Alex Awards: 2009.
FEATURE.
First published March 15, 2009 (Booklist).
The Alex Awards, administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association and sponsored by the Margaret A. Edwards trust and Booklist, honor the top 10 adult books published during the previous year with appeal to readers between the ages of 12 and 18.
City of Thieves. By David Benioff. Viking, $24.95 (9780670018703).
Two teenage boys encounter cannibals, murderers, prostitutes, and assassins as they struggle to complete an impossible task during the Siege of Leningrad in this funny, shocking, and briskly written tome.
The Dragons of Babel. By Michael Swanwick. Tor, $25.95 (9780765319500).
In this original steampunk fantasy, young Will embarks on a quest that takes him to the dizzying heights and gritty depths of the postindustrial world of Babel.
Finding Nouf. By Zoe Ferraris. Houghton, $24 (9780618873883).
After a 16-year-old girl from a wealthy Saudi family is found dead in the middle of the desert, a devout Muslim guide and a young medical examiner seek to unravel the mystery.
The Good Thief. By Hannah Tinti. Dial, $25 (9780385337458).
In this suspenseful and unpredictable adventure, Ren, a one-handed eighteenth-century orphan, becomes apprenticed to a con man. Surprisingly, Ren seems born to it.
Just after Sunset. By Stephen King. Scribner, $28 (9781416584087).
Modern terrors abound—a Porta Potti prison, class warfare on an apocalyptic afternoon—in this wickedly compelling collection of macabre, absurd, and gleefully vulgar stories.
Mudbound. By Hillary Jordan. Algonquin, $21.95 (9781565125698).
At the close of World War II, two soldiers return to their home in the South to find racial tensions as explosive as the battlefields of Europe. This casts a spell as inescapable as the mud fields of the Mississippi Delta.
Over and Under. By Todd Tucker. St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne, $23.95 (9780312379902).
Andy and Tom’s fourteenth summer is defined by adventures in the woods and caves near their home, a strike that polarizes their small town, and secrets that test their friendship.
The Oxford Project. By Stephen G. Bloom. Photos by Peter Feldstein. Welcome Books, $50 (9781599620480).
In this riveting sociological study, the residents of Oxford, Iowa, were photographed in 1984 and then again in 2005. Their compelling life stories are vividly expressed in brief biographical sketches.
Sharp Teeth. By Toby Barlow. HarperCollins, $22.95 (9780061430220).
A fast-paced ride through the brutality of L.A.’s wilderness of drugs, gangs, and personal connections. The fact that most of the characters in this bloody, sexy, free-verse tale are lycanthropes is almost incidental.
Three Girls and Their Brother. By Theresa Rebeck. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23.95 (9780307394149).
This witty satire of show-biz politics, told from the perspectives of four New York teenage siblings in the eye of a publicity tornado, provides a fascinating insider’s look at the world of the rich and famous.
Alex Awards, 2009, committee members: Priscille Dando, chair, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County Public Schools, Lorton (VA); Hope Baugh, Clay Public Library, Carmel (IN); Diane Colson, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville (FL); Jennifer Jung Gallant, Elyria Public Library System, Bay Village (OH); Sarah Hill, Union School District #95, Paris (IL); Jennifer Hubert Swan, Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, (NY); Betsy Levine, San Francisco Public Library (CA); Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, Troy (MI); Kaite Mediatore Stover, Kansas City Public Library (MO); Ian Chipman, Booklist consultant, Chicago (IL); and Vicki Emery, administrative assistant, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Burke (VA).