2008-2009 Eliot Rosewater  
Indiana High School Book Award  

American Born Chinese- Yang, Gene.  Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in graphic noel format.

Anahita’s Woven Riddle- Sayres, Meghan Nuttall.  In Iran, more than 100 years ago, a young girl with three suitors gets permission from her father and a holy man to weave into her wedding rug a riddle to be solved by her future husband, which will ensure that he has wit to match hers.

Avalon High- Cabot, Meg.  Having moved to Annapolis , Maryland , with her medievalist parents, high school junior Ellie enrolls at Avalon High School where several students may or may not be reincarnations of King Arthur and his court.

Bermudez Triangle: A Novel- Johnson, Maureen.  The friendship of three high school girls and their relationships with their friends and families are tested when two of them fall in love with each other.

Book Thief- Zusak, Markus.  Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel- a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

Born To Rock- Korman, Gordon . High school senior Leo Caraway, a conservative Republican, learns that his biological father is a punk rock legend.

Code Talker- Bruchac, Jospeh.  After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages in their native tongue.

Copper Sun- Draper, Sharon M..  Two fifteen-year-old girls- one a slave and the other an indentured servant- escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.

Dairy Queen- Murdock, Catherine Gilbert.  After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school’s rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.

Devilish- Johnson, Maureen.  Jane Jarvis, a senior at a Catholic girl’s school, tries to save her best friend by making a pact with a demon in the form of a cupcake-eating, very friendly teenage girl.

Dollmage- Leavitt, Martine.  The Dollmage, the wise woman who protects the hidden village of Seekvalley , chooses Renoa as her successor, but the losing candidate, Annakey, has her own magic that also affects the town and its people in unexpected ways.

Endgame- Garden, Nancy.  Fifteen-year-old Gray Wilton, bullied at school and ridiculed by an unfeeling father for preferring drums to hunting, goes on a shooting rampage at his high school.

Freedom Writers Diary: How A Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing To Change Themselves and The world Around- Gruwell, Erined.  Account of a teacher and her class as they undertake a life changing odyssey toward understanding and racial tolerance.

Glass Castle- Walls, Jeannette. After an eccentric childhood, the author and her siblings confront a spiraling, dysfunctional family life.

Godless- Hautman, Pete.  When sixteen-year-old Jason Bock and his friends create their own  religion to worship the town’s water, what started out as joke begins to take on a power of its own. 

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You- Carter, Ally.  While in training at a school for exceptional girls and future spies, Cammie Morgan falls in love with the most ordinary guy. 

Looking For Alaska- Green, John.  Award winning novel chronicles Miles’ first year at boarding school, punctuated by sex, drinking, and friendship- and defined by a tragic death.

Peeps- Westerfeld, Scott.  Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends that he has unknowingly infected.

Road Of the Dead- Brooks, Kevin.  Two brothers, sons of an incarcerated gypsy leave London traveling to an isolated and desolate village in search of the brutal killer of their sister. 

Storm Front- Butcher, Jim. A modern-day mage and consultant to the police finds his stale life suddenly enlivened by the presence of a rival in the black arts. 

Tough Boy Sontas- Crisler Curtis L. A collection of poems depicted the lives of poverty, crime, despair, and the innocence of African American teenagers growing up in Gary , Indiana . 

Trigger- Vaught, Susan.  Teenager Jersey Hatch must work through his extensive brain damage to figure out why he decided to shoot himself.  

Twisted- Anderson, Laurie Halse. After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen –year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of popular girls, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts. 

Tyrell- Booth, Coe. Fifteen-year old Tyrell, who is living in a Bronx homeless shelter with his spaced-out mother and his younger brother, tries to avoid temptation so he does not end up in jail like his father. 

What Happened To Cass McBride?- Giles, Gail.  After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle Kirby decides to exact revenge on the person he holds responsible.