2012 Alex Awards

Every year the Young Adult Library Services Association bestows the Alex Awards, which recognize novels written for adults but still have a unique appeal to youths ages 12 to 18. Check out the list below:

Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin
The acclaimed author of Repeat After Me presents a scathingly funny and moving novel about a 16-year-old girl who becomes caught in a controversy that might bring down her whole school — a scandal that has something to do with the fact Judy is three feet nine inches tall.
In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard
The beguiling fourteen-year-old narrator is a late bloomer used to flying under the radar. Luckily, she has a best friend, a similarly undiscovered girl with whom she shares the everyday adventures of a 1970s American girlhood but in time, their friendship is tested.
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
The nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.
The New Kids: Big dreams and brave journeys at a high school for immigrant teens by Brooke Hauser
A singular work of narrative journalism, The New Kids chronicles a year in the life of a remarkable group of these teenage newcomers — a multicultural mosaic that embodies what is truly amazing about America.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
It is called Cirque des Rêves and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.
Ready Player One by Earnest Kline
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be. Wade dreams of being the one to discover a series of fiendish puzzles hidden inside the OASIS that will yield massive fortune — and remarkable power — to whoever can unlock them.
Robopacalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.
Salvage The Bones by Jesmyn Ward
A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family — motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce — pulls itself up to face another day.
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston
A spirited, visually lush, and stunning novel, inspired by the art of scrapbooking and told through a kaleidoscopic array of vintage postcards, letters, magazine ads, ticket stubs, catalog pages, fabric swatches, candy wrappers, fashion spreads, menus, and more, starring an unforgettable heroine and set in the burgeoning bohemian culture of the 1920s.