Brand new in 2008, Missouri schoolchildren in middle school/junior high vote for their
favorite book from a list of nominated titles. The Truman Readers Award is awarded to the author of this
book by the Missouri Association of
School Librarians. The Truman Readers Award encourages students in the early teen years to express their unique voice through: exploring new literary genres, communicating with their peers about young adult literature, and honoring authors writing for young teens. |
| |
| 2012 - 2013 Truman Award Nominees |
 |
After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick |
| Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa. |
| |
|
 |
Bruiser by Neil Shusterman |
| Inexplicable events start to occur when sixteen-year-old twins Tennyson and Brontë befriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, aptly nicknamed Bruiser, and his little brother, Cody. |
| |
|
 |
Dark Life by Kat Falls |
| When fifteen-year-old Ty, who has always lived on the ocean floor, joins Topside girl Gemma in the frontier's underworld to seek and stop outlaws who threaten his home, they learn that the government may pose an even greater threat. |
| |
|
 |
Girl, Stolen by April Henry |
| When an impulsive carjacking turns into a kidnapping, Griffin, a high school dropout, finds himself more in sympathy with his wealthy, blind victim, sixteen-year-old Cheyenne, than with his greedy father.
|
| |
|
 |
Heist Society by Ally Carter |
| A group of teenagers uses their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save fifteen-year-old Kat Bishop's father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector.
|
| |
|
 |
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White |
| When a dark prophecy begins to come true, sixteen-year-old Evie of the International Paranormal Containment Agency must not only try to stop it, she must also uncover its connection to herself and the alluring shapeshifter, Lend. |
| |
|
 |
Scrawl by Mark Shulman |
| When eighth-grade school bully Tod and his friends get caught committing a crime on school property, his penalty--staying after school and writing in a journal under the eye of the school guidance counselor--reveals aspects of himself that he prefers to keep hidden. |
| |
|
 |
Soccerland by Beth Choat |
| Two years after her mother's death of cancer, fourteen-year-old Flora leaves the family's Maine farm for Colorado's International Sports Academy, where fierce competition could end their dream of Flora playing for U.S. Soccer. |
| |
|
 |
The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen |
| When high school sophomore Mason finds a beautiful but catatonic girl in the nursing home where his mother works, the discovery leads him to revelations about a series of disturbing human experiments that have a connection to his own life. |
| |
|
 |
The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman |
| New York high school student Elizabeth gets an after-school job as a page at the "New-York Circulating Material Repository," and when she gains coveted access to its Grimm Collection of magical objects, she and the other pages are drawn into a series of frightening adventures involving mythical creatures and stolen goods. |
| |
|
 |
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan |
| Jason, Piper, and Leo, three students from a school for "bad kids," find themselves at Camp Half-Blood, where they learn that they are demigods and begin a quest to free Hera, who has been imprisoned by Mother Earth herself. |
| |
|
 |
Virals by Kathy Reichs |
| Tory Brennan is the leader of a band of teenage 'sci-philes' who live on an island off the coast of South Carolina and when the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever. |
| |
^^Top of Page |
| |
| 2011 - 2012 Truman Award Winners |
| |
|
 |
1st Place: The Maze Runner by James Dashner |
| Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape. |
|
| |
|
 |
2nd Place: The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Kiavan |
| High school student Charlie West awakens bloody and bruised in a concrete bunker, only to discover that he has lost a year of his life and remembers nothing about escaping from prison after being convicted of murdering his former best friend, or why he is being pursued by both the law and a group of terrorists trying to bring down the government of the United States. |
| |
|
 |
3rd Place: Jane in Bloom by Deborah Lytton |
| Devastated when her beautiful, older sister dies from anorexia, twelve-year-old Jane recovers slowly from the tragedy, with help from unexpected sources. |
| |
|
| 2010 - 2011 Truman Award Winners |
 |
1st Place: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins |
| In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place. |
| |
|
 |
2nd Place: Gone by Michael Grant |
| In a small town on the coast of California, everyone over the age of fourteen suddenly disappears, setting up a battle between the remaining town residents and the students from a local private school, as well as those who have "The Power" and are able to perform supernatural feats and those who do not. |
| |
|
 |
3rd Place: Jump the Cracks by Stacy DeKeyser |
| On the way to visit her father in New York City, fifteen-year-old Victoria finds an apparently abused child in the train's bathroom and soon finds herself branded a kidnapper and on the run while trying to fulfill her promise to protect the boy at all costs. |
| |
|
| |
^^Top of Page |
| |
| 2009 - 2010 Truman Award Winners |
 |
1st Place: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer |
| For thirteen years, Vlad, aided by his aunt and best friend, has kept secret that he is half-vampire, but when his missing teacher is replaced by a sinister substitute, he learns that there is more to being a vampire, and to his parents' deaths, than he could have guessed. |
| |
|
 |
2nd Place: Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata |
| A young soldier in Vietnam bonds with his bomb-sniffing dog. |
| |
|
 |
3rd Place: Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell |
| Sixteen-year-old Vassar Spore's detailed plans for the next twenty years of her life are derailed when her bohemian grandmother insists that she join her in Southeast Asia for the summer, but as she writes a novel about her experiences, Vassar discovers new possibilities. |
| |
^^Top of Page |
