Great Reads from Across the Pond — The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize

The Bookseller, is one of the UK’s longest-standing magazines, serving as the business magazine of the book industry since 1858.  In 2014 they launched the YA Book prize to award a YA title written by an author living in the UK or Ireland.  The award honors great books for young adults with the aim of getting more teens to read and buy books. Books are shortlisted then judged by experts in the field including authors and young people. Below is the 2016 winner along with the shortlisted titles.  For the 2017 shortlisted titles click here.  Enjoy!

	Winner One By: Sarah Crossan Despite problems at home, sixteen-year-old conjoined twins Tippi and Grace are loving going to school for the first time and making real friends when they learn that a cardiac problem will force them to have separation surgery, which they have never before considered.  Ages 14 and up
	Shortlisted
	Concentr8 By: William SutcliffeThrough multiple perspectives, tells of London in the near future where, when the government stops distributing a behavioral modification drug, Concentr8, chaos erupts and five teens take a man hostage, seemingly at random, changing all of their lives forever.  Ages 14 and up
	The Sin Eater’s Daughter By: Melinda SalisburyFor four years sixteen-year-old Twylla has lived in the castle of Lormere, the goddess-embodied, whose touch can poison and kill, and hence the Queen’s executioner–but when Prince Merek, her betrothed, who is immune to her touch returns to the kingdom she finds herself caught up in palace intrigues, unsure if she can trust him or the bodyguard who claims to love her.  Ages 12 and up
	Unbecoming By: Jenny DownhamLife has just become very complicated for seventeen-year-old Katie; her father walked out a year ago, her mother is stressed out, her brother is a “special needs” teenager, and she is caring for the maternal grandmother she has never met, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s–and Katie has a secret of her own that she cannot reveal.  Ages 14 and up
	The Art of Being Normal By: Lisa WilliamsonDavid Piper, always an outsider, forms an unlikely friendship with Leo Denton who, from the first day at his new school wants only to be invisible, but when David’s deepest secret gets out, that he wants to be a girl, things get very messy for both of them.  Ages 14 and up
	The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo By: Katherine JohnsonOut of the blue arrives an exotic young woman from a foreign land. Fearless and strong, ‘Princess’ Caraboo rises above the suspicions of the wealthy family who take her in.  Ages 14 and up
	The Rest of Us Just Live Here By: Patrick NessWhat if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend is worshiped by mountain lions.  Ages 14 and up
	The Lie Tree By: Frances HardingeOn an island off the south coast of Victorian England, fourteen-year-old Faith investigates the mysterious death of her father, who was involved in a scandal, and discovers a tree that feeds upon lies and gives those who eat its fruit visions of truth.  Ages 12 and up
	Asking For It By: Louise O’NeillIt’s the beginning of the summer in a small town in Ireland. Emma O’Donovan is eighteen years old, beautiful, happy, confident. One night, there’s a party. Everyone is there. All eyes are on Emma. The next morning, she wakes on the front porch of her house. She can’t remember what happened, she doesn’t know how she got there. She doesn’t know why she’s in pain. But everyone else does. Photographs taken at the party show, in explicit detail, what happened to Emma that night. But sometimes people don’t want to believe what is right in front of them, especially when the truth concerns the town’s heroes…. Ages 14 and up
	Am I Normal Yet By: Holly BourneAll Evie wants is to be normal. And now that she’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the-girl-who-went-nuts, there’s only one thing left to tick off her list… But relationships can mess with anyone’s head – something Evie’s new friends Amber and Lottie know only too well. The trouble is, if Evie won’t tell them her secrets, how can they stop her making a huge mistake?  Ages 14 and up