2008 YA Literary Awards Announced! January 14, 2008
2008 Best Books for Young Adults
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), today announced its 2008 list of Best Books for Young Adults.
Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in YA Literature 
The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean (HarperTempest, 2007, c2005)
Michael L. Printz Honors
Dreamquake: Book 2 of the Dreamhunter Duet by Elizabeth Knox (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007)
One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke (Front Street, 2007, c2006)
Repossessed by A. M. Jenkins (HarperTeen, 2007)
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007)
For more information, visit the Michael L. Printz Book Award Page of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
Alex Awards: Adult Books that Appeal to Teens
American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in New China by Matthew Polly (Gotham, 2007)
Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff (Harper Collins, 2007)
Tales From the Farm by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf, 2007)
Genghis: Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden (Delacorte, 2007)
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle (Scribner, 2007)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2007) 
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Dial, 2007, c2006)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (DAW Books, 2007)
The Night Birds by Thomas Maltman (Soho, 2007)
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
2008 Alex Awards of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
Margaret A. Edwards Award
Orson Scott Card is the recipient of the 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring 
his outstanding lifetime contribution to writing for teens for his novels Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow.
Pura Belpre Award Winner for Narrative
The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Henry Holt, 2006) 
Pura Belpre Honor for Narrative
Frida: ¡Viva la vida! Long Live Life! written and illustrated by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand (Marshall Cavendish, 2007)
More about the Pura Belpre Award
Coretta Scott King Award Winner
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic, 2007) 
Coretta Scott King Honor
November Blues by Sharon Draper (Atheneum, 2007)
Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali by Charles Smith (Candlewick, 2007)
The Robert F. Sibert Award
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2007)
For more news on all of the Youth Media Awards, visit YALSA’s Booklists & Book Awards or the ALSC site.
Cybils 2007 Bloggers’ Literary Awards & Knitting January 10, 2008
Come to the Loft and check out one of the finalists for the Cybils 2007, the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards, presented by the Cybils Team including co-founders Anne & Kelly.
Let us know your favorite titles! The winners will be announced on Feb 14. 
And stop by the Loft or call (847) 448-8625 and ask about our teen knitting club! Chill out and knit a baby blanket to donate to Evanston Hospital, or work on a project of your own! We have needles and yarn for you to start with.
Go Overboard and Make a Difference! January 5, 2008
GO OVERBOARD CHALLENGE GRANT 
Start the new year with a bang and change the world! Girl Overboard author Justina Chen Headley, Burton Snowboards, and Youth Venture are co-sponsoring the Go Overboard Challenge Grant to find the best teen-created (led and managed) ideas to change the world.
The best ideas will win up to $1,000 each. So don’t waste any time; go overboard, apply for a grant, and put your plan into action! You must be between the ages 12-20 to apply.
Place a hold on Justina Chen Headley’s new book, Girl Overboard (Little Brown, 2008), due out this month.
Winter Break Program and Book Displays January 3, 2008
It’s the last Friday of winter break! Drop in to the Loft for Guitar Hero and Wii! 
And check out our various book displays: new titles; books that take place in the Canadian tundra, Antarctica, or other places icier and more more snow-covered than Evanston; reel books (that have been made into movies); and some of the best young adult titles of 2007!
Teenreads Contest! December 6, 2007
Win a Basket of Holiday Reading and Fun!
Win a basket of 12 young adult books along with holiday goodies by entering the Teenreads.com Basket of Holiday Cheer Contest!
- You must be 13 years or older
- Deadline is December 14, 2007, 11:59 pm
- Read an excerpt of each of the following books and tell teenreads.com which one you would most like to read and why
- I’d Tell you I Love You, but then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter (Hyperion, 2006).
- Hero by Perry Moore (Hyperion, 2007)
- Incantation by Alice Hoffman (Little, Brown, 2006)
- The Luxe by Anna Godbersen (HarperTeen, 2007)
- Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007)
- The Red Queen’s Daughter by Jacqueline A. Kolosov (Hyperion, 2007)
- Return to Atlantis by R. A. Montgomery (Chooseco, 2005)
- Saving Zoe by Alyson Noel (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007)
- Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (HarperTeen, 2007)
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown, 2007)
- Guyaholic by Carolyn Mackler (Candlewick, 2007)
- Perfect: A Pretty Little Liars Novel by Sara Shepard (HarperTeen, 2007)
Stop by the Loft and check out the above title that you most want to read!
