The Georgia Peach Book Award works to promote reading and literacy skills in teens by highlighting the best current young adult literature.
Each year, a committee of school and public librarians read widely to choose a list of twenty nominated titles. Then, young adults choose books from among that list to read and rate. The books that earn the highest number of readers and ratings become the Peach Book and Honor Books.
Teens vote for their favorite books out of the year's top 20 nominees at their high schools and local public libraries, fostering collaboration between school and public librarians. The award encourages high school students to recognize and read quality literature appropriate to their needs, interests, and reading levels, empowering teens to have a voice. It also honors outstanding works in young adult literature and recognizes YA authors.
Voting is open until the 2nd week of March, 2021 at: GeorgiaPeachAward.org
I will introduce the GPBA books in two groups of 10. The first half is included this week. Next week will be the last half of 10 books.
1. American Road Trip
-Patrick Flores-Scott
When his adored older brother returns from a tour in Iraq with devastating PTSD, a Mexican-American high school senior embarks on a road trip to visit loved ones and explore the illnesses, socioeconomic pressures and milestone anxieties that have challenged their family.
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2. Aurora Rising
-Amy Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Relegated by a misguided act of heroism to a squad comprised of his school’s hopeless misfits, a graduating cadet in a 24th-century space academy rescues a centuries hibernating girl from interdimensional space only to only to be swept up in an interstellar war millions of years in the making.
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3. Barely Missing Everything
-Matt Mendez
Learning that the father he believed dead is alive, an athlete with dreams of a better life embarks on a roadtrip with his best friend while confronting how discrimination is affecting his prospects.
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4. The Bone Houses
-Emily Lloyd-Jones
Enduring the meager existence of a grave digger after the death of her parents, Ryn teams up with apprentice mapmaker Ellis to stop an undead plague linked to a decades old curse.
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5. Dry
-Neal & Jarrod Shusterman
When a longtime drought in California escalates to catastrophic levels, turning her suburban street into a warzone of desperation, a teen is forced to make difficult decisions to protect her family.
*****
I read this and thought it was a fantastic read! Having grown up in CA (in the San Joaquin farming valley near Modesto - mentioned in the book), I fully understand how a water crisis would affect CA, and especially urban and heavily populated southern CA. Two lines in this book *really* stand out to me: ".... and I realize that this is the true core of human nature: When we have lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other." Boy asks Girl what they are to each other and she responds: "We're old friends who've known each other for, like, a hundred years," I tell him. "It's just that ninety-five of them happened in one week." I highly recommend this book to my YA readers. Heidi Y.
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6. Have A Little Faith In Me
-Sonia Harti
AFter her born-again boyfriend breaks up with her, Cece follows him to Jesus camp to win him back, bringing her best friend Paul with her. Soon Cece begins to doubt her opinion about her ex and senses she may have feelings for Paul.
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7. Here To Stay
-Sara Fartzan
When a cyberbully sends the entire high school a picture of basketball hero, . Bijan Majidi, photoshopped to look like a terrorist, the school administration promises to find and punish the culprit, but Bijan just wants to pretend the incident never happened.
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8. House of Salt and Sorrows
-Erin A. Craig
When her beautiful sisters are cursed to dance at glittering balls night after night and start dying in tragic accidents, Annaleigh questions her involvement with a mysterious stranger and wonders if she will be next.
***** This looks like a re-telling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses and I am excited to place this on hold to read it. I love fairy-tale re-tellings.
Heidi Y.
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9. I Wish You All The Best
-Mason Deaver
Thrown out of their parents’ home and moving in with their estranged sister after coming out as non-binary, Ben De Backer struggles to endure an anxiety disorder and the last half of senior year while bonding with a charismatic new friend.
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10. Internment
-Sahira Ahmed
Forced into an internment camp for Muslim-American citizens in the near-future United States, 17-year-old Layla Amin helps forge an alliance of new friends and outside sympathizers before becoming the leader of a revolution against the camp’s corrupt guards.
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Heidi Y.