Special Announcement: 2015 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Finalists

Share

I [Kellee], along with the rest of the Walden Committee, am so happy to announce the finalists for the 2015 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award! This is my final year on the committee, so this is a bittersweet day for me. Being part of this award which truly looks for books that are written for a widespread audience with a positive approach to life has been so rewarding. This is the award you should choose books from—they are all phenomenal.

walden

2015 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Finalists Announced

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 2015 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 2015 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award finalists are:

Diamond Boy by Michael Williams

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

diamond boy

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

Cinco Puntos Press

gabit

Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Glory O'Brien

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

Penguin Young Readers Group

impossibleknife

Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy) by Deborah Wiles

Scholastic Press

revolution

All Walden Award titles will be identified by an award sticker—gold for the winner and silver for the four finalists.  The winner will be announced on Thursday, July 30th.  The winning title and finalists will be honored on at the 2015 ALAN Workshop on Monday, November 23rd at 4:25pm in Minneapolis, MN, and authors will be invited to participate in a panel discussion.

The 2015 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 2015 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:

2015 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee

Lois Stover, Committee Chair
Dean – School of Education and Human Services
Marymount University, Arlington, VA

Kellee Moye, Past Committee Chair
Teacher/Reading Coach
Hunter’s Creek Middle School, Orlando, FL

Cathy Blackler
English/Journalism Teacher
Santana Alternative High School, La Puente, CA

Nancy J. Johnson
Professor, Children’s/YA Literature and English/Language Arts Education
Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA

Sara Kajder
Assistant Professor English Education
University of Georgia, Athens, GA

Mark Letcher
Assistant Professor English Education
Lewis University, Romeoville, IL

Joellen Maples
Associate Professor, Graduate Literacy Program
St.  John Fisher College, Rochester, NY

Suzanne Metcalfe
Librarian
Dimond High School, Anchorage, Alaska

Beth Scanlon
Teacher
Cypress Creek High School, Orlando, FL

Lisa Scherff
English Teacher
Cypress Lake High School, Fort Myers, FL

Jessica Lorentz Smith
Librarian
Bend Senior High School, Bend, OR

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/

Signatureand RickiSig

Kellee’s review of Gabi, A Girl in Pieces
Ricki’s review of The Impossible Knife of Memory
Kellee’s review of Revolution 
Information about the Walden Award and committee: My [Kellee’s] Time on the Walden Committee

Leave a Comment