2007 Alex Awards

Connolly, John.
The Book of Lost Things. $23.00. Simon & Schuster/Atria. (0-7432-9885-3).


Stephen King meets the Brothers Grimm in this gruesome fairy tale about a motherless boy transported to a world where the path home leads home through a quest for the Book of Lost Things.

Doig, Ivan.
The Whistling Season. $25.00. Harcourt. (0-1510-2237-7).


Rose, "who can’t cook but doesn’t bite" arrives in Montana, bringing joy and order to three motherless boys and their father.

D’Orso, Michael.
Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska. $23.95. Bloomsbury. (1-5823-4623-2).


Life in a remote Alaskan village is transformed by the championship aspirations of the high-school basketball team.

Gruen, Sara.
Water for Elephants. $23.95. Algonquin. (1-5651-2499-5).


Suddenly orphaned and penniless during the Depression, a veterinary student jumps a third-rate circus train and finds romance, danger, and a bond with a special elephant named Rosie.

Hamamura, John.
Color of the Sea. $24.95. Thomas Dunne. (0-3123-4073-7).


Raised in the samurai tradition, a teenager struggles to live within this code, even as he decides to fight for the U.S. after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Joern, Pamela Carter.
The Floor of the Sky. $16.95. University of Nebraska Press. (0-8032-7631-1).


Toby, 72, is about to lose the family ranch when Lila, her pregnant granddaughter comes for the summer. Lila uncovers family secrets while trying to decide whether to keep her baby.

Lewis, Michael.
The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. $24.95. Norton. (0-3930-6123-X).


A dying woman’s wish leads an abused 15-year-old from the streets of Memphis to a loving family, an education, and a professional football career.

Mitchell, David.
Black Swan Green. $23.95. Random House. (1-4000-6379-5).


In the British village of Black Swan Green, 13-year-old Jason survives ghost sightings, bullies, a first kiss, and his parents divorce.

Rash, Ron.
The World Made Straight. $24.00. Henry Holt. (0-8050-7866-5).


When 17-year-old Travis Shelton discovers a marijuana farm in the Appalachian woods, he begins a confrontation with the subtle evils within his rural world.

Setterfield, Diane.
The Thirteenth Tale. $26.00. Simon & Schuster/Atria. (0-7432-9802-0).


Margaret, a shy, unknown biographer, has to sift truth from fiction as she becomes the first person to hear the secrets of a reclusive best-selling author’s mysterious past.