2015 Michael Printz winners
2015 Winner
I’ll Give You the Sun
By Jandy Nelson
Published by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group, (USA) LLC, a Penguin Random House Company
Once inseparable, twins Noah and Jude are torn apart by a family tragedy that transforms their intense love for each other into intense anger. Timelines twist and turn around each other in beautifully orchestrated stories of love and longing.
2015 Honor Books
And We Stay
By Jenny Hubbard
Published by Delacorte, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., a Penguin Random House Company.
Reeling from her boyfriend’s dramatic suicide, Emily hides her anguish at a new boarding school, where she finds healing through poetry. Hubbard’s gem-like prose beautifully balances Emily’s poetry.
The Carnival at Bray
By Jessie Ann Foley
Published by Elephant Rock Books.
In 1993, Maggie is dismayed to leave Chicago and her beloved Uncle Kevin behind when she moves to a small Irish town. Yet it is within this evocative setting that Foley unwinds Maggie’s exceptional coming-of-age tale, where Maggie discovers music and forgiveness as antidotes for grief.
Grasshopper Jungle
By Andrew Smith
Published by Dutton Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), LLC, a Penguin Random House Company.
Historian Austin Szerba is in love with his best girl friend, Shann. He is also in love with his best boy friend, Robby. Mastermind Smith takes these tender facts and swirls them into a whirlwind tale of carnivorous praying mantises, the history of the world, the role of the individual, and the end of all we know.
This One Summer
By Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Published by First Second
Adolescence in its precarious first bloom is the subject of this sensitive graphic novel. The team of Mariko and Jillian Tamaki show and tell us of one special summer in Rose’s life, in a brilliant flow of pictures and text.
Members of the 2015 Printz Award Committee are: Chair Diane Colson, Nashville (Tenn.) Public Library; Hayden Bass, Seattle Public Library; Robin Brenner, Brookline Public Library, Arlington, Mass.; Adrienne Butler, Oklahoma City; Naphtali Faris, Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library; Angela Frederick, Metro Nashville (Tenn.) Public Schools; Shelly McNerney, Olathe East High School, Overland Park, Kan.; Matthew Moffett, Fairfax County (Va.) Public Libraries; Terri Snethen, Blue Valley North High School, Overland Park, Kan.; Award Administrative Assistant John Sexton, Greenburgh Public Library, Elmsford, N.Y.; and Booklist Consultant Daniel Kraus, Chicago.
Previous Winners
View a complete list of Michael L. Printz winners and honor book authors.
- 2014 Winner: Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
- 2013 Winner: In Darkness by Nick Lake
- 2012 Winner:Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
- 2011 Winner: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
- 2010 Winner: Going Bovine by Libba Bray
- 2009 Winner: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
- 2008 Winner The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean
- 2007 Winner American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
- 2006 Winner Looking for Alaska by John Green
- 2005 Winner how i live now by Meg Rosoff
- 2004 Winner The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
- 2003 Winner Postcards from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers
- 2002 Winner Step from Heaven by An Na
- 2001 Winner Kit's Wilderness by David Almond
- 2000 Winner Monster by Walter Dean Myers
More information on previous winners.