2015 Nominees

All the Truth That's In Me

by Julie Berry
Judith can't speak. But when her close-knit community of Roswell Station is attacked by enemies, Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice.

Belle Epoque

by Elizabeth Ross
Down on her luck, runaway Maude accepts a position which embarrasses her and causes problems, but eventually this new experience in bohemian Paris offers her a new understanding of life.

Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

by Steve Sheinkin

This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.

Counting by 7s

by Holly Goldberg Sloan
When both of her adoptive parents die in a car accident, Willow is left to navigate middle school and the foster care system depending only on her exceptional IQ and a group of misfit friends.

Eleanor & Park* (TIE - 2015 winner)

by Rainbow Rowell
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

The Girls of No Return*

by Erin Saldin
A troubled sixteen-year-old girl attending a wilderness school in the Idaho mountains must finally face the consequences of her complicated friendships with two of the other girls at the school.

If You Find Me*

by Emily Murdoch
Enduring a difficult existence in the woods with her younger sister and the mentally ill mother who abducted them, Cary is found by her father and thrust into a new world that is overshadowed by a secret about her sister's silence.

Insignia

by S.J. Kinkaid
Tom, a genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet.

Life in Outer Space*

by Melissa Keil
Sam is perfectly happy as a game-playing, movie-obsessed geek until beautiful, friendly, andimpossible to ignore Camilla starts him wondering if he has been watching all the wrong movies.

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong

by Prudence Shen
The unlikely friendship between basketball team captain Charlie and robotics club president Nateis challenged when Nate declares war on the cheerleaders over funding that will either pay for new uniforms or a robotics competition.

Out of Nowhere*

by Maria Padian
The star of the soccer team, Tom, finds out there is more to life than high school when he befriends Somali refugee Saeed. Tom experiences a culture outside of his small Maine town where people can come and go out of nowhere.

Out of the Easy*

by Ruta Sepetys
Josie, the daughter of a French Quarter prostitute, is striving to escape 1950 New Orleans and enroll at prestigious Smith College when she becomes entangled in a murder investigation.

Raven Boys*

by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue’s gift seems to be that she makes other people's talents stronger, and when she meets Gansey, one of the Raven Boys from the Aglionby Academy, she discovers that together their talents are a dangerous mix.

Second Chance Summer

by Morgan Matson
Because Taylor's father is terminally ill, her family decides to spend the summer at their lake house to be together. But the last time Taylor was there, she did something she regrets and now must find a way to fix it.

Shadow and Bone

by Leigh Bardugo
Orphan Alina is taken from obscurity to become the protegé of the mysterious Darkling, who trains her to join the magical elite in the belief that she is the only one who can save her country’s people.

Steelheart* (TIE - 2015 winner)

by Brandon Sanderson
At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an Epic, a human with superhuman powers, and now, ten years later, he joins the Reckoners--the only people who are trying to kill the Epics and end their tyranny.

The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door

by Karen Finneyfrock
Celia, hurt by her parents' separation, the loss of her only friend, and a classmate's cruelty, has only her poetry for solace until newcomer Drake befriends her, forging a complicated friendship.

This Song Will Save Your Life*

by Leila Sales
Nearly a year after a failed suicide attempt, sixteen-year-old Elise discovers that she has the passion, and the talent, to be a DJ.

Tiger Lily  (2015 runner-up)

by Jody Lynn Anderson
Tiger Lily receives special protections from the spiritual forces of Neverland, but then she meets her tribe's most dangerous enemy--Peter Pan--and falls in love with him.

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster

by Deborah Hopkinson
Recounts the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic using the narratives of the witnesses and survivors to the disaster.

Weight of Water

by Sarah Crossan
As she and her mother move to into a crumbling apartment, recent immigrant Kasienka has a difficult transition when girls at school tease her for being different and as well as for her broken English.

Wonder Show*

by Hannah Barnaby
Step inside Mosco's Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze! Portia joins a circus freak show looking for the father who abandoned her, but she finds much more.