Every year at
the end of January, the American Library Association announces a list of top
books, audio books, and video for children and young adults. One of the awards listed is the Michael L.
Printz award for excellence in young adult literature. The winners and nominees
share a higher level of literary quality than some of the more “trendy” YA
novels. If you are looking for a novel
that is challenging, innovative, or just exceptionally well-written, try one of
these Printz winners or finalists.
(Please note: Many of these reviews have been posted previously in this blog; they are simply collected here.)
Ship
Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (2011 Printz honoree)
This novel is
set in a post-oil world, following an apocalyptic world disaster. Now, the
world’s few remaining wealthy people sail the oceans on enormous hydrofoil
ships, and the many poor scavenge old shipwrecks and destroyed buildings for
whatever they can sell. Nailer, the main character, is scavenger whose job is
tearing up old hulks of ships, living day to day, until a rich girl arrives to
change his life.
Going
Bovine by Libba Bray (2010 Printz winner)
All
16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through life with a minimum of effort. It's
not a lot to ask. But that's before
Cameron finds out he's sick and going to die. Dulcie, an angelic hallucination
tells Cam that there is a cure, if he's willing to go in search of it. With the
help of a video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the
mother-of-all-road-trips through a twisted America to find his quest. (Some
mature language and content)
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
(2011 Printz honoree)
It’s a parent's nightmare:
15-year-old Gemma is drugged and kidnapped in an international airport, the
crime crafted so carefully that her kidnapper is able to pass her off as his
girlfriend. It takes Gemma days to realize that she has been taken to a place
so remote and oppressive that she will not be able to escape. Gemma fights,
with whatever limited means she has, to resist her captor's twisted plan, and
to take back her life.
A Northern Light
by Jennifer Donnelly (2004 Printz
honoree)
Mattie Gokey
lives in upstate New York at the end of the 19th century; she has a
suitor, and it seems that a life of marriage and family has already been
decided for her. When she takes a summer job at a nearby lake resort, she learns
the truth about a suspicious murder case; her findings help her to step out
into a life of her own design.
At his new
boarding school, Miles Halter experiences a new life: academic challenges, lack
of parental supervision, and, for the first time, friendship. One of these new
friends is Alaska, a clever, funny, messed-up girl with a penchant for pranks. In the end, Alaska’s pain wins over her spark,
and her friends are left wondering why. A somber read that somehow ends up
being hopeful. (Some
mature language and content)
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgewick (2014 Printz winner)
On a remote
Scandinavian island, we begin to read the story of a photographer there to
document a mysterious plant. Within pages, his story ends; another abruptly
begins. Soon, we delve into seven seemingly disparate, but cunningly
intertwined, short stories about the power of the midwinterblood.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
(2013 Printz honoree)
Julia,
formerly a wireless operator for the British, is being held captive in France
by a sadistic Nazi interrogator. She has supposedly "sold her soul"
in exchange for small bits of freedom. Interspersed with the story of her
fierce fight for survival is a different tale: that of how she came to be in
France and of her friendship with Maddie Brodatt, a British civilian pilot. In
the second half of the book, Maddie narrates, telling of her desperate attempts
to rescue her friend and revealing both the truth of what happened to each of
them, and the truth of Julia's bravery.
