2020 Teens’ Top Ten Nominees Announced

The moment is finally here! Here are the 2020 Teens’ Top Ten nominees:

  1. #MurderFunding (#MurderTrending #2)* by Gretchen McNeil. Freeform/Disney Book Group. 9781368026277.
  2. Are You Listening?* by Tillie Walden. First Second/Macmillan. 9781250207562.
  3. Aurora Rising* by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Alfred A. Knopf/Random House Children’s Books/Penguin Random House. 9781524720995.
  4. The Beast Player* by Nahoko Uehashi. Translated by Cathy Hirano. Godwin Books/Macmillan. 9781250307460.
  5. Between Worlds: Folktales of Britain and Ireland by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Illustrated by Frances Castle. Candlewick Press. 9781536209419.
  6. Broken Throne: A Red Queen Collection* by Victoria Aveyard. HarperTeen/ HarperCollins Publishers. 9780062423023.
  7. Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic* by Sam Quinones. Bloomsbury Press. 9781620402528.
  8. The Field Guide to the North American Teenager* by Ben Philippe. Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Publishers. 9780062824110.
  9. Frankly in Love* by David Yoon. G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House. 9781984812209.
  10. The Grace Year* by Kim Liggett. Wednesday Books/Macmillan. 9781250145444.
  11. Last Bus to Everland* by Sophie Cameron. Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan. 9781250149930.
  12. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me* by Mariko Tamaki. Illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell. First Second/Macmillan. 9781626722590.
  13. Lovely War* by Julie Berry. Viking Books for Young Readers/ Penguin Random House. 9780451469939.
  14. The Memory Thief* by Lauren Mansy. Blink Publishing/ HarperCollins Publishing. 9780310767657.
  15. My Ideal Boyfriend is a Croissant* by Laura Dockrill. Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books/Penguin Random House. 9781984849281.
  16. Opposite of Always* by Justin A. Reynolds. Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Publishers. 9780062748386.
  17. Pumpkinheads* by Rainbow Rowell. Illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks. First Second/Macmillan. 9781626721623.
  18. Stolen Time (Dark Stars #1)* by Danielle Rollins. HarperTeen/ HarperCollins. 9780062679949.
  19. Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon* by Mary Fan. Page Street Kids/ Page Street Publishing. 9781624147333.
  20. These Witches Don’t Burn* by Isabel Sterling. Razorbill/Penguin Random House. 9780451480323.
  21. Warhead: The True Story of One Teen Who Almost Saved the World* by Jeff Henigson. Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House. 9780525647904.
  22. Wayward Son (Simon Snow, #2)* by Rainbow Rowell. Wednesday Books/Macmillan. 9781250146076.
  23. We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya)* by Hafsah Faizal. Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. 9780374311544.
  24. Wilder Girls* by Rory Power. Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books/Penguin Random House. 9780525645580.
  25. With the Fire on High* by Elizabeth Acevedo. HarperTeen/ HarperCollins Publishers. 9780062662835.

* Denotes that a book is also available in e-book format.

Congrats to all the nominees! A video announcing the nominees and an annotated list is also available at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/teenstopten.

Teens are encouraged to read the nominees throughout the summer to prepare for the national Teens’ Top Ten vote, which will take place August 15 – October 12. The ten nominees that receive the most votes will be named the official 2020 Teens’ Top Ten. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on in-person library experiences, this is a great opportunity to better utilize digital resources. We encourage teens to engage in digital resources, especially e-books and audiobooks offered by their libraries.

A digital image of a Teens’ Top Ten seal for nominated titles is available to publishers for licensing. Arrangements can be made through ALA’s Rights and Permissions office for publishers who need permission to reproduce the seal on a paperback edition of book jacket. Contact permissions@ala.org or Mary Jo Bolduc, (312) 280-5416 (phone) or (312) 944-8741 (fax) for information.

To learn more, visit www.ala.org/yalsa/teenstopten.

2019 Teens’ Top Ten Titles Announced

Teens' Top TenTeens voted and the winners are finally here!

Here are the official 2019 Teens’ Top Ten titles:

  1. #MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil. Freeform Books/Disney Book Group. 9781368010023.
  2. Wildcard by Marie Lu. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House. 9780399547997.
  3. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group. 9780316310277.
  4. Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers/ Simon & Schuster.
  5. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. Henry Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan.
  6. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. First Second/Macmillan.
  7. American Panda by Gloria Chao. Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster. 9781481499101.
  8. Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu. Random House Children’s Books/Penguin Random House. 9780399549809.
  9. Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson and Emily Carroll. Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan. 9780374300289.
  10. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. HarperTeen/HarperCollins. 9780062662804.

Download the full list with annotations on the Teens’ Top Ten webpage.

Teens aged 12-18 can nominate their favorite titles to be considered as a 2020 Teens’ Top Ten nominee via the public nomination form. Book title nominations submitted in the current year will be used for consideration of the following year’s list of nominees. Teens can submit a book title now through January 1, 2020 to be included in the pool of the 2020 nominee candidates. For books to be eligible for consideration, they must be published between January 1– December 31, 2019.

Voting Open for 2019 Teens’ Top Ten

Teens' Top TenVoting is open now through October 15. Teens aged 12-18 can vote for up to three titles from the 25 nominees. The voting page showcases all nominee book covers and summaries and gives teens the opportunity to leave comments about their favorite titles. A video featuring the nominated books can be found on the Teens’ Top Ten site.

Every April, the Teens’ Top Ten nominees are posted on the Thursday of National Library Week, and readers vote online August 15 through October 15.

Happy voting!

Continue reading Voting Open for 2019 Teens’ Top Ten

2019 Teens’ Top Ten Giveaway Now Open!

Teens' Top TenIn celebration of the upcoming announcement of the 2019 Teens’ Top Ten nominees on April 11, the Thursday of National Library Week, we announced today the opening of applications for our Teens’ Top Ten Giveaway! 50 sets of the 2019 Teens’ Top Ten nominees will be given away to libraries in need with funding generously provided by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation! Eligible applicants can apply for the giveaway via the online form now. Please note, applicants must be personal YALSA members and be within 20 miles of a Dollar General store. Other eligibility requirements also apply. Learn more and apply by April 15. Continue reading 2019 Teens’ Top Ten Giveaway Now Open!

Vote Now for the 2016 Teens’ Top Ten!

Voting for the 2016 Teens’ Top Ten is now open! Encourage teens to vote for up to three of their favorite titles now through Oct. 15. The “top ten” titles will be announced the week after Teen Read Week™, which takes place Oct. 9-15. Encourage voting by sharing the video featuring the 26 nominated titles on your library’s website! Vote now at www.ala.org/yalsa/teenstopten.

Continue reading Vote Now for the 2016 Teens’ Top Ten!

Spotlight on: Teens’ Top Ten Nominees – Part 3

TeensTopTen_winner_WMWelcome back to our 4-part series highlighting the 24 titles nominated (by teenagers; no grown-up opinions polluting the list!) for this year’s Teens’ Top Ten list. You can find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here, if you missed them earlier. Voting starts this week, on August 15, so encourage the teenagers you know to exercise their right to influence sales, movie deals, and publishing trends by voting here.

Here are the penultimate 6 books nominated for the Teens’ Top Ten list this year:

Since You've Been GoneSince You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson – In this, Matson’s third stand-alone contemporary fiction title, relationships and personal growth share center stage with the unique pleasures of summer’s disrupted routines and subsequent possibilities for change. Matson’s first novel, Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, was a 2011 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults pick and a 2012 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults pick, and her second novel, Second Chance Summer, was a 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, so her work is already well-established. Matson has an author page, and is active on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

 

The Shadow ThroneThe Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen – The third and final volume in the bestselling, historical-fantasy Ascendence trilogy. The first title in the series, The False Prince, was a 2013 Teens’ Top Ten book and a 2015 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults pick. Nielsen has an author page here (currently highlighting the first book in her newest series, The Mark of the Thief), and she’s also on Twitter and Facebook. A movie adaptation of The False Prince is currently underway (it’s still in the scripting phase, so it’ll be awhile still), and rumor (aka The Hollywood Reporter has it that a Game of Thrones story editor is in charge of the adaptation, so this has certainly has the potential to stick around and continue to attract more readers.

Continue reading Spotlight on: Teens’ Top Ten Nominees – Part 3

Spotlight on: Teens’ Top Ten Nominees – Part 1

TeensTopTen_winner_WMIn today’s first  of a 4-part series, we’re going to highlight a bunch of titles from the current list of nominees for the Teens’ Top Ten awards. Voting (for teens!) starts August 15th, here. The Teens’ Top Ten list is always one of my favorites, because I love to see what, y’know, actual teenaged bookworms loved reading last year.

An annotated list (for reader’s advisory) of all the nominees is here. The annotations below focus on supplemental and promotional materials for each title, as well as where to find the authors online; if the young adults you serve are anything like the ones in my library, they love to follow their favorite authors in every medium available, and they’re definitely using authors as a resource to find more reading. Hopefully these spotlights will help you and your readers to discover more about each of the nominees!

I’m also going to break down some stats about the nominees in each post. To start, here are some stats about the authors: out of 24 nominated titles, 4 of the nominated authors are male, and the other 20 are female. I’m pretty uncomfortable assigning or guessing someone else’s racial identity based exclusively on pictures available online, so about the racial diversity of the nominated authors I will just say that it’s mostly a very white-looking crowd. 7 of the nominated authors have had a book nominated for a Teens’ Top Ten list before, and 5 of those 7 have made the list with a previous book or books.

Below, our first batch of nominees (they’re just broken into smaller groups for posting purposes, alphabetically by author’s last name, no significance to order!):

lets_get_lostLet’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid. Numerous reviews are comparing Alsaid’s writing style to none other than John Green, so I think it’s fair to say we can expect more from him in the future! Let’s Get Lost was his debut novel; his second, Never Always Sometimes, comes out in August. He blogs here, there’s a nice landing page for Let’s Get Lost here, and a video shoot + author interview here. Alsaid is also on Twitter.

dont_look_backDon’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout. Armentrout is already a bestselling author with a *deep* backlist; great news for readers looking for their next pick after finishing Don’t Look Back (although, fair warning, not everything she’s published is YA), and this suspenseful mystery was already recognized on the 2015 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list. Her official author’s page is here, and she’s also on wattpad here. She’s active on Twitter, and Facebook, as well.

midnight_thiefMidnight Thief by Livia Blackburne. First in a projected series (with a prequel, Poison Dance, available now as well), Midnight Thief is Blackburne’s first traditionally published novel, and readers anxious to follow the narrative thread will be relieved to know the sequel, Daughter of Dusk, comes out August 4th. Blackburne’s author page is here, and she also blogs here, and is on TwitterContinue reading Spotlight on: Teens’ Top Ten Nominees – Part 1