Printz Award Winners Announced!

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 1:16pm by manz

Yesterday many awards were given for excellence in books, video and audio books for children and young adults at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards. One the biggies given annually is the Michael L. Printz Award, which is given for excellence in literature written for young adults. This year there was one Printz Award Winner and two Printz Honors named, so if you’re looking for some new teen fiction, here are a few worth a glance.

Winner:
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby – Eighteen year old Finn, an outsider in his quiet Midwestern town, is the only witness to the abduction of town favorite Roza, but his inability to distinguish between faces makes it difficult for him to help with the investigation, and subjects him to even more ridicule and bullying.

Honors:
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez – Loosely based on a school explosion that took place in New London, Texas in 1937, this is the story of two teenagers: Naomi, who is Mexican, and Wash, who is black, and their dealings with race, segregation, love, and the forces that destroy people.

The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick – Four linked stories of discovery and survival begin with a Paleolithic-era girl who makes the first written signs, continue with Anna, who people call a witch, then a mad twentieth-century poet who watches the ocean knowing the horrors it hides, and concluding with an astronaut on the first spaceship from Earth sent to colonize another world.

Looking for more Printz winners? Here’s a list of the winners and the honors that have been awarded since 2000.