2010-11 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award High School Nominees
Candor by Pam Bachorz: Parents bring their out-of-control teens to the town of Candor, where subliminal messages piped through the ever-present music turn them into rule-following, khaki-wearing, SAT-focused model young men and young women. Only Oscar knows what’s going on—and how to fight back.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: In a world where the Capital rules all, children are selected and sent from every part of the nation once a year to compete in the Hunger Games: They are all sent into the field of play at the beginning, but only one will be alive at the end.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman: Seventeen-year-old Mia is involved in a car accident and slips into a coma, but at the same time she is out “watching” herself and the people around her. She sees the medical team try to save her, she sees her best friend and boyfriend freak out over her injuries, and she gradually hears what happened to the rest of her family.
Paper Towns by John Green: Margo Roth Speigelman, glamorous high school senior, has disappeared. While her family is used to her running away and has pretty much given up on her, her friends are drawn into the mystery of trying to track her down, following intriguing clues she has left behind.
Pop by Gordon Korman: Marcus just moved into a new neighborhood and is tossing around a football by himself, when he’s suddenly leveled by a middle-aged man, who enjoys nothing more in life that serious football hits. The man makes him tougher and more skilled, but who is he exactly, and why does he act more like a kid than an adult?
Flygirl by Sherri L. Lewis: Ida Mae wants nothing more in life than to become a pilot, but she has two strikes against her: She’s a woman and she’s African American, things that wouldn’t matter in 2010 but kept her from her dreams in the 1940s. Then the war causes the U.S. to consider the idea of women pilots, and she realizes that with her light skin maybe, just maybe, she could pass for white and fly for the U.S. Army.
Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan: Blake totally adores, Shannon, his hot girlfriend, but he doesn’t quite understand her—why does she get so upset when he forgets to call, or takes a peek at a gorgeous woman walking by? Then, a girl-who-is-a-friend in photography runs into some serious family problems, and in comforting her, he finds himself in big trouble with his sweetie.
Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi: Maddy’s parents divorce and she has to move in with her grandmother, who forces her to go to her new school wearing old-lady jeans and a unicorn sweatshirt—social disaster. Friendless at school, she takes refuge in an online gaming community, where she meets her knight in shining armor; but who is he, really?
Shiver by Maggi Stiefvater: Grace was attacked by wolves when she was little, but one wolf in the pack protected her—a wolf with beautiful eyes who continues to come through the woods and stand on the edge of the clearing, silently watching her. She feels a special connection to him, and as she grows older she finds out why—when he turns into a young man and comes to her for help holding on to his humanity.
Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt: A small, West Virginia coal mining town doesn’t hold too much promise for kids growing up there, so Remy Walker plans to take off with his girlfriend when she heads out for college. But will he be willing to leave his roots behind, and is he sure she’s “the one” when he seems to keep running into a fascinating young woman from out of state who’s spending the summer nearby?