2013+~+14+Nominees

 Anna & The French Kiss 16-year-old Anna is not looking forward to spending her senior year at a French boarding school in Paris. She has friends, a possible boyfriend, and a life, but her father won’t hear any of her protests, so off she goes. Once in Paris, Anna meets some of her fellow students and begins to make friends. She also finds herself falling for Etienne, a French boy with a girlfriend, so Anna tells herself she is content to just be his friend.

=Ashfall by Mike Mullin = The thrill of being home alone suddenly diminishes for Alex when a Super Volcano erupts in Yellowstone, spreading ash and darkness throughout the United States. Alex begins a journey in the darkness and falling ash to find his parents, only to discover a suddenly violent new world. With the help of a girl he meets, Darla, he uncovers new strengths and skills to survive this new world.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray A group of beauty contestants crash land on a deserted island after their airplane malfunctions. The survivors are torn between practicing their dance routines and trying to survive until they are rescued. However, they soon learn they are not the only people on the island and that they may have to take their destinies into their own hands.

=Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys = Lina is a 15-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941 when the Soviets arrest her family. They sentence her father to death and send Lina, her mother, and her 10-year-old brother, Jonas, to prison camps in Siberia. Amid the brutal conditions in the camps, the only thing that keeps Lina going is the love of her family and her art.

=Bitter End by Jennifer Brown = Finally Seniors, Alex, Zack, and Bethany are determined to take the trip to Colorado that they have been planning for years. Nothing will stop them, until Alex meets the hot new guy at school. Cole is charming and attractive. Best of all, he shows an interest in Alex. Unfortunately, he does not approve of Bethany, and especially Zack. As their relationship progresses and Cole pulls her father and father away, Alex begins to notice a dark side to Cole, but will she take action before it’s too late?

=Clean by Amy Reed = Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva are all trying to come clean. They are stuck in rehab together striving to understand why they started, what it cost them, and whether or not they think they can actually stay clean when they are back in the real world.

=Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann = A freshman at Kendall’s small school disappears without a clue. Then Kendall’s best friend, Nico, disappears. Kendall begins to hear the voices of these students and others who disappeared in the past. Is she going crazy? What is going on in this small town that has been covered up year after year?

=Divergent by Veronica Roth = At age sixteen, on Choosing Day, Beatrice must choose one of the five factions that society has been divided into: Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Her initiation, which follows, is not only competitive, but also dangerous.

=DJ Rising by Love Maia = Ever since Marley’s father died when he was ten, Marley has been obsessed with one thing: music. He uses his father’s old equipment to practice being a DJ. For now, he has to contend with his snooty private school classmates, busing tables at a local restaurant, and a mother addicted to heroin. When Marley gets a chance to fill in for a local DJ, he gets noticed by a club owner who hires him and sends his life in a whole new direction.

=The Fault in our Stars by John Green = Hazel has been nothing but terminal, but a miracle drug has given her a few more years of life. In her Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel discovers a new lease on life when Augustus Waters appears. Suddenly Hazel’s life is about to be rewritten with a little bit of romance and laughter.

=The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson = Elisa is the chosen one. On her sixteenth birthday, she secretly marries a man who thinks she will save him and his country from turmoil. But others are looking for the chosen one, especially a daring revolutionary and savage dark magic enemy. If the prophecy is fulfilled, Elisa could be everything to those who need her if she doesn’t die first.

=Going Underground by Susan Vaught = 17-year-old Del thinks he has no future because of a mistake he made three years ago when he was 14—sexting pictures with his 13-year-old girlfriend. Del was arrested and <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">convicted as a sex offender. Now Del works in a graveyard as a gravedigger and his closest friend is an African gray parrott; however, when a girl starts visiting the graveyard, who has no idea of Del’s past, he begins to hope for a brighter future.

=<span style="color: #7d087d; font-family: Georgia,serif;">I Beat the Odds by Michael Oher = Discover the full story behind //The Blind Side//. Oher’s memoir is an interesting look at his side of the story of growing up in poverty, being discovered as a football talent, being adopted by a wealthy family, and eventually joining the NFL as a professional football player.

=<span style="color: #001e80; font-family: Georgia,serif;">In the Shadow of the Lamp by Susanne Dunlap = 16-year-old Molly lies in order to join Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War. She quickly catches on to Miss Nightingale’s way of nursing, and appears to be a natural, but she has trouble choosing between the two men in her life: the quiet, young soldier, Wil, and the secretive, gentle Dr. Maclean.

=<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Knife and the Butterfly by Ashley Hope Perez = 16-year-old Azael wakes up in what he thinks is a juvenile detention center after he and his gang fight with a rival gang. Azael can’t actually remember what happened that afternoon or why he is locked up. Azael is not allowed to see anyone except a girl his own age he has never met before. Somehow Azael knows she is the key to his missing memories.

<span style="color: #ff5e00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5;">**Level Up by Gene Yang** Dennis loves video games, but he doesn’t feel like he has a choice in his future. After his father dies, he is visited by four angels who tell him his destiny is to go to medical school and become a gastroenterologist and not a professional video game player. Dennis will have to make a choice if he ever wants to be happy.

=<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay = A summer vacation to New Hampshire from Idaho takes Marcie away from her friends, her boyfriend, and her dad. When the “vacation” turns out to be a long-term separation for her parents, Marcie has to start over—making new friends at school, juggling a long-distance romance, and deciding if she wants to pursue something more with that cute guy who brought her breakfast.

=<span style="color: #808080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs = Jacob never really believed his grandfather’s stories about the school with peculiar children and the monsters that inhabited their world, until the day his grandfather dies, and he sees one for himself. Everyone thinks he is crazy, but Jacob knows he needs to follow his grandfather’s clues and find the school where his grandfather grew up. When he finds the bombed out wreck of a home and follows a girl into a cairn, he finds himself in a world where every day is the same and monsters lurk just beyond the door.

=<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">One Step at a Time by Josh Bleill = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Josh tells the story of his “one bad day”—the day he lost both legs and two friends in an IED explosion while serving as a Marine in Iraq. He takes us through rehab and dealing with feelings of guilt. Like the Marine motto “adapt and move on,” Josh never gives up and continues to be an inspiration to many. He currently travels and speaks for the Indianapolis Colts.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> =<span style="color: #ffcd00; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ready Player One by Ernest Cline = It’s 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade escapes the ugliness by spending time in the virtual world called OASIS. In OASIS people can fall in love, go to school, hang out, or find a REAL fortune that is hidden in a series of riddles. Everyone has given up the quest to solve the unsolvable riddle… until Wade finds the answer to the first clue. Then the race is on to see who will finish the game first and win the ultimate prize.

=<span style="color: #ff0034; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Shine by Lauren Myracle = When Cat’s best friend becomes the victim of a brutal hate crime, people in her town blame everyone but themselves. But when Cat starts looking for the truth, she discovers the truth right in her own back yard.

=<span style="color: #808080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach = Felton is no longer the scrawny kid the boys pick on and call “Squirrel Nut.” Instead he’s being sought after to play football, because he can run stupid fast and is now big, tall, and strong. His home life is a bit unconventional with his hippy mom and his child prodigy brother who plays the piano, and life gets even more complicated when his best friend moves, and beautiful Aleah moves in.

=<span style="color: #368000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones = Finley is a talented musician with her sights set on the Manhattan Conservatory. Unfortunately, her musical creativity and inspiration died with her brother, Will. Finley decides to walk in Will’s footsteps by studying abroad in Ireland and retracing his path via a travel journal. While in Ireland, Finely is inspired and changed by God, as well as Hollywood heart throb, Beckett.

=<span style="color: #006fff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Variant by Robison Wells = 17-year-old Benson has grown up in the foster care system. In search of a better life, he applies to a boarding school called The Maxfield Academy. Benson is accepted to the school but quickly realizes it is not the school of his dreams. Instead, the school is a prison. Once a student walks through the doors, they are never allowed to leave.



=<span style="color: #bc7d1f; font-family: Georgia,serif;">What Comes After by Steve Watkins =

When Iris is just 16-years-old, her beloved father dies of cancer. Her mother is not in the picture, so Iris is supposed to live with her best friend until she graduates from high school, but a divorce wrecks that plan. So Iris is sent to live with her aunt and cousin in North Carolina, on a goat farm. Iris learns to love the goats, but tension with her aunt develops over their care. Iris would like to leave, but she has nowhere else to go.