CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted ten books for the 2024 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The winner will be announced on 21 May 2024.

The 2024 finalists are:

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted by Monique Gray Smith, and illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt
Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case
Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson
The Well by Jake Wyatt and Choo
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

The selected titles include an emotional novel set amid the Syrian Revolution; a dark academia mystery about three teens of color; a speculative, post-apocalyptic graphic novel; a first-person portrayal of a young Canadian Metis navigating the edge of adulthood; a crime suspense fiction focusing on Indigenous culture; and much, much more!

Judy I. Lin author of A Magic Steeped in Poison

Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Book of Tea duology (A Magic Steeped in Poison and A Venom Dark and Sweet), was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada with her family at a young age. She grew up with her nose in a book and loved to escape to imaginary worlds. She now works as an occupational therapist and still spends her nights dreaming up imaginary worlds of her own. She lives on the Canadian prairies with her husband and daughters.

Zoulfa Katouh author of As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

Growing up in Switzerland and Dubai as a Canadian-born girl of Syrian descent, Zoulfa loved Anne of Green Gables and dreamed of studying English literature. But she also had a passion for science which resulted in her becoming a pharmacist. When she’s not talking to herself in the woodland forest, she’s drinking iced coffee and baking aesthetic cookies and cakes.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

Monique Gray Smith adapted Kimmerer’s original for young adults. Her work is known as Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Monique Gray Smith is a mom, an award winning, bestselling author, and professional consultant. Monique is Cree and Scottish and lives in Victoria, Canada.

Nicole Neidhardt illustrator of Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Nicole Neidhardt is a Diné (Navajo) artist of Kiiyaa’áanii clan. She received her MFA from OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario, and a bachelor of fine arts with a business minor from the University of Victoria. She is the co-founder of the Innovative Young Indigenous Leaders Symposium, alongside Gina Mowatt, and is the co-founder of Groundswell Climate Collective, a group that is fighting the climate crisis through resiliency and artwork. She currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jonathan Case author of Little Monarchs

Jonathan Case is a cartoonist currently living in Oregon. He loves to make art, to write stories, and to go on adventures with loved ones. In addition to comics, Jonathan paints murals, creates book covers, and illustrates for print.

His chief adventuring partners are his wife, Sarah, and their two daughters, Dorothy and Miriam.

Nick Brooks author of Promise Boys

Nick Brooks is an author and award-winning filmmaker from Washington, DC. He is a 2020 graduate of USC’s TV and Film Production program. His short film, Hoop Dreamin’, earned him the George Lucas Scholar Award and was a finalist in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Film Fest. He is currently in development for his first feature film, We Were Born Kings, with Mandalay Pictures. Before becoming a filmmaker, Nick was an educator working with at-risk youth. He is also the author of Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont, Too Many Interesting Things Are Happening to Ethan Fairmont, and Promise Boys.

Isaac Blum author of The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen

Isaac Blum is the National Book Award-longlisted and Morris Award-winning author of The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen. He’s taught English at several colleges and universities, and at Orthodox Jewish and public schools. He lives with his wife in Philadelphia, where he watches sports and reads books that make him laugh while showing him something true about the world.

Blum is writing another Jewish coming-of-age novel to be published in spring 2024.

Jen Ferguson author of The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

Métis with ancestral ties to the Red River (on her father’s side) and Canadian settler (on her mother’s side), Jen describes herself as “an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD in English and Creative Writing.” Jen believes writing, teaching and beading are political acts. Her first novel, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, was a Morris Award finalist, a Stonewall Honor, a winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature, and received six starred reviews.

Jake Wyatt author of The Well

Jake Wyatt lives outside Los Angeles with the love of his life, Kathryn, and their son. He writes, draws, and produces television for a living. He writes and draws comics in particular, because he loves them. He enjoys hiking, rowboats, forests, and the company of animals.

Choo, illustrator of The Well

Choo is an illustrator and comic artist based in Melbourne, Australia. She has done illustration work for Lumberjanes. Choo is also a horror enthusiast, and struggling bread baker.

Angeline Boulley author of Warrior Girl Unearthed

Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island.

Warrior Girl Unearthed, an Instant New York Times bestseller and Indigo Teen Staff Pick of the Month, is her second novel.

Jas Hammonds author of We Deserve Monuments

Jas (pronounced like Jazz), was raised in many cities and between the pages of many books. They like writing about messy families and queer characters and finding magic in the mundane. Their bestselling debut novel, We Deserve Monuments, won the 2023 Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Her second novel, Thirsty, is forthcoming this summer. She currently resides in New Jersey.