Suggested Reading

Award Winning Books

  • The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. The winning titles are selected from the previous year’s publishing.
  • The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit, each year. In addition, the Printz Committee names up to four honor books, which also represent the best writing in young adult literature.
  • The Margaret A. Edwards Award honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.
  • The William C. Morris YA Debut Award honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.
  • The Odyssey Award is given annually to the producer of the best audio book produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.
  • The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
  • The Excellence in Nonfiction honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) during a Nov. 1 – Oct. 31 publishing year.

Websites

  • Reading Rants – A group of booklists for teens out there who need a good read, but are wondering if there’s life after Judy Blume and Brian Jacques.
  • KDL What’s Next: Book in Series – This database created by the Kent District Library allows you to search for series books. If you’re unsure of the order of a series you can search by series name, title or author to find the correct order. You can also just search by author to see if they have any other series you’d like to read.
  • New York Times – Each week the NY Times provides you with an authoritatively ranked list of books sold in the United States. There are also individual lists for Fiction, Non-fiction, Children’s and more. You can also find previous weeks bestsellers.
  • Good Reads – The world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Whose mission is to help people find and share books they love.
  • Teen Reads – Commentary, news, interviews and reviews from leading authors for teen readers.
  • Guys Read – Offers a list of books recommended by the webmaster, children’s author Jon Sczieska, and others suggested by visitors to the website.