Overview of Evergreen Award nominations, teen book choice

1. Evergreen Award Books
2012-13

2. “SOMETIMES I
WONDER WHY WORDS
CAN’T ACTUALLY
MAKE US BLEED”
Readers seeking sensational violence
should look elsewhere; this taut, complex
family drama depicts abuse unflinchingly
but focuses on healing, growth and
learning to take responsibility for one’s
own anger. - Kirkus Reviews

3. “Killing isn't free.
It takes
something out of
you every time
you do it. You get
their life; they get
a piece of your
soul. It's always a
trade.”

4. “Let me give you a piece of
advice. The handsome
young fellow who's trying
to rescue you from a
hideous fate is never
wrong. Not even if he says
the sky is purple and made
of hedgehogs.”
The lush, melodramatic urban fantasy setting
of the Shadowhunter world morphs seamlessly
into a steampunk Victorian past, and this new
series provides the setup for what will surely
be a climactic battle against hordes of
demonically powered brass clockworks. -
Kirkus Reviews

5. “I AM TRAPPED
IN GLASS AND I
WANT TO BREAK
OUT AND
BREATH DEEP
BUT I´M TOO
AFRAID THAT IT
WILL HURT.”
When Cassia is unexpectedly
"matched" with two of her (male)
friends, she struggles between a safe,
predictable Society life with Xander and
the unknown world of passions,
choices, and possibly danger in the
Outer Provinces with Ky. – Horn Book

6. As [Auden] learns what it means to
have and be a friend, she sorts
through the various ways she reminds
herself of both her mother and
father—unsettling self-knowledge, to
be sure, but at least it’s not too late to
do something about it. – Bulletin of
the Center for Children’s Books

7. “Most people felt lost after
high school. Sometimes I
felt like I'd never really
been found in the first
place.”
Flipping burgers was not exactly
[Sam’s] life’s dream, but it beat being
ripped to shreds by a werewolf, having
a talking head for a best friend, and
being kidnapped and locked in a cage
with an unlikely cellmate. – Children’s
Literature

8. “I don't want to
stay in the bad
place, where no
one believes in
silver linings or
love or happy
endings.”
She might live on a school bus with her
unfit mother and her rescued dog Bobby
Big Boy, but Amber doesn’t let her
seemingly grim existence shake her
unquenchable optimism that she can
make the world a better place by the
sheer force of her positivity. – The
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s
Books

9. “You named him
Festus? You know
that in Latin, ‘festus’
means ‘happy’? You
want us to ride off to
save the world on
Happy the Dragon?”
Percy Jackson fans can rest easy: this first
book in Riordan's Heroes of Olympus
spin-off series is a fast-paced adventure
with enough familiar elements to
immediately hook those eager to revisit
his modern world of mythological
mayhem. – Publisher’s Weekly

10. “There’s a reason why Brewster
can’t have friends – why he can’t
care about too many people.
Because when he cares about you,
things start to happen. Impossible
things that can’t be explained. I
know, because they're happening to
me.”
“A wrenching but ultimately
redemptive look at how pain
defines us and how love, whether
familial, romantic or friendly,
demands sacrifice and brings gifts
of its own.”
-Kirkus Reviews (Starred review)

11. “Tasers are a one-
size-fits-all
paranormal butt-
kicking option.
Mine’s pink with
rhinestones.”
This is a fast-paced, entertaining
debut, reminiscent of the Buffy the
Vampire Slayer TV series in its story of
a seemingly normal girl coerced to
work for a supernatural agenda that
she doesn’t always understand.
- Booklist