The Michael L. Printz Award, established in 1999, honors excellence in literature written for young adults. The award-winning book may be fiction, nonfiction, poetry or an anthology and can be a work of joint authorship or editorship. Nominated books may have been previously published in another country, but must have been in the U.S. during the preceding year. The books must be designated by their publishers as either a young adult book or one published for ages 12 through 18. The award is named in honor of the late Michael L. Printz, longtime YALSA member and Topeka, Kansas, school librarian, known for discovering and promoting quality books for young adults.

2010 Winner

GOING BOVINE
Libba Bray
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385733977
Ages 14-up
496 pages
September 2009

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school --- and life in general --- with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure --- if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

2010 Honors

CHARLES AND EMMA: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
Deborah Heiligman
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780805087215
Ages 13-up
272 pages
January 2009

Charles Darwin published THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, his revolutionary tract on evolution and the fundamental ideas involved, in 1859. Nearly 150 years later, the theory of evolution continues to create tension between the scientific and religious communities. Challenges about teaching the theory of evolution in schools occur annually all over the country. This same debate raged within Darwin himself, and played an important part in his marriage: his wife, Emma, was quite religious, and her faith gave Charles a lot to think about as he worked on a theory that continues to spark intense debates.

Deborah Heiligman's new biography of Charles Darwin is a thought-provoking account of the man behind evolutionary theory: how his personal life affected his work and vice versa. The end result is an engaging exploration of history, science and religion for young readers.

THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST
Rick Yancey
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
ISBN: 9781416984481
Ages 14-up
448 pages

“These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

But he is dead now and has been for more than 40 years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets.

The one who saved me...and the one who cursed me.”

So begins the journal of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts?

PUNKZILLA
Adam Rapp
Candlewick Press
Fiction
ISBN: 9780763630317
Ages 14-up
256 pages
May 2009

For a runaway boy who goes by the name "Punkzilla," kicking a meth habit and a life of petty crime in Portland, Oregon, is a prelude to a mission: reconnecting with his older brother, a gay man dying of cancer in Memphis. Against a backdrop of seedy motels, dicey bus stations and hitched rides, the desperate 14-year-old meets a colorful, sometimes dangerous cast of characters. And in letters to his sibling, he catalogs them all --- from an abusive stranger and a ghostly girl to a kind transsexual and an old woman with an oozing eye.

TALES OF THE MADMAN UNDERGROUND
John Barnes
Viking Juvenile
ISBN: 9780670060818
Ages 14-up
480 pages
June 2009

Wednesday, September 5, 1973: The first day of Karl Shoemaker’s senior year in stifling Lightsburg, Ohio. For years, Karl has been part of what he calls “the Madman Underground” --- a group of kids forced (for no apparent reason) to attend group therapy during school hours. Karl has decided that senior year is going to be different. He is going to get out of the Madman Underground for good. He is going to act --- and be --- Normal. But Normal, of course, is relative. Karl has five after-school jobs, one dead father, one seriously unhinged drunk mother…and a huge attitude. Welcome to a gritty, uncensored rollercoaster ride, narrated by the singular Karl Shoemaker.