The Best Books for Young Adults committee of the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, has chosen the following books as Top Ten Young Adult Books:
View the entire list.
Draft - January 2002
Brashares, Ann.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . 2001. Delacorte, $14.95 (0-385-72933-2).
Four lifelong high-school friends and a magical pair of jeans take summer journeys to discover love, disappointments, and self-realization.<
Cormier, Robert.
The Rag and Bone Shop . 2001. Delacorte, $15.95 (0-385-72962-6).
When twelve-year-old Jason is questioned as a witness in a young girl's murder investigation, he doesn't realize that his interrogation in the hands of a skilled detective will become a matter of life and death.
Crutcher, Chris.
Whale Talk . 2001. HarperCollins, $16.95 (0-06-029369-1).
Multiethnic T. J. leads a high-school swim team of nonconformists on a quest for a varsity letter jacket.
Flinn, Alex.
Breathing Underwater . 2001. HarperCollins, $15.95 (0-06-029198-2).
After Nick's girlfriend, Caitlin, has a restraining order issued against him, he is forced to come to grips with his anger and low self-esteem.
Jenkins, A. M..
Damage . 2001. HarperCollins, $15.95 (0-0602-9099-4).
Football star and high-school senior Austin clings to a relationship with beautiful, sexy Heather in the hope she will be his salvation.
Mosher, Richard.
Zazoo . 2001. Houghton Mifflin, $16.00 (0-618-13534-0).
From the moment almost 14-year-old Zazoo sees the handsome young man on the black bicycle, her life is changed forever with never-explored questions about her own past and that of her beloved "Grand-Pierre."
Nix, Garth.
Lirael . 2001. HarperCollins, $16.95 (0-06-027823-4).
Lirael becomes a librarian in the vast warren of a library that not only houses books but also guards monstrous dangers and arcane magic that lets her conjure up the Disreputable Dog who accompanies her on a quest when the dead start warring on the living.
Taylor, Mildred.
The Land . 2001. Penguin Putnam, $17.99 (0-8037-1950-7).
In a prequel to the Newbery-Award winner Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Cassie Logan's grandfather, Paul Edward, tells of his heart-breaking but ultimately triumphant struggle to acquire the land that would become the Logan family legacy.
Williams-Garcia, Rita.
Every Time a Rainbow Dies . 2001. William Morrow, $15.95 (0-688-16245-2).
Thulani is drawn out from his grief over the death of his mother when he comes to the aid of a rape victim and is obsessed with forming a relationship with her.
Wolff, Virginia Euwer.
True Believer . 2001. Atheneum, $17.00 (0-689-82827-6).
In this poetic sequel to Make Lemonade, LaVaughn finds that her changing goals and relationships bring her both pain and joy.
Committee members were: Donna McMillen, Chair, Fairwood Library, King County Library System, Renton,WA; Nicolas Buron, Queens Borough Public Library, New York, NY; Margaret Butzler, Bethel Park Public Library, Bethel Park, PA; Nicole Cooke, Montclair, NJ; Valerie Diamond, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD; Cynthia Dobrez, Harbor Lights School, Holland, MI; Donna Gilliland, University of Saint Thomas, Keffer Library, Minneapolis, MN; Nancy Maltby Henkel, Maple Valley Library, King County Library System, Maple Valley, WA; Diana Tixler Herald, Grand Junction, CO; Jan Hoberecht, Newton, KS; Andrea Howe, Albuquerque Academy Library, Albuquerque, NM; Susan Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT; Betsy Levine, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA; Diane Monnier, Bethesda Regional Library, Bethesda, MD; Cindy Welch, Harold Washington Library, Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL; Stephanie Zvirin, Consultant, American Library Association, Chicago, IL; Angelina Benedetti, Administrative Assistant, King County Library System, Issaquah, WA.