YALSA's 2008 Alex Awards
2008 Alex Awards
YALSA, the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association, named the recipients of the 2008 Alex Awards, ten adult books with specific teen appeal. The awards, sponsored by Booklist, were announced at the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, January 11-16.
The 2008 Alex Awards winners are:
- American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China, by Matthew Polly, published by Penguin/Gotham Books (ISBN13:978-1592402625)
- Bad Monkeys, by Matt Ruff, published by HarperCollins (ISBN13: 978-0061240416)
- Essex County Volume 1: Tales from the Farm, by Jeff Lemire, published by Top Shelf Publications (ISBN13: 978-1891830884)
- Genghis: Birth of an Empire, by Conn Iggulden, published by Delacorte (ISBN13: 978-0385339513)
- The God of Animals, by Aryn Kyle, published by Scribner (ISBN13: 978-1416533245)
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Sarah Crichton Books (ISBN13: 978-0374105235)
- Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones, published by Random/Dial Press (ISBN13: 978-0385341066)
- The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, published by DAW (ISBN13: 978-0756404079)
- The Night Birds, by Thomas Maltman, published by Soho (ISBN13: 978-1569474624)
- The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz, published by Simon & Schuster (ISBN13: 978-1416532392)
The Alex Awards were created to recognize that many teens enjoy and often prefer books written for adults, and to assist librarians in recommending adult books that appeal to teens. The award is named in honor of the late Margaret Alexander Edwards, fondly called ìAlexî by her closest friends, a young adult specialist at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. She used adult books extensively with young adults to broaden their experience and enrich their understanding of themselves and their world.
In addition to selecting titles for the Alex Awards, the Alex Committee presents a program at the ALA Annual Conference. The 2008 program will take place in Anaheim, Calif., Saturday, June 28 from 4 - 5:30 p.m., and will feature a panel presentation highlighting the winners and how to sell them to young adults. Authors will discuss the impact the award has had on their careers.
The 2008 Alex Awards Committee is: Chair Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York; Diane Colson, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, Fla.; Betsy Levine, San Francisco Public Library; Sarah Hill, Paris High School, Paris, Ill.; Karlan Sick, New York; Hope Baugh, Carmel Clay Public Library, Carmel, Ind.; Jennifer Jung Gallant, Bay Village, Ohio; Charli Osborne, Troy, Mich.; Kaite Stover, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Mo.; Gillian Engberg, Booklist, Chicago; and Administrative Assistant Priscille Dando, Fairfax County, Va.<br><br>
For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos and audiobooks for teens.