YALSA announces 2001 Alex Awards

Contact: Linda Waddle


312-280-4391


lwaddle@ala.org

ALA News Release


For Immediate Release


March 2001

YALSA announces 2001 Alex Awards

Ten adult books that appeal to teen readers have been selected to receive the 2001 Alex Awards. The books were selected by the Adult Books for Young Adults Task Force, a committee of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). The awards are being announced jointly by YALSA and
Booklist in observance of National Library Week, April 1-7, 2001.

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 titles are:

  • "Chang and Eng," by Darin Strauss, published by Dutton
  • "Counting Coup," by Larry Colton, published by Warner
  • "Daughter of the Forest," by Juliet Marillier, published by Tor
  • "Diamond Dogs," by Alan Watt, published by Little, Brown
  • "Flags of Our Fathers," by James Bradley and Ron Powers, published by Bantam
  • "The Girl with a Pearl Earring," by Tracy Chevalier, published by Plume
  • "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex," by Nathaniel Philbrick, published by Viking
  • "The Man Who Ate the 747," by Ben Sherwood, published by Bantam
  • "The Sand Reckoner," by Gillian Bradshaw, published by Tor/Forge
  • "Soldier: A Poet's Childhood," by June Jordan, published by Basic Books

"The 10 titles on the 2001 Alex Awards List reflect the task force's commitment to choose and promote adult fiction and non-fiction books with the strong potential for long- term appeal and interest to young adults," Task Force Chair David Mowery commented.

The awards are named in honor of the late Margaret Alexander Edwards, fondly called "Alex" by her closest friends, who was a young adult specialist at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore. She used adult books extensively with young adults to broaden their experiences and enrich their understanding of themselves and their world.

The Alex Awards are part of the Adult Books for Young Adults Project. The project is funded by the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust for a five-year period that began in 1998. Each year, the project presents a program at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference. The lectures and list provide a sustained, systematic examination of the role of adult books in the lives of young adult readers with special attention to publishing, marketing and reading guidance.

The fourth program in the series is scheduled for Sunday, June 17, 2-4 p.m., in San Francisco. The winning titles for 2001 will be introduced and the task force will give a panel presentation about the award itself, review the previous award winning titles, provide tips for reading guidance and recommend uses for the list in school and public libraries.

An annotated list of the Alex Awards winners is available on the YALSA "for members only" Web site, in the April 1 issue of
Booklist and in the 2001 edition of
ALA's Guide to Best Reading. The list without annotations is available April 1 on the
YALSA Web site.

For additional information, contact the YALSA Office at
yalsa@ala.org or 800-545-2433.

YALSA is a division of the ALA.