americans. Free speech was no longer an operating principle of American democracy.

2011 Young Adult Graphic Novel Finalists

ANYA'S GHOST
by Vera Brosgol
Anya, embarrassed by her Russian immigrant family and self-conscious about her body, has given up on fitting in at school but falling down a well and making friends with the ghost there just may be worse.

BAD ISLAND
by Doug TenNapel
Lyle, Karen, Janie, and Reese must find a way off an island while they dodge strange and dangerous things on the island.

FEYNMAN
by Jim Ottaviani
Richard Feynman: physicist... Nobel winner... best selling author... safe-cracker. This substantial graphic novel biography presents the larger-than-life exploits of Nobel-winning quantum physicist, adventurer, musician, world-class raconteur, and one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: Richard Feynman.

LEVEL UP
by Gene Luen Yang
Dennis, the son of Chinese immigrants, yearns to play video games like his friends and, upon his strict father's death, becomes obsessed with them but later, realizing how his father sacrificed for him, he chooses a nobler path.

PAGE BY PAIGE
by Laura Lee Gulledge
When Paige Turner and her family move to New York City from rural Virginia, she tries to make sense of her new life through her sketchbook, and it helps bring her true personality into the open, a process that is equal parts terrifying and rewarding.

2011 Young Adult Poetry Finalists

REQUIEM: POEMS OF THE TEREZÍN GHETTO
by Paul B. Janeczko
Poet Janeczko gives voice to the heartrending creative community of the Czech concentration camp known as Terezín in this stirring new collection that goes inside the walls of the notorious camp to portray the indomitable spirit of those incarcerated there.

WE ARE AMERICA: A TRIBUTE FROM THE HEART
by Walter Dean Myers
Examines the events and people that have shaped America, providing portraits of figures such as Chief Tecumseh, President Abraham Lincoln, and musician Jimi Hendrix, and featuring lyrical, free-verse poetic text.

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