Yalsa Nominations

Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominations


Updated March 1, 2011

Billingsley, Franny. Chime. Penguin/Dial, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-8037-3552-1.

Briony’s a witch and a murderer, both hanging offenses in this world. Slowly she relates what happened in the town of Swampsea that brings her to this declaration.

Blundell, Judy. Strings Attached. Scholastic, 2011. $17.99. 978-0545-22126-9.

Kit flees to Broadway and a role in a musical after breaking up with her boyfriend. When the musical closes, his father gets her a job with dangerous strings attached.

Bondoux, Anne-Laure. A Time of Miracles. Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2010. $17.99. 978-0-385-73922-1.

Blaise, an orphaned teen, recounts his attempts to escape the war torn Caucasus region and gain French citizenship. In many moments of despair, storytelling revives his passion for survival.

Bray, Libba. Beauty Queens. Scholastic, 2011. $18.99. 978-0-4398-9597-2.

When an airplane full of teenage beauty queens crashes on a remote island, the surviving girls are forced to push themselves to the limits in order to survive.

Brown, Jennifer. Bitter End. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-316-08695-0.
Alex has fallen head over heels for Cole, the charming and sweet new boy at school. Cole’s love, however, comes with dangerous consequences. 


Chayil, Eishes. Hush. Walker and Company, 2010. $16.99. 978-0-8027-2088-7.

After years Devory’s suicide haunts Gittel. Now 17, she knows why her friend took her life. But finally, when she tries to tell, their ultra-Conservative Jewish community won’t listen.

Demas, Corinne. Everything I Was. Lerner Publishing Group/Carolrhoda Lab, 2011. $17.95. 978-0-7613-7303-2.
When Irene’s father loses his job, her family move in with her grandfather in the country.



Erskine, Kathryn. The Absolute Value of Mike. Penguin Group/Philomel, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-399-25505-2.
When his father sends him to live with relatives and help within an engineering project, Mike discovers there is more to his life than just meeting his father’s expectations. 


Fisher, Catherine. The Dark City. Penguin/Dial, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-8037-3673-3.

Relic Master Galen and his apprentice Raffi must travel to the ruined city of Tasceron to restore Galen's powers and find an object of power to restore the Old Order.

Forman, Gayle. Where She Went. Penguin/Dutton, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-525-42294-5.

Three years after Mia left for New York, Adam is still reeling from her virtual disappearance when an accidental meeting brings them back together to deal with their mutual grief.

Kittredge, Caitlin. The Iron Thorn. Random House/Delacorte Press, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-385-73829-3.

A coded message sends Aoife, the only female student in a steampunk engineering academy, on a dangerous quest for her mad brother, visiting a mysterious clockwork mansion and beyond.

Lo, Malinda. Huntress. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-316-04007-5.
With no sunlight for years, and terrible creatures appearing everywhere, a small band undertakes a desperate quest for the Fairy Queen that could save the world—but may destroy them.



Lynch, Chris. Angry Young Man. Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-689-84790-5.
Robert picks on his younger brother, but it’s Xan’s intensity that both scares him and also teaches him about his own anger issues in this serious but surprisingly humorous tale. 


Marcus, Kimberly. Exposed. Random House, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-375-96695-4.

Liz and Kate have been best friends for years, but when Kate accuses Liz's brother of raping her, Liz finds that losing a friend and family loyalty can be difficult.

Marr, Melissa. Darkest Mercy. HarperCollins Publishers, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-06-165925-6.
War is coming, but are the Faery Courts prepared? As the final showdown approaches, the Courts prepare to win their greatest desires…or perhaps lose everything. 


McCafferty, Megan. Bumped. HarperTeen/Balzer + Bray, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-06-196274-5.

In a future where teen girls are valued for their ability to be Surrogates for infertile adults, identical twins Melody and Harmony look to make the most of their choices.

Mull, Brandon. A World Without Heroes. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Aladdin, 2011. $19.99. 978-1-4424-1176-0.

Jason, transported to another world through a portal, must find it in himself to gather a word of power to defeat an evil wizard and send himself home.

Neumeier, Rachel. The Floating Islands. Random House Children’s Books/Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-375-84705-9.
Trei longs to join the kajuraihi, floating island defenders with wings powered by dragon magic. Araene’s secret aspirations are thwarted by society’s restrictions on women. Two unlikely friends become conspirators. 


Ockler, Sarah. Fixing Delilah. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2010. $16.99. 978-0-316-05209-2.

After her estranged grandmother’s death, Delilah, her mother and aunt must work through more than just the estate to repair their relationships.

Oliver, Lauren. Delirium. HarperCollins Publishers, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-06-172682-8.
Deadly armor deliria nervosa has been eliminated with a surgical cure. But, as disturbing details about loveless life are revealed, Lena wonders if the cure is really safer than infection. 

Oppel, Kenneth. This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2011. $17.99. 978-1-4424-0315-4.

Fifteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein stops at nothing to save his ailing twin, helping create the Elixir of Life from a formula found in a hidden library of forbidden texts.

Perkins, Stephanie. Anna and the French Kiss. Penguin/Dutton, 2010. $16.99. 978-0-525-42327-0.

Anna can’t believe her father is sending her away to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school. She’s infuriated... until she meets Etienne St. Clair.

Putney, M.J. Dark Mirror. St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011. $9.99. 978-0-312-62284-8.
Discovering forbidden magic, Tory is banished to an academy where she discovers a portal from her time in 1803 to 1940 where she may change the future of the world. 

Roth, Veronica. Divergent. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-06-202402-2.

Beatrice lives in a society where people are divided into five factions that determine work, lifestyle, and even friendships. Unusual results on her aptitude tests place her in danger.

Schmidt, Gary. Okay for Now. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Clarion Books, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-547-15260-8.

After Doug’s family moves, he has a chance to be something other than a hoodlum in training. He finds the library, drawing and friends to help him.

Sedgwick, Marcus. White Crow. Roaring Brook Press, 2011. $15.99. 978-1-59643-594-0.

Rebecca meets Ferelith in Winterfold, a town being inexorably eaten by the sea. They explore a haunted mansion on the cliffs, where dastardly experiments on the afterlife were done years ago.

Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. Penguin Group/Philomel Books, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-399-25412-3.

In 1941, Lina and her family are taken from their home in Lithuania and sent to Siberia where despite horrific conditions, Lina maintains hope that she will survive.

Sharenow, Robert. The Berlin Boxing Club. HarperCollins/HarperTeen, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-06-157968-4.

In 1934, Karl’s Jewishness has never been an issue, but suddenly it is. Offered the opportunity to train under a champion, Karl grabs it and boxing becomes his refuge.

Sloan, Holly Goldberg. I’ll Be There. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-316122795.

Sam and Riddle Border haven’t been in classrooms for ten years. Moving constantly with an unstable, criminal father, all they have is each other until, by chance, they meet Emily.

Smibert, Angie. Memento Nora. Marshall Cavendish, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-7614-5829-66.
When terrible things happen, people visit Therapeutic Forgetting Clinics to forget, but when Nora and friends insist on remembering and share their memories in a comic book, their world unravels. 



Tharp, Tim. BADD. Random House Children’s Books/Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-375-86444-5.
When Ceejay’s brother Bobby returns home from fighting in Iraq, he couldn’t be more different than the person who left. What happened to her hero?



Van Draanen, Wendelin. The Running Dream. Random House Children’s Books/Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-375-86667-8.
After a school bus accident, high school runner Jessica has her leg amputated below the knee. She must gather all of her reserves to put her life back together. 


Wallace, Jason. Out of Shadows. Holiday House, 2011. $17.95. 978-0-8234-2342-2.

The Rhodesian Bush War is over. Robert; newly arrived from the U.K. discovers that, for his classmates who want their former lives of white privilege back, the war goes on.

Ward, Rachel. The Chaos. Scholastic/Chicken House, 2011. $17.99. 978-0-545-24269-1.
Adam can see the date people will die. Can he figure out why so many people are going to die in January, 2027 in time to stop it?



Williams, Carol Lynch. Miles from Ordinary. St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-312-55512-2.
Lacey just wants to be a normal teenage girl, for one normal summer. But her mother’s struggles with mental illness may make ordinary out of reach. 


Wynne-Jones, Tim. Blink and Caution. Candlewick Press, 2011. $16.99. 978-0-7636-3983-9.

Blink and Caution, homeless teens from Toronto, become entangled in a blackmail scheme gone wrong. Their survival depends on confronting both current threats and the painful secrets of their pasts.

Yang, Dori Jones. Daughter of Xanadu. Random House/Delacorte Press, 2011. $17.99. 978-0385-73923-8.
Princess Emmajin, granddaughter of the Great Khubalai Khan, wants nothing more than to be a warrior in her grandfather’s army.