YALSA announces 2010 Alex Awards

Contacts: Macey Morales/Jennifer Petersen


ALA Media Relations


312-280-4393/5043


mmorales@ala.org /
jpetersen@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release


January 18, 2010

BOSTON - The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has selected 10 adult books with special appeal to teen readers to receive the 2010 Alex Awards. The awards, sponsored by the Margaret A. Edwards Trust, were announced at the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston, Jan. 15 - 19, and will appear with full annotations in the March 1 issue of
Booklist magazine.

The 2010 Alex Award winners are:

  • “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope” by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers (9780061730320)
  • “The Bride’s Farewell” by Meg Rosoff, published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (9780670020997)
  • “Everything Matters!” by Ron Currie, Jr., published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (9780670020928)
  • “The Good Soldiers” by David Finkel, published by Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux (9780374165734)
  • “The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir” by Diana Welch and Liz Welch with Amanda Welch and Dan Welch, published by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House (9780307396044)
  • “The Magicians,” by Lev Grossman, published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (9780670020553)
  • “My Abandonment” by Peter Rock, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (9780151014149)
  • “Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel,” by Gail Carriger, published by Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group (9780316056632)
  • “Stitches: A Memoir” by David Small, published by W.W. Norton & Company (978039306857)
  • “Tunneling to the Center of the Earth” by Kevin Wilson, published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins (9780061579028)

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 “Alex” by her closest friends, a pioneer in providing library services to young adults. At Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Edwards 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, which will be held in Washington, D.C., June 24 – 29, 2010. Authors will discuss the impact the award has had on their careers.

Members of the 2010 Alex Awards Committee are: Chair Sarah Hill, Paris (Ill.) Cooperative High School; Lana Adlawan, Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library; Hope Baugh, Carmel Clay Public Library, Carmel, Ind.; Beth Gallaway, Information Goddess Consulting, Hampton, N.H.; Liza Gilbert, Community Library, Salem, Wis.; Jennifer Hubert, Little Red School House & Elizabeth Irwin High School, New York; Karen Keys, Queens Library, New York , N.Y.; Betsy Levine, San Francisco Public Library; Ann Perrigo, Allegan (Mich.) District Library; Meghan Cirrito, administrative assistant, Queens Library, New York , N.Y.; and Ian Chipman,
Booklist consultant, Chicago.

For more than 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.

For information on the Alex Awards and other ALA Youth Media Awards, please visit
www.ala.org/yma.