Looking for a great young adult novel to add to your reading list? This week, the American Library Association will select one young adult author to receive the 2013 William C. Morris Award, which honors the best YA book of 2012 written by a previously unpublished author.
The “Morris Award” winner will be announced Mon., Jan. 28, but five finalists for the award already have been announced—and their books range from first love to a teen searching for his kidnapped family to a half-human, half-dragon girl asked to help uncover the murderer of a royal prince.
Here’s a look at the finalists.
“Love and Other Perishable Items,” by Laura Buzo, is the story of a 15-year-old girl who is desperate to fall in love and a 22-year-old college student who has been burned in love by a woman he thought was his soul mate, though for her, he was just a fling. From the moment young Amelia and Chris are paired together at the local supermarket where she has just been hired, Amelia is smitten with his intelligence and easy charm: “I am Chris, your friendly staff trainer. You’ll be with me for three four-hour shifts. I will call you Grasshopper and you will call me Sensei, and I will share with you what I know. Right?” It’s not long before she falls into serious crush with her much-older coworker.
But while both are intrigued by the conversations they can have with each other—from feminist theory in “Alien” to the history of pop culture—and while the two seem perfect for each other, the seven-year age difference puts them worlds apart in life experience, and they both know: A relationship is impossible. But that doesn’t keep Amelia from hoping.
Learn more about the author.
“Wonder Show,” by Hannah Barnaby, is the story of Portia Remini, who is on the run from McGreavy’s Home for Wayward Girls, where her aunt sends the motherless Portia after Portia’s father disappears. Portia joins Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, hoping to find her father, the one who used to listen to her talk and talk and talk, telling stories similar to the fairy tales her gypsy relatives used to share from her aunt’s kitchen. When Portia’s father leaves her shortly after taking her to the circus for the first time, there’s a part of her that is convinced he left her to join the circus.
“Be brave,” Portia’s father tells her when he leaves her, at age 9. “It won’t be long.” But when her aunt can no longer abide with her wayward niece and sends her to a girl’s home, Portia runs away and makes her own home among the freaks of the traveling circus, who become like family. But will Portia find her father during the cross-country shows—or be forced to break free from the circus to make her way back to the gypsy campground she used to call home?
Learn more about the author.
“After the Snow,” by S.D. Crockett, is the story of Willo, who lives in an age where the oceans have “stopped working” and winter lasts all year long. In this land of snow and ice, Willo’s family lives in the wilderness, hiding from the government that would make them live in a tent in a shanty town, limit their ability to move from place to place and prevent them from hunting for their food. “Dad says we’re like Eskimos now. And when he tells me about Eskimos, I got to believe him cos he been born before and knows what an Eskimo is,” Willo tells readers.
Then one day, Willo’s family disappears while he’s hunting for dog skins that his family can use to make boots. He knows the government has taken his family—knows it from the tracks that the government-owned snow plows left behind on his family’s property. He’s determined to find them and rescue them—but how?
Learn more about the author.
“The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” by Emily M. Danforth, is the story of a girl named Cameron whose parents die in a car crash on the day she kisses her best friend, Irene. “Do you think we’d get in trouble if anyone found out, Cam?” Irene asks afterward, and Cam responds, “We’re good at secrets,” thinking of the way Irene’s lips tasted like salt and root beer and wanting to feel them again. Maybe that’s why Cameron’s first reaction upon hearing that her parents have died is one of relief: They’ll never find out.
Soon Cameron is forced to move in with her conservative, born-again aunt and her old-fashioned grandmother in rural Montana. Each week, they drag her to church. Twelve-year-old Cameron feels crushed by her guilt. Then she meets the girls of her dreams—at church. Soon, Aunt Ruth sends Cameron to a camp to “cure” her of her homosexuality.
Learn more about the author.
“Seraphina,” by Rachel Hartman, is a New York Times bestselling book about a world where dragons can fold themselves into human shape—and where there is much distrust between dragons and humans. When a royal prince is murdered, court musician Seraphina is asked by another prince to help find the murderer. But Seraphina struggles to hide a dark secret as she works closely with the prince: She is half human, half dragon.
“My mother left me a complicated and burdensome inheritance,” Seraphina tells the reader of the day her mother, a dragon, died while giving birth to her. “My father hid the dreaded details from everyone, including me.” Seraphina’s dragon heritage is what gives Seraphina her extraordinary singing ability—an ability she must be careful in sharing with others if she is to protect herself.
Learn more about the author.
Find the Books Locally
Find copies of each of these YA debut novels at Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville and Downers Grove, Barbara’s Bookstore in Chicago, The Book Cellar in Chicago and The Book Stall in Winnetka.
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