ARKANSAS TEEN BOOK AWARD
2012
The Steering Committee: Who We Are
Jana Dixon, AASL/AAIM Representative
Cutter Morningstar High School Library Media Specialist
David Eckert, Assistant Director
Jonesboro Public Library
Rachel Shankles, AAIM Representative
Lakeside High School Library Media Specialist
Amy Miller, Youth Collection Development Librarian
Central Arkansas Library System
Whitney Ivy, Southwest Literacy Council President
Blevins School Library Media Specialist/English Teacher
Linda Green, Youth Services Programming Coordinator
Conway County Library
Zoe Butler, Coordinator
Arkansas Center for the Book
How the Process Works
oJanuary to April:
• Solicit readers (adults who work with teens in
some capacity and are willing to read and vote
for titles that will be included in the voting list
for teens).
•Solicit titles of books published the previous year
to include in the lists to be read.
•The goal is to have 20 titles in each level for the
teens to vote on.
•If you want to be a reader, suggest a title, or ask us
a question send an email to:
arteenbookaward@gmail.com
How the Process Works
oApril through July
• Divide books into appropriate level and genre.
Level 1 is 7th – 9th Grades
Level 2 is 10th – 12th Grades.
•Decide how many books each level will be able
to vote through to the final list.
•Divide readers up among the various levels and
genres.
•Read, Read, Read!
•Each group will have a monitor and a group
page on the Readers’ Wiki.
•Voting occurs near the end of July and Wild
Cards are chosen.
Wild Cards
Or Titles Too Good To Pass On!
oAugust through Late September/October
•Each group of readers can nominate one to two titles which
didn’t make their final vote, but they feel merit a possible
place on the final list.
•Books given the highest review rating in Horn Book
Guide’s spring issue will also be added to the Wild Card
list.
•Volunteers from the reading groups will read these titles
and meet to vote on 5 to 6 more titles per level for the
final voting list.
•The Wild Card meeting will be held the Saturday
afternoon before the ArLA conference begins.
Announce Reading List
oTitles for the final voting list will be announced each
year at the Arkansas Library Association
Conference in September/October.
oPromotional materials will be available at
http://arkansasteenaward.wikispaces.com
Teens’ Turn with Lists
oTeens are given the new voting lists to read from each
October.
oThe teens have one year in which to read from the list.
oEach October during Teen Read Week teens can vote for
their favorite title from whichever level they’ve
read. They vote at this website:
http://arkansasteenaward.wikispaces.com/Voting+Form
oThe winners for each level will be announced after votes
are tabulated at the end of October.
After Ever After
By Jordan Sonnenblick
ISBN 9780439837064
Fiction
Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged
by a new friend, Lindsey, make a
deal to help one another overcome
aftereffects of their cancer
treatments in preparation for
eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still
craves advice from his older
brother Stephen, who is studying
drums in Africa.
Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean
By Sarah Stewart Taylor
and Ben Towle
ISBN 9781423113379
Graphic Novel
A biographical depiction, in graphic novel
format, of the life of aviator Amelia Earhart,
focusing on her crossing of the Atlantic Ocean
in 1928.
The Amulet of Samarkand
By Jonathan Stroud and
Andrew Donkin
ISBN 9781423111467
Fantasy
A graphic novel adaptation of the book in
which Nathaniel, a young magician's
apprentice, becomes caught in a web of
magical espionage, murder, and rebellion,
after he summons the djinni Bartimaeus
and instructs him to steal the Amulet of
Samarkand from the powerful magician
Simon Loveland.
Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour
By Morgan Matson
ISBN 9781416990659
Fiction
After the death of her father, Amy, a high
school student and Roger, a college
freshman, set out on a carefully planned
road trip from California to Connecticut, but
wind up taking many detours, forcing Amy
to face her worst fears and come to terms
with her grief and guilt.
Birth Marked
By Caragh M. O’Brien
ISBN 9781596435698
Dystopian/Fantasy
Sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, a
midwife who dutifully delivers at
least three babies a month and
hands them over to the Enclave,
a community within walls where
the children are adopted and live
with conveniences which are not
available to the outside world,
begins to question her loyalty to
the group after her mother is
brutally taken away from her by
the people she serves.
The Boneshaker
By Kate Milford
ISBN 9780547241876
Fantasy/Action
When Jake Limberleg brings his
traveling medicine show to a small
Missouri town in 1913, thirteenyear-old Natalie senses that
something is wrong and, after
investigating, learns that her love of
automata and other machines make
her the only one who can set things
right.
Crossing the Tracks
By Barbara Stuber
ISBN 9781416997030
Fiction
In Missouri in 1926, fifteen-year-old
Iris Baldwin discovers what family
truly means when her father hires her
out for the summer as a companion to
a country doctor's invalid mother.
Dark Life
By Kat Falls
ISNB 9780545178143
Fantasy
When fifteen-year-old Ty, who has
always lived on the ocean floor, joins
Topside girl Gemma in the frontier's
underworld to seek and stop outlaws
who threaten his home, they learn that
the government may pose an even
greater threat.
Dead Beautiful
By Yvonne Woon
ISBN 9781423119562
Fantasy/Romance
After her parents die under mysterious
circumstances, sixteen-year-old Renee
Winters is sent from California to an
old-fashioned boarding school in
Maine, where she meets a fellow
student to whom she seems strangely
connected.
The Fat Boy Chronicles
By Lang Buchanan
ISBN 9781585365432
Fiction
Jimmy Winterpock, 187 pounds at the
age of fourteen, finds the constant taunts
over his weight difficult to bear, but his
life changes when his friend Paul enlists
him in helping solve a local murder case.
The Gardener
By S.A. Bodeen
ISBN 9780312370169
Horror/Sci Fi
When high school sophomore
Mason finds a beautiful but
catatonic girl in the nursing
home where his mother works,
the discovery leads him to
revelations about a series of
disturbing human experiments
that have a connection to his
own life.
The Grimm Legacy
By Polly Shulman
ISBN 9780399250965
Fantasy
New York high school student
Elizabeth gets an after-school job
as a page at the "New-York
Circulating Material Repository,"
and when she gains coveted
access to its Grimm Collection of
magical objects, she and the
other pages are drawn into a
series of frightening adventures
involving mythical creatures and
stolen goods.
Hex Hall
By Rachel Hawkins
ISBN 9781423121305
Fantasy
Witch Sophie Mercer, having been sent
to a reform school by her father after a
prom night spell went horribly wrong,
learns her roommate, who is the only
vampire on campus, is the suspect in a
series of attacks on students and sets
out to find the real culprit.
Matched by Ally Condie
9780525423645
Fantasy
Cassia has always had complete
trust in the Society to make
decisions for her, but when she is
being paired with her ideal mate, a
second face flashes on the screen,
and Cassia begins to doubt the
Society's infallibility as she tries to
decide which man she truly loves.
Once
By Morris Gleitzman
ISBN 9780805090260
Fiction
After living in an Catholic orphanage
for nearly four years, a naive Jewish
boy runs away and embarks on a
journey across Nazi-occupied Poland to
find his parents.
Raised by Wolves
By Jennifer Lynn Barnes
ISBN 9781606840597
Fantasy
A girl raised by werewolves must
face the horrors of her past to
uncover the dark secrets that the
pack has worked so hard to hide.
The Red Pyramid
By Rick Riordan
ISBN 9781423113381
Fantasy
Brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane
accidentally unleashes the Egyptian
god Set, who banishes the doctor
to oblivion and forces his two
children to embark on a dangerous
journey, bringing them closer to the
truth about their family and its links
to a secret order that has existed
since the time of the pharoahs.
Somebody Everybody Listens To
By Suzanne Supplee
ISBN 9780525422426
Fiction
Upon graduating from high school in the
tiny town of Starling, Tennessee, aspiring
country singer Retta Lee Jones manages to
get herself to Nashville, where, in spite of
some bad luck and hard times, she tries to
persevere in pursuing her dreams.
The Stuff of Legend, Vol. 1
The Dark
By Mike Raicht, et.al.
ISBN 9780345521002
Graphic Novel
In 1944, as the Allied forces battle
the enemy in Europe, a young boy is
snatched from his Brooklyn home by
the Boogeyman, and his playthings,
led by a brave toy soldier, band
together to stage a dangerous and
daring rescue.
Virals
By Kathy Reichs
ISBN 9781595143426
Mystery/Action
Tory Brennan and her friends are
exposed to a canine parvovirus
when they rescue a dog from a
medical testing facility and soon
realize they have heightened
senses, which they use to solve a
cold case murder.
B.B. Wolf and the Three LPs
By JD Arnold
ISBN 9781603090292
Graphic Novel
BB Wolf, a farmer and family man who
fancies himself a blues musician by
night, is forced into action when Mr.
Littlepig tries to use a legal technicality
to take his land.
Before I Fall
By Lauren Oliver
ISBN 9780061726804
Fiction
After she dies in a car crash,
teenaged Samantha relives the
day of her death over and over
again until, on the seventh
day, she finally discovers a way
to save herself.
Bright Young Things
By Anna Godbersen
ISBN 9780061962660
Fiction
In the spring of 1929, eighteenyear-old Cordelia Grey and her
stage-struck friend Letty Larkspur
run away from their small Ohio
town to seek their fortunes in
New York City and soon find
themselves drawn into situations
and relationships, particularly with
the dazzling Astrid Donal, that
change their lives forever.
The Cardturner
By Louis Sachar
ISBN 9780385736626
Fiction
When his wealthy uncle, a champion
bridge player who has lost his vision,
asks seventeen-year-old Alton to be
a cardturner for him, Alton has no
idea how much he will ultimately
learn from his eccentric relative.
Includes appendix by Syd Fox with
information about bridge.
Clockwork Angel
By Cassandra Clare
ISBN 9781416975861
Fantasy
Sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray travels to
England in search of her brother only
to be abducted by the Dark Sisters,
residents of London's Downworld,
home to the city's supernatural folk,
and she becomes the object of much
attention--both good and bad--when
it is discovered she has the power to
transform at will into another person.
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares
By Rachel Cohn
and David Levithan
ISBN 9780375866593
Fiction
Told in the alternating voices of Dash
and Lily, two sixteen-year-olds carry
on a wintry scavenger hunt at
Christmas-time in New York, neither
knowing quite what--or who--they will
find.
Dirty Little Secrets
By C.J. Omololu
ISBN 9780802786609
Fiction
When her unstable mother dies
unexpectedly, sixteen-year-old Lucy
must take control and find a way to
keep the long-held secret of her
mother's compulsive hoarding from
being revealed to friends, neighbors,
and especially the media.
Glimpse
By Carol Lynch Williams
ISBN 9781416997306
Fiction
Living with their mother who earns
money as a prostitute, two sisters
take care of each other and when
the older one attempts suicide, the
younger one tries to uncover the
reason.
Hold Me Closer,
Necromancer
By Lish McBride
ISBN 9780805090987
Fantasy
Sam LaCroix, a Seattle fast-food
worker and college dropout, discovers
that he is a necromancer, part of a
world of harbingers, werewolves,
satyrs, and one particular
necromancer who sees Sam as a
threat to his lucrative business of
raising the dead.
How I Made It To Eighteen:
A Mostly True Story
By Tracy White
ISBN 9781596434547
Graphic Novel
The author shares her struggles with selfesteem, drug addiction, and depression;
and describes how she admitted herself to
a mental institution after she put her fist
through a window.
The Iron King
By Julie Kagawa
ISBN 9780373210084
Fantasy
Sixteen-year-old Meghan, who has
felt like something in her life has
been slightly off since her father
disappeared when she was six,
learns that she is the daughter of
a mythical faery king, becomes
involved in a deadly war, and tries
to find love with a young prince.
Revolution
By Jennifer Donnelly
IBN 9780385737630
Historical Fiction
An angry, grieving seventeenyear-old musician facing
expulsion from her
prestigious Brooklyn private
school travels to Paris to
complete a school
assignment and uncovers a
diary written during the
French revolution by a young
actress attempting to help a
tortured, imprisoned little
boy--Louis Charles, the lost
king of France.
Rot & Ruin
By Jonathan Maberry
ISNB 9781442402324
Horror
In a post-apocalyptic world
where fences and border
patrols guard the few people
left from the zombies that have
overtaken civilization, fifteenyear-old Benny Imura is finally
convinced that he must follow
in his older brother's footsteps
and become a bounty hunter.
Salem Brownstone:
All Along the Watchtowers
By John Harris Dunning and
Nikhil Singh
ISBN 9780763647353
Graphic Novel
Upon his father's death, Salem inherits a
mansion as well as an unfinished battle with
creatures from another world, which requires
him to seek the help of his guardian familiar
and the colorful performers of Dr. Kinoshita's
Circus of Unearthly Delights.
Shadoweyes
By Ross Campbell
ISBN 9781593621896
Graphic Novel
Scout Montana, now the
superhero Shadoweyes, is joined
in her vigilante activities by her
longtime crush Noah and new
friend Sparkle.
Split
By Swati Avasthi
ISBN 9780375863400
Fiction
A teenaged boy thrown out of
his house by his abusive father
goes to live with his older
brother, who ran away from
home years earlier under similar
circumstances.
The Sky Is Everywhere
By Jandy Nelson
ISBN 9780803734951
Fiction
In the months after her sister dies,
seventeen-year-old Lennie falls into a
love triangle and discovers the strength
to follow her dream of becoming a
musician.
The Things a Brother Knows
By Dana Reinhardt
ISBN 9780375844553
Fiction
Although they have never gotten along
well, seventeen-year-old Levi follows his
older brother Boaz, an ex-Marine, on a
walking trip from Boston to Washington,
D.C. in hopes of learning why Boaz is
completely withdrawn.
Three Rivers Rising:
A Novel of the
Johnstown Flood
By Jame Ricard
ISBN 9780375958854
Historical Fiction
Sixteen-year-old Celestia is a wealthy
member of the South Fork Fishing and
Hunting Club, where she meets and falls
in love with Peter, a hired hand who lives
in the valley below, and by the time of the
torrential rains that lead to the disastrous
Johnstown flood of 1889, she has been
disowned by her family and is staying with
him in Johnstown. Includes an author's
note and historical timeline.
Vixen: The Flappers
By Jillian Larkin
ISBN 9780385740344
Historical Fiction
Seventeen-year-old socialite Gloria
secretly longs to be a flapper, but
now that she is engaged to
Sebastian, she must leave her
partying days behind, until her
future is threatened by an alluring
jazz musician who encourages
Gloria to risk everything.
Arkansas Teen Book Award
2011-2012 Reading List
Level 1
1. After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick (Fiction)
2. Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Graphic)
3. Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (Graphic)
4. Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson (Fiction)
5. Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien (Dystopian/Fantasy)
6. Boneshaker by Kate Milford (Fantasy/Action)
7. Crossing the Tracks by Barbara Stuber (Fiction)
8. Dark Life by Kat Falls (Ecofiction/Sci Fi)
9. Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon (Fantasy/Romance)
10. Fat Boy Chronicles by Diane Lang (Fiction)
11. The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen (Science Fiction)
12. Grimm Legacy by Polly Schulman (Fantasy)
13. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins (Fantasy)
14. Matched by Ally Condie (Fantasy)
15. Once by Morris Gleitzman (Fiction)
16. Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Fantasy)
17. Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan (Fantasy)
18. Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee (Fiction)
19. Stuff of Legend, Vol. 1: The Dark by Mike Raicht, et. (Graphic)
20. Virals by Kathy Reichs (Mystery/Action)
Arkansas Teen Book Award
2011-2012 Reading List
Level 2
1. B.B. Wolf and the Three LPs by J.D. Arnold (Graphic)
2. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (Fiction)
3. Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen (Historical Fiction)
4. The Cardturner by Louis Sachar (Fiction)
5. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (Fantasy)
6. Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (Fiction)
7. Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu (Fiction)
8. Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams (Fiction)
9. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (Fantasy)
10. How I Made It to Eighteen: A Mostly True Story by Tracy White (Graphic)
11. Iron King by Julie Kagawa (Fantasy)
12. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (Historical Fiction)
13. Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Mayberry (Horror)
14. Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers by John Dunning (Graphic)
15. Shadoweyes by Campbell Ross (Graphic)
16. Split by Swati Avasthi (Fiction)
17. The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson (Fiction)
18. Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt (Fiction)
19. Three Rivers Rising: a Novel of the Johnstown Flood by James Ricard (Historical Fiction)
20. Vixen by Jillian Larkin (Historical Fiction)