Teens: Alex Awards

The Alex Awards have been given annually since 1998, to ten adult books that will be enjoyed by young adults, ages twelve through eighteen. The titles are selected by the  Adult Books for Young Adults Task Force from the previous year's publishing.  The Alex Awards are sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association  (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association.

2010s

2013

Caring is Creepy, by David Zimmerman

Girlchild, by Tupelo Hassman

Juvenile in Justice, by Richard Ross (not owned by SPL)

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan

My Friend Dahmer, by Derf Backderf

One Shot at Forever, by Chris Ballard

Pure, by Julianna Baggott

The Round House, by Louise Erdrich

Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple

2012

Big Girl Small, by Rachel DeWoskin

In Zanesville, by Jo Ann Beard

The Lover's Dictionary, by David Levithan

The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens, by Brooke Hauser

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

Ready Player One, by Earnest Cline

Robopocalypse: A Novel, by Daniel H. Wilson

Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures, by Caroline Preston

The Talk-Funny Girl, by Roland Merullo

2011

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To, by DC Pierson

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard, by Liz Murray

Girl in Translation, by Jean Kwok

The House of Tomorrow, by Peter Bognanni

The Lock Artist, by Steve Hamilton

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel, by Aimee Bender

The Radleys, Matt Haig

The Reapers are the Angels: A Novel, by Alden Bell

Room: A Novel, by Emma Donoghue

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: A Novel, by Helen Grant 

2010

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff

Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr.

The Good Soldiers by David Finkel

The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir by Diana Welch and Liz Welch, with Amanda Welch and Don Welch

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

My Abandonmentby Peter Rock

Soulless: an Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger (available as an uncataloged paperback)

Stitches: A Memoir by David Small

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson

2000s

2009

City of Thieves by David Benioff

The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick

Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti

Just After Sunset: Stories by Stephen King

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

Over and Under by Todd Tucker

The Oxford Project by Stephen G. Bloom

Three Girls and Their Brother by Theresa Rebeck

2008

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Genghis: Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

Essex County Volume 1: Tales From the Farm by Jeff Lemire

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

The Night Birds by Thomas Maltman

American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks and the Legend of Iron Crotch by Matthew Polly

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff

2007

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and A High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska by Michael D'Orso

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Floor of the Sky by Pamela Carter Joern

Color of the Sea by John Hamamura
The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

The World Made Straight by Ron Rash

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

2006

Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates

Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Gill's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick

My Jim by Nancy Rawles

Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres (not owned by SPL)

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeanette Walls

2005

Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond
Swimming in Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer by Lynn Cox
Donorboy by Brendan Halpin
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
Work of Wolves by Kent

Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Thinner Than Thou by Kit Reed
Project X by Jim Shepard
Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan Meyers

2004

Wonder When You'll Miss Me by Amanda Davis

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer

>Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
True Notebooks by Mark Salzman
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Leave Myself Behind/a> by Bart Yates

One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry
My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
Seeing in the Dark by Timothy Ferris
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate (not owned by SPL)
10th Grade by Joseph Weisberg

2002

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi by William Doyle (not owned by SPL)
Gabriel’s Story by David Anthony Durham
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

The Wilderness Family: At Home with Africa’s Wildlife by Kobie Kruger
Kit’s Law by Donna Morrissey
The Rover by Mel Odom
Motherland by Vineeta Vijayaraghavan (not owned by SPL)
Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker

2001

Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss
Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn by Larry Colton
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Diamond Dogs by Alan Watt
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley and Ron Powers
The Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood
The Sand Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw
Soldier: A Poet’s Childhood by June Jordan

2000

High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places by David Breashears

Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke

Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year by Esme Raji Codell 

The Reappearance of Sam Webber by Jonathon Scott Fuqua

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain’s Journey by Linda Greenlaw

Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child by Elva Trevino Hart

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Imani All Mine by Connie Porter

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1990s

1999

The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander

Getting In by James Boylan (not owned by SPL)

Needles: A Memoir of Growing Up with Diabetes by Andie Dominick

At All Costs by John Gilstrap

Space: A Memoir by Jesse Lee Kercheval

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy edited by Robert Silverberg

Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

Almost a Woman by Esmeralda Santiago

Caucasia by Danzy Senna

1998

The Secret Family: Twenty-four Hours inside the Mysterious World of Our Minds and Bodies by David Bodanis

All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg

Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America by Rebecca Carroll (not owned by SPL)

What Girls Learn by Karin Cook

Snow in August by Pete Hamill

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

Lest We Forget by Velma Maia Thomas (not owned by SPL)

Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven by Dawn Trice

To Say Nothing of the Dog; or How We Found the Bishop’s Bird Stump At Last by Connie Willis

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