The Michael L. Printz Award for
Excellence in Young Adult Literature

2008 Award Winner

The White Darkness by Geraldine McDaughrean YA MCC
Sym is not your average teenage girl. She is obsessed with the Antarctic and the brave, romantic figure of Captain Oates from Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole. In fact, Oates is the secret confidant to whom she spills all her hopes and fears.

But Sym's uncle Victor is even more obsessed--and when he takes her on a dream trip into the bleak Antarctic wilderness, it turns into a nightmarish struggle for survival that will challenge everything she knows and loves.

2008 Honor Books

Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet by Elizabeth Knox YA KNO
The dreamhunting began as a beautiful thing, when Tziga Hame discovered that he could enter the Place and share the dreams he found there with other people. But Tziga Hame has disappeared and Laura, his daughter, knows that the art of projecting dreams has turned sour. On St. Lazarus’s Eve, when elite citizens gather at the Rainbow Opera to experience the sweet dream of Homecoming, Laura, determined to show them the truth, plunges them into the nightmare used to control the convict workers. The event marks the first blow in the battle for control of the Place, the source of dreams. Then, when Laura’s cousin, Rose, uncovers evidence that the government has been building a secret rail line deep into the Place, Laura follows it to find out what lies at its end. As she struggles to counter the government’s sinister plans, a deeper mystery  surfaces, a puzzle only Laura can unravel, a puzzle having to do with the very nature of the Place. What is the Place, after all? And what does it want from her?

Inventive and richly imagined, Elizabeth Knox’s dramatic conclusion will satisfy readers – whether or not they’ve read Book One.

One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke YA CLA
Freakish, thought Lily. That was the word for her family. Not freaks exactly, but getting there. Sometimes Lily wishes she weren't so sensible. If she were less reliable, then perhaps she'd have more fun. As it is, her hardworking but flaky mom and her dreamy older brother count on her to run the house. She wishes things could be different, but how can she change her responsible ways? Perhaps, she thinks, she should fall in love!
Meanwhile, her scheming grandmother is planning a family party and, as is typical, Lily worries. Her fears are not entirely unfounded. Her grandfather has recently disowned her brother, and her brother has a new girlfriend who might not fit in. Her mother will probably bring the loony Mrs. Nightingale from the adult day care center where she works. And these are only the predictable complications.
Lily is beginning to understand how easily unimaginable things can happen, too. Back to the question of love, what is this new feeling Lily experiences when Daniel Steadman is near? Could it be the cure?


Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins
Don't call me a demon. I prefer the term Fallen Angel.
Everybody deserves a vacation, right? Especially if you have a pointless job like tormenting the damned. So who could blame  me for blowing off my duties and taking a small, unauthorized break?
Besides, I've always wanted to see what physical existence is like. That's why I “borrowed” the slightly used body of a slacker teen. Believe me, he wasn't going to be using it anymore anyway.
I have never understood why humans do the things they do. Like sin—if it's so terrible, why do they keep doing it?
I'm going to have a lot of fun finding out!


Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill
On a bleak February day in 1963 a young American poet died by her own hand, and passed into a myth that has since imprinted itself on the hearts and minds of millions. She was and is Sylvia  Plath and Your Own, Sylvia is a portrait of her life, told in poems.

 With photos and an extensive list of facts and sources to round out the reading experience, Your Own, Sylvia is a great curriculum companion to Plath's The Bell Jar and Ariel, a welcoming introduction for newcomers, and an unflinching valentine for the devoted.