The Golden Sower Award 2014 YA nominee list

I don’t think anyone has posted about the state’s Golden Sower Award.  Here’s a link to the website — http://www.nebraskalibraries.org/goldensower/aboutgsa.htm

My older daughter is working on the Golden Sower intermediate nominee list.

I’ve copied over the young adult nominee titles below.

Jacket art used with permission from the publisher Scholastic, ©2010	After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick  As if dealing with a life of cancer wasn’t bad enough, now Jeffrey has grown up and is in his last year of middle school and has to learn how to deal with…can you believe it…GIRLS!! And that’s not all! School is tough for Jeffrey and walking around with a limp isn’t helping much either. If only his brother was here to help him through it all. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so angry with his best friend, who has a secret.
Jacket art used with permission from the publisher Philomel Books, ©2011	Between Shades of Gray by Ruta SepetysIn 1941, fifteen year old Lina Vilkas, her mother Elena, and younger brother Jonas, were forced to leave their nice home in Lithuania by the Soviet secret police and were deported to Siberia to try to survive in the harsh climate under very dangerous circumstances. Her father, who was provost of the university, had been imprisoned and separated from them.  As she fights for her life and those of her family and companions, she uses her artistic abilities to draw pictures documenting their experiences and to try to send messages to her father. She vows that, if she survives, she will honor her family and others like her through her drawings and writing.
Jacket art used with permission from the publisher Scholstic, ©2010	Dark Life by Kat FallsNew words, new environment, and new skills. Can you even imagine living under the water?  Dark Life shares the adventure of one boy who does live under the water and a topsider girl who is searching for her brother. Together they find adventure, fear, fun and surprises that light up the ocean floor.
Jacket art used with permission from the publisherEgmontUSA, ©2010	Epitaph Road by David PatneaudeIntrigued by the world of The Hunger Games? In this dystopian novel by David Patneaude, we see a future that doesn’t have a District 13, but does have Elisha’s Bear, a plague that has wiped out 97% of the male population. It doesn’t have a Hunger Games each year, but it does have a world that is run by women.  What does this mean for Kellen, a fourteen-year-old-boy who is trying to adapt to being a minority? What does it mean when his mom behaves suspiciously, and when he wants more than anything to spend more time with his father? Find out by reading Epitaph Road in which Kellen and his friends try desperately to save Kellen’s father. As the book progresses, it also forces the readers to examine the authority and the philosophies of those in power.
Jacket art used with permission from the publisher Dial, ©2011	Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberly Brubaker BradleyThe secrets of Master Jefferson come to the surface through the eyes of his children born to Sally Hemings, a slave. Ms. Hemings (her skin was nearly as white as any white person) was born into a slave family because her mother was a slave, but her father was also the father of Martha Wayles Jefferson, the wife of Thomas Jefferson. Sounds quite complicated to the outsider, but to those who lived at Monticello it was pretty much common knowledge. The story of Jefferson’s Sons relates how the “household” functioned and how the slaves were treated by Master Jefferson. His Mulberry Row children express what it was like to live during slave times and how hard it was to understand that they would never have the rights his children born of Martha Jefferson.
Jacket art used with permission from the publisher Putnam Juvenile, ©2011	Legend by Marie LuIt is the future and the United States is no longer in existence. There have been devastating floods and earthquakes that have changed the land that used to be America. Instead the Republic, made up of western states, and the Colonies, made up of eastern states, are in a civil war with each other. No one really knows why the two countries are fighting.  Day and June are two young people who are exceptional at what they do. June was raised to support the Republic, the Elector Primo, and all that they stand for; and Day is also from the Republic but is out to destroy it. They are sworn enemies and yet they fall in love. It isn’t until one is near death that the truth starts to become clear and the future is revealed. Visit the the official Legend website.
Jacket art used with permission from the publisher Dutton, ©2011	Matched by Ally CondieWhat would you do if someone else decided where you would work, what you would eat, who you would love, and when you would die?  For Cassia, this is how it is. She lives by the rules set by the “Society” and has never questioned them. Not until they send her friend away to fight in a battle that means certain death. Questioning everything she has ever known, seventeen-year-old Cassia must plot a course that will not endanger her family, but will reveal the difference between truth and deception – reality and illusion.
Jacket art used with premission of the publisher Simon Pulse, ©2011	Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul EvansWe all know what it feels like to be different, but we aren’t all different in the same way. Michael Vey is very different. He’s a ninth grader with Tourette’s syndrome – a condition causing a person to make repetitive movements and sounds without realizing it.  When he and his mother settle down in Idaho, Michael just wants to disappear into the crowd, but the bullies won’t let him. They shove him into lockers and his principal gives Michael detention instead of them since Michael won’t tell him who the bullies are. One day the bullies push Vey too far and find out just what he is capable of, getting literally the shock of their lives. Unfortunately, Taylor, the most popular girl in school and Michael’s secret crush, sees Michael use his powers and she’s not letting it go. When Michael finally reveals his secret to Taylor, she reveals a secret of her own. Shortly after, Michael’s mother is kidnapped and held by a secret corporation that wants to use his powers for their own dark purposes. What do you do when your mom’s life hangs in the balance, but saving her means sacrificing all you have and hundreds of innocent lives?
	Payback Time by Carl DeukerMitch True, an overweight and generally quiet high school senior, wants to be an ace investigative journalist. Even though he is stuck as the new sports reporter, Mitch is determined to find a good story for the school paper.  His first assignment—a simple article on the upcoming football season. It seems like a boring, fluff piece until Mitch discovers senior transfer student and new cornerback Angel Marichal. He throws as if he is in the NFL, keeps changing his jersey number, and won’t talk about his past. Mitch and sports photographer Kimi Yong follow the mystery of Angel Marichal all the way to the state championship game. Along the way, Mitch finds his own journalistic ethics challenged, as he has to determine exactly how much of a story you should or should not tell.
Jacket art used with premission of the publisher iUniverse, ©2011	Red Cell by John KalkowskiWill Conlan is an ordinary 8th grader until he wins a baseball game with a creative toss of a rosin bag. This innovative action catches the interest of the CIA and the action gets started!  Will uncovers a creative method that terrorists are using to communicate with each other. Instead of turning the information over to the police, Will tries to stop the terrorist attack at Wrigley Field. This only puts Will in more danger. He then unscrambles another message, gives it to the authorities, and realizes he made a mistake. Will then tries to stop the terrorist ring again. Mix in teen relationships with his best friend Ryan and interest in Stacy, and the story is full of action and ready to explode off the pages! Read about Homeland Security’s real Analytic Red Cell which inspired author’s story line.