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2017 Teen Book Awards

Today the American Library Association announced its Youth Book & Media Awards, including the Michael L. Printz Award and the William C. Morris Award. The Young Adult Library Services Association bestows the Michael L. Printz Award annually on books that demonstrate excellence in young adult literature. The William C. Morris Award is given to a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens. 

For more information about other awards and their recipients, check the ALA website.

Help us recognize these honorees and winners by checking one out today.

2017 Michael L. Printz Award Winner

March. Book 3 by John Lewis

Welcome to the stunning conclusion of the award-winning and best-selling MARCH trilogy. Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, joins co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell to bring the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today's world. By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and for every step forward, the danger grows more intense: Jim Crow strikes back through legal tricks, intimidation, violence, and death. The only hope for lasting change is to give voice to the millions of Americans silenced by voter suppression:"One Man, One Vote."

To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative campaigns, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and an all-out battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television. With these new struggles come new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president who might be both at once. But fractures within the movement are deepening ... even as 25-year-old John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma.

2017 Michael L. Printz Honor Books

Asking for it by Louise O'Neill

After beautiful eighteen-year-old Emma O'Donovan is found on her doorstep disheveled, bleeding, and disoriented, with no memory of the party she attended the night before, viral photographs from the party set off a criminal investigation that divides her quiet Irish town.

Also available in: e-book

In mid-thirteenth century Provence, Dolssa de Stigata is a fervently religious girl who feels the call to preach, condemned by the Inquisition as an "unnatural woman," and hunted by the Dominican Friar Lucien who fears a resurgence of the Albigensian heresy; Botille is a matchmaker trying to protect her sisters from being branded as gypsies or witches--but when she finds the hunted Dolssa dying on a hillside, she feels compelled to protect her, a decision that may cost her everything.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

""In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants. The one who becomes a scythe must kill the one who doesn't"--.

The sun is also a star by Nicola Yoon
Also available in: audiobook

Natasha, whose family is hours away from being deported, and Daniel, a first generation Korean American who strives to live up to his parents' expectations, unexpectedly fall in love and must determine which path they will choose in order to be together.

2017 William C. Morris Award Winner

Also available in: e-book | audiobook

The son of a Pentecostal preacher faces his personal demons as he and his two outcast friends try to make it through their senior year of high school in rural Forrestville, Tennessee without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self.

2017 William C. Morris Honor Books

Girl mans up by M-E Girard
Also available in: e-book

"In Ontario, Pen is a sixteen-year-old girl who looks like a boy. She's fine with it, but everyone else is uncomfortable--especially her Portuguese immigrant parents and her manipulative neighbor who doesn't want her to find a group of real friends"--.

Rani Patel, almost seventeen and living on remote Moloka'i island, is oppressed by the cultural norms of her Gujarati immigrant parents but when Mark, an older man, draws her into new experiences red flags abound.

The smell of other people's houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
Also available in: e-book

"Growing up in Alaska in the 1970s isn't like growing up anywhere else: Don't think life is going to be easy. Know your place. And never talk about yourself. Four vivid voices tell intertwining stories of hardship, tragedy, wild luck, and salvation"--.

Tell me something real by Calla Devlin

"The three Babcock sisters must travel to a Mexican clinic across the border so their mother, ill with leukemia, can receive alternative treatments. The sisters' world is about to shatter under the weight of an incomprehensible betrayal. . . an illness far more insidious than cancer that poisons their home"--.