Book Award Update Part 2: Teens' Top Ten

There are so many books out there, and so many new ones published each year, each with a cover and jacket summary prettier and more intriguing than the next. So how do know what to put at the top of your "to be read" pile? Enter book awards! The panelists/judges for these awards read through scores of books to find the best of the best, so you can focus your reading time on books that truly deserve your attention.

And so I bring to you Part 2 in the Book Award Update mini-series...

Teens' Top Ten: A book award for young adult literature chosen by teens! Hosted by YALSA (a division of the ALA), this award, like the middle and high schools where its judges spend their days, is really just a popularity contest. Of course, in this case, that's not a bad thing.

A nominating committee of teen book groups creates a master-list of nominees, which is then passed off for on-line voting during August and September. Winners are announced during Teen Read Week (which happens to have been just last week). Watch this video to hear the winners announced and see John Green thank people and remind them not to forget to be awesome*.

For those not video-inclined, the 2009 Teens' Top Ten are (in order of top-teniness, from 1-10):

• Paper Towns by John Green (Penguin/Dutton)
• Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
• City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare (Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry)
• Identical by Ellen Hopkins (Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry)
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
• Wake by Lisa McMann (Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse)
• Untamed (House of Night, Book 4) (House of Night, Book 4) by P.C. and Kristin Cast (St. Martin's Griffin)
  Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, The
  by E. Lockhart (Disney-Hyperion)
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

What a fantastic list! Clearly, these teens know how to read with the best of them. Share the winners with others by printing out and passing along this fab bookmark.

*Am I the only one finding it ironic that the winners were announced by the "Bella" twins? And really John Green, were you so taken by surprise at this win that showering and shaving just wasn't an option? These teens are your public!

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