I, along with the entire Amelia Elizabeth Walden Committee, am so happy to share the winner of the 2014 Walden Award:
The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is pleased and proud to announce the finalists for the 2014 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. Established in 2008 to honor the wishes of young adult author Amelia Elizabeth Walden, the award allows for the sum of $5,000 to be presented annually to the author of a young adult title selected by the ALAN Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Committee as demonstrating a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit.
The 2014 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Winner is:
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
(St. Martin’s Griffin)
The 2014 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award finalists are:
Jumped In by Patrick Flores-Scott
(Henry Holt / Christy Ottaviano Books)
The Milk of Birds by Sylvia Whitman
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
(Arthur A. Levine Books)
Winger by Andrew Smith
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
All Walden Award titles will be identified by an award sticker—gold for the winner and silver for the four finalists. The winning title and finalists will be honored on at the 2014 ALAN Workshop on Monday, November 24th at 4:25pm in Washington, D.C. and will be invited to participate in a panel discussion.
The 2014 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee would like to thank: the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Foundation, the ALAN Executive Council, the ALAN Board of Directors, NCTE, and the thirty-six publishers who submitted titles for consideration.
The 2014 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee considered nearly 300 young adult titles throughout the process. The committee was comprised of eleven members representing the university, K-12 school, and library communities. They are:
Kellee Moye, Committee Chair
Teacher/Reading Coach
Hunter’s Creek Middle School, Orlando, FL
Lois Buckman, Past Committee Chair
Assistant Librarian
Anderson County Public Library, Anderson, SC
Jonatha Basye
Teacher/Librarian
Bryan Elementary, Hampton, VA
Ernest Cox
Librarian
Prairie Creek Intermediate School, Cedar Rapids, IA
Paul Hankins
English Language & Composition Teacher
Silver Creek High School, Sellersburg, IN
Nancy Johnson
Professor, Children’s/Young Adult Literature & English/Language Arts Education
Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA
Sara Kajder
English Teacher
Shady Side Academy, Pittsburgh, PA
Mark Letcher
Assistant Professor English Education
Purdue University Calumet, Hammond, IN
Suzanne Metcalfe
Librarian
Dimond High School, Anchorage, Alaska
Mindi Rench
Reading Coach/Literacy Coach
Northbrook Junior High School, Northbrook, IL
Lois Stover
Dean – School of Education and Human Services
Marymount University, Arlington, VA
For more information on the award, please visit ALAN Online: The Official Site of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents http://www.alan-ya.org/
I hope you all plan some time to visit these amazing books! And maybe I will see some of you in November at ALAN?
Check out our reviews of Eleanor & Park, Openly Straight, Jumped In, Winger (Ricki’s, Kellee’s), and The Milk of Birds