Nominations are available for YALSA's National Teens' Top Ten Vote

Contact: Nichole Gilbert

Program Officer

312-280-4387

ngilbert@ala.org

For Immediate Release

April 18, 2006

Nominations are available for YALSA's National Teens' Top Ten Vote

CHICAGO - The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), is pleased to announce that nominations now are available for the national Teens' Top Ten (TTT) Vote to take place during Teen Read Week

^TM , October 15 -21, 2006. Nominations can be found online at
www.ala.org/teenstopten.

Teens across the country are encouraged to read the 22 nominated titles to prepare themselves for the Teens' Top Ten vote.
The votes will determine the 2006 Teens' Top Ten booklist of the best new books for young adults.

In order to become official, each nomination had to be nominated by at least three teen reviewers and the reviewers had to represent at least two Young Adult (YA) Galley/TTT groups.
Any book that was published between January 2005 and April 2006 was eligible for nomination.
Nominations closed on April 15, 2006.

"Based on feedback from teens and librarians across the country, the YA Galley committee felt that having the final list of TTT nominations available in April allows more libraries to get their teens actively involved in the TTT vote during Teen Read Week

^TM ," said YA Galley Chair Tracey Firestone.
"The list of 22 nominations makes the list manageable for teen readers. We hope your teens enjoy these 22 books as much as our reviewers did!"

TTT is a part of YALSA's Young Adult (YA) Galley Project in which publishers of young adult books provide copies of their recent titles to teen book discussion groups in libraries. In exchange, teen readers evaluate books for the publishers. Teens across the country are encouraged to read the nominated titles and participate in the national vote during Teen Read Week

^TM , October 15 -22, 2006.

YALSA is now accepting applications from YALSA members with an established book discussion group to participate in YA Galley for 2006 - 2008.
Applications and criteria can be found on line at
www.ala.org/teenstopten
. All applications are due May 1, 2006.

For nearly 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos, and audio books for teens.
For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to
www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists
, or contact the YALSA office by phone, 800-545-2433, ext. 4390; or e-mail: yalsa@ala.org.