The Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award honors a young adult title selected by the ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents) Committee as demonstrating a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit.

2010 Winner:

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.

2010 Finalists:

MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD
by Francisco X. Stork
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST
by William James Henry, edited by Rick Yancey
In 1888, twelve-year-old Will Henry chronicles his apprenticeship with Dr. Warthrop, a scientist who hunts and studies real-life monsters, as they discover and attempt to destroy a pod of Anthropophagi.

NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL
by Justina Chen Headley
Terra, a sensitive, artistic high school senior born with a facial port-wine stain, struggles with issues of inner and outer beauty with the help of her Goth classmate Jacob.

THE SWEETHEART OF PROSPER COUNTY
by Jill S. Alexander
In a small East Texas town largely ruled by prejudices and bullies, fourteen-year-old Austin sets out to win a ride in the next parade and, in the process, grows in her understanding of friendship and helps her widowed mother through her mourning.

For more information, please visit the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award website.