CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted ten books for the 2025 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. Five of the books were chosen from a committee longlist and five were chosen from student suggestions. Voting will take place from May 20th to May 30th with the winner being announced on 06 June 2025.

The 2025 finalists are:

A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Gather by Ken Cadow
Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Young Readers: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

The selected titles include an emotional story of one teens path to adulthood amidst extreme poverty and parental neglect; a witty fantasy about chosen families, and how to celebrate differences; a charming graphic novel that will be treasured by any horse lover; a thoughtful novel about an Indigenous family broken apart; an enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak; and much, much more!

Laura Taylor Namey author of A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow 

Laura Taylor Namey, a former teacher, writes young adult novels featuring quirky teens learning to navigate life and love. A proud Cuban-American, she can be found hunting for vintage treasures and wishing she was in London or Paris. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two children. A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow has been adapted for film and is expected to release shortly.

Rebecca Ross author of Divine Rivals 

Rebecca Ross grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where she soon became a voracious reader and longed to find a portal to Narnia. That quest eventually led her to the University of Georgia, where she graduated with her degree in English. Before she dared to take her writing seriously, she worked at a Colorado dude ranch and as a school librarian. Rebecca is now the New York Times bestselling and acclaimed author of fantasy novels for both teen and adult readers alike. A coffee addict with a penchant for vintage typewriters, old postage stamps, and all things hand-lettered, she lives with her husband and a frisbee-addicted Australian Shepherd in the Appalachian foothills of Northeast Georgia.

Ken Cadow author of Gather 

Vermont author Kenneth M. Cadow has spent a lot of time in the woods, in the wood shop, and working with young adults in schools as an art teacher, English Teacher, STEM teacher, wood shop teacher, and high school principal. He and his wife, Lisa, have three grown children, a border collie named Quinine, and a cat named Rosie.

David Grann author of Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Young Readers: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

David Grann is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, has been adapted into a major motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons. Grann has also released Killers of the Flower Moon: A Young Reader’s Edition, which is a 2025 TRCA title. Grann holds master’s degrees in international relations (from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) and creative writing (from Boston University). After graduating from Connecticut College, in 1989, he received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and did research in Mexico, where he began his career in journalism. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two children.

Faith Erin Hicks author of Ride On

Faith Erin Hicks has been writing and drawing comics “for fun” since she was a teenager. She is a graduate of Sheridan College’s classical animation program, and worked for several years in the Canadian animation industry before transitioning to making comics full time. From 2009 to 2020 she produced more than ten graphic novels, including Friends with Boys and Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (with Prudence Shen). She also collaborated with the bestselling author Rainbow Rowell and drew Pumpkinheads. Ride On was inspired by Faith’s childhood love of horses. Faith currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and their helpful cat.

Amanda Peters author of The Berry Pickers 

Amanda Peters describes herself  as “a woman, a daughter, a sister, an Auntie, a cat mom, a dog mom, a friend, a descendent of a revolutionary war sailor, of accused witches and Mi’kmaq ancestors. A Canadian, a traveler, a wine drinker, an admirer of stained glass, a listener of jazz and old country, a reader of books, and a teller of stories.”  An Associate Professor in the Department of English and Theatre at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Amanda was a recent recipient of the 2024 King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Marcus Zusak author of The Book Thief 

Markus Zusak was born in Sydney, Australia. His mother Lisa is originally from Germany and his father Helmut is Austrian. They immigrated to Australia in the late 1950s. Zusak is the youngest of four children and has two sisters and one brother. He attended Engadine High School and briefly returned there to teach English while writing. He studied English and history at the University of New South Wales, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education. The Book Thief was published in 2005 and has since been translated into more than 40 languages. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 2013. Zusak currently lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and children. 

TJ Klune author of The House in the Cerulean Sea

TJ was born in Roseburg, Oregon. He was eight years old when he first began to write fiction. Klune, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, has been open about his lived experiences with asexuality, queerness and neurodiversity, and how they influence his writing. As a queer author, Klune has always championed stories that represent the community and celebrate differences and diversity.

Katherine Marsh author of The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine 

Katherine was born in Kingston, New York, a town on the Hudson River. The summer before she turned five, her parents moved to her maternal grandmother’s house in Yonkers, New York where Katherine spent a lot of time listening to her grandmother’s stories about her childhood in Ukraine. After studying English at Yale, Katherine spent a year as a high school English teacher before becoming a journalist. As a journalist Katherine worked for Rolling Stone, The Washington City Paper, and The New Republic. Besides writing, Katherine likes to read, cook for friends and family, and travel. Katherine lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two children, three cats, a rabbit, a bunch of fish, an axolotl named David, and seven chickens. 

Holly Jackson author of The Reappearance of Rachel Price 

Holly Jackson was born in 1992. She grew up in Buckinghamshire and started writing stories from a young age, completing her first attempt at a novel at the age of fifteen. She graduated from the University of Nottingham with a 1st class degree and a master’s in English, focusing on literary linguistics and creative writing. She lives in London and her hobbies include binge-playing video games and pointing out grammatical errors in street signs.

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.

CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted ten books for the 2023 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The winner will be announced 6 June 2023.

The 2023 finalists are:

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
Nothing More to Tell by Karen McManus
The Girl from the Sea by Molly Ostertag
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
Two Degrees by Alan Gratz
Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile

The selected titles include a visit to a quirky town where almost everyone blames an outsider for its woes; a trip to Nova Scotia where new love with a mysterious girl upends a Canadian teen’s plans; a riveting survival story where four teens face three different threats; a graphic novel addressing racial issues; a novel where the main character has the power to see other people’s romantic fates; and much, much more!

Sabaa Tahir author of All My Rage

Sabaa Tahir grew up in California’s Mojave Desert at her family’s eighteen-room motel. There, she spent her time devouring fantasy novels, raiding her brother’s comic book stash, and playing guitar badly. She likes thunderous indie rock, garish socks, and all things nerd.

A professional author since 2015 and a journalist before that, Sabaa’s books have sold more than a million copies, and are New York Times and international bestsellers. Her book All My Rage won the 2022 National Book Award, the Printz Medal and the Boston Globe Horn Book Award.

Angeline Boulley author of Firekeeper’s Daughter

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.

She made her debut as an author in March of 2021, with her Young Adult Thriller, Firekeeper’s Daughter, which is a novel about an eighteen-year-old biracial Indigenous woman who must uncover deadly secrets within her community, take on responsibilities larger than herself, and find her truth in the process. With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter won both the Printz medal and the Morris award. The novel was also a Reese Witherspoon YA Book Club pick and has been optioned by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, to appear as a Netflix original series.

Ruta Sepetys author of I Must Betray You

Ruta Sepetys is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages. Her novels Between Shades of Gray, Out of the Easy, Salt to the Sea and The Fountains of Silence have won or been shortlisted for more than forty book prizes, and are included on more than sixty state award lists. Between Shades of Gray was adapted into the film Ashes in the Snow, and her other novels are currently in development for TV and film. Her current novel, I Must Betray You, masterfully portrays the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal, Ruta is passionate about the power of history and literature to foster global awareness and connectivity. She has presented to NATO, to the European Parliament, in the United States Capitol, and at embassies worldwide. Ruta was born and raised in Michigan and now lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jeff Zentner author of In the Wild Light

Jeff Zentner is the author of The Serpent King, Goodbye Days, and Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee. In the Wild Light, his latest novel, was Winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award and has been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the United Kingdom Literacy Association Award.

Zentner became interested in writing for young adults after volunteering at the Tennessee Teen Rock Camp and Southern Girls Rock Camp. As a kid, his parents would take him to the library and drop him off, where he would read until closing time. He worked at various bookstores through high school and college.

He speaks fluent Portuguese, having lived in the Amazon region of Brazil for two years.

Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville with his wife and son.

Nicola Yoon author of Instructions for Dancing

Nicola Yoon is a Jamaican-American author. She is best known for writing the 2015 young adult novel Everything, Everything, a New York Times best seller and the basis of a 2017 film of the same name. In 2016, she released The Sun Is Also a Star, a novel that was also adapted to a film of the same name. She was the first Black woman to hit #1 on the New York Times Young Adult bestseller list.

Nicola grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the novelist David Yoon, and their daughter. According to the author, she’s a hopeless romantic who firmly believes that you can fall in love in an instant and that it can last forever.

Karen McManus author of Nothing More to Tell

Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult thrillers. Her work includes the One of Us Is Lying series, which was turned into a television show on Peacock and Netflix, as well as the standalone novels Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, You’ll Be the Death of Me, and Nothing More to Tell. Karen’s critically acclaimed, award-winning books have been translated into 42 languages and have sold more than six million copies worldwide.

McManus earned her BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross and her MA in journalism from Northeastern University. When she isn’t working or writing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she loves to travel with her son.

Molly Ostertag author of The Girl from the Sea

Molly Knox Ostertag is an American cartoonist and writer currently living in Los Angeles. Her work includes the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist, and the middle grade graphic novel The Witch Boy trilogy. Her latest book, The Girl from the Sea, debuted as a #1 YA Bestseller on June 1, 2021.

Ostertag grew up in upstate New York. She attended Bard College and studied illustration and cartooning at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City, where she graduated in 2014. She was named one of Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 in 2021.

Kelly Barnhill author of The Ogress and the Orphans

Kelly is a former teacher, former bartender, former waitress, former activist, former park ranger, former secretary, former janitor and former church-guitar-player. The sum of these experiences has prepared her for exactly nothing – save for the telling of stories, which she has been doing quite happily for some time now.

She has three children, and she and her family live in a sustainable house designed by her husband. She also teaches, freelances, volunteers, runs, canoes, camps, gardens, and hikes. She also bakes pie, just like the Ogress in her latest book.

Alan Gratz author of Two Degrees

Alan Gratz is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels and graphic novels for young readers, including Two Degrees, Ground Zero, Refugee, and Prisoner B-3087. Alan’s latest novel, Two Degrees, was a Junior Library Guild Selection, and an Amazon Best Book of the Month.

Alan was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. After a carefree but humid childhood, Alan attended the University of Tennessee, where he earned a College Scholars degree with a specialization in creative writing, and, later, a Master’s degree in English education. A member of the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame, Alan now lives with his wife Wendi and his daughter Jo in Asheville, North Carolina, where he enjoys playing games, eating pizza, and, perhaps not too surprisingly, reading books.

Tommie Smith author of Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice

Tommie C. Smith is an American former track and field athlete and former wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20-second barrier was broken officially.

His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium to protest racism and injustice against African-Americans in the United States caused controversy, as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement.

Derrick Barnes co-author of Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice

Derrick Barnes is the author of the New York Times bestseller The King of Kindergarten, as well as the critically acclaimed picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the 2018 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, and the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. Derrick is a graduate of Jackson State University and was the first African American male creative copywriter hired by greeting card giant Hallmark Cards.

Dawud Anyabwile illustrator of Tommie Smith’s Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice

Dawud Anyabwile is an award-winning comics artist and the founder and CEO of Big City Entertainment. He has received the Key to Kansas City for Outstanding Service to Children and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention. He has illustrated books including Becoming Muhammad Ali by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, and Monster by Walter Dean Myers.

CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted five books for the 2022 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The winner will be announced 17 May 2022. The 2022 finalists are:

Barry Squires, Full Tilt by Heather Smith
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood by Gary Paulsen
Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang; illustrations by Gurihiru
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

The 2022 TRCA Committee selected the finalists from a list of seventy titles. After months spent reading and discussing these suggestions, a selection was made. The selected titles include a quirky romp through the streets of St. John’s; a trip to Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give; a riveting survival memoir from literary legend Gary Paulsen; a clever graphic novel addressing issues of race and identity; and a deliciously dark twist on Romeo and Juliet promising glitter, suspense, gore, and more.

Heather Smith author of Barry Squires, Full Tilt

Heather Smith is a Canadian author. Originally from Newfoundland, Heather now lives in Waterloo, Ontario, with her husband and three children. Heather is the author of several books for children and young adults including her YA novel, The Agony of Bun O’Keefe, which won the 2019 White Pine Award, and this year’s TRCA nominee, Barry Squires, Full Tilt.

According to Smith, once a reluctant reader, she draws on her own experiences while writing. This is evident as Barry Squires, Full Tilt is speckled with details that convey the uniqueness of Newfoundland.

Angie Thomas author of Concrete Rose

Angie Thomas, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, was encouraged to take up writing after a trip with her mother to the local library. Initially intending to write fantasy and middle grade novels, Angie came to realize that she wanted her work to show truth and tear down stereotypes. The Hate U Give, her New York Times bestselling novel, was written to draw attention to the controversial issue of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. Concrete Rose, her third novel, revisits the character of Maverick, first introduced in The Hate U Give.

Gary Paulsen author of Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gary James Paulsen (May 17, 1939 – October 13, 2021) was an American writer of children’s and young adult fiction. According to Paulsen, best known for wilderness stories, he developed his love for reading at a young age.

During his lifetime Paulsen wrote more than 175 books and 200 articles. In 1997 he won the Margaret A. Edwards Award given by the American Library Association for his lifetime achievement in young adult literature. Prior to his passing, Paulsen spent time between his home in Alaska, his ranch in New Mexico, and his sailboat on the Pacific Ocean.

Gene Luen Yang author of Superman Smashes the Klan

Gene Luen Yang is an American graphic novelist. As the Library of Congress’ fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely.

A native of California, Yang attended the University of California, Berkeley for his undergraduate degree. He wanted to major in art but his father encouraged him to pursue a more “practical” field so Yang majored in computer science with a minor in creative writing. Since graduating, Yang has worked as a computer engineer, high school teacher, and cartoonist.

Gurihiru illustrator of Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel Superman Smashes the Klan

Gurihiru is a Japanese illustration team, consisting of Chifuyu Sasaki, who does penciling and inking, and Naoko Kawano, who does coloring. Both originating from Sapporo, Japan, they are currently based in Saitama, mainly working as artists for American comics.

The two women are art school graduates who worked as web designers and art museum receptionists prior to their work in comics. After entering a manga competition, they were advised to contact U.S. comics publishers, and they have since illustrated many American comics and graphic novels.

Chloe Gong author of These Violent Delights

Chloe Gong is the New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and its sequel Our Violent Ends. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in English and International Relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York.

Members of the 2022 TRCA Committee are: Eve Trainer, Jan Matthews, Matt Cole, Myrna Allen, and Susan Cochrane.

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Patrick Ness author of Burn

Patrick Ness is a British-American author, journalist, lecturer and screenwriter. Born in the United States, Ness has lived in Virginia, Hawaii, Washington, California, and England. He is best known for his books for young adults, including The Knife of Never Letting Go and A Monster Calls.

Having only ever wanted to be a writer, Patrick studied English Literature at the University of Southern California, and upon graduation, went to work as a corporate writer for a Los Angeles cable company. He was working on his first novel when he moved to London in 1999.

Patrick has a tattoo of a rhinoceros, has run three marathons, and refuses to eat onions.

Stacey Lee author of The Downstairs Girl

An award-winning author of historical and contemporary young adult fiction, Stacey dreamed of writing books for a living since she was nine.

A native of southern California and fourth-generation Chinese American, she graduated from UCLA and later received her law degree. Along the way, she continued writing. Best known for Under a Painted Sky, Stacey plays classical piano and wrangles children, all while fulfilling the dream of a nine year old.

Alicia D. Williams author of Genesis Begins Again

Alicia D resides in Charlotte, NC. She is the proud mother of a brilliant college student. Her love for education stems from conducting school residencies as a Master Teaching Artist of arts-integration. Alicia D infuses her love for drama, movement, and storytelling to inspire students to write. Alicia D loves laughing, traveling, and Wonder Woman as well as chunky guacamole, shiny things, and good stories.

Kit Frick author of I Killed Zoe Spanos

Kit Frick is a novelist and poet. She studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from Syracuse University. The author of young adult thrillers, Kit loves a good mystery but has only ever killed her characters. Honest.

George Takei author of They Called Us Enemy

George Takei is an American actor, author, and activist. He is best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek. He also portrayed the character in six Star Trek feature films and one episode of Star Trek: Voyager. George spent ages 5 to almost 9 imprisoned by the U.S. government in Japanese American internment camps.

Harmony Becker illustrator of George Takei’s graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy

Harmony Becker is an artist and illustrator. She is the creator of the comics Himawari Share, Love Potion, and Anemone and Catharus. She is a member of a multicultural family and has spent time living in South Korea and Japan. Her work often deals with the theme of the language barrier and how it shapes people and their relationships.

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Members of the 2021 Teen Reader’s Choice Award Committee are: Eve Trainer, Jan Matthews, Matt Cole, Myrna Allen, and Susan Cochrane.

CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted five books for the 2020 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The award winner will be announced June ^9th.

The 2020 finalists are:

• The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe
• Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell; illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks
• Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier
• The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees by Don Brown

The 2020 TRCA Committee selected the finalists from a list of over seventy titles. After months spent reading and discussing these suggestions, a selection was made. The selected titles include a fictional field guide to American high school life as told by a black French Canadian; a mystery involving murder, neglect, and systemic racism; a smart full colour graphic novel set in a pumpkin patch; a fantastical historical novel filled with love and imagination; and a graphic novel that humanizes the Syrian refugee crisis. 

Ben Philippe author of The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

Ben Philippe was born in Haiti and raised in Montreal. He has a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.F.A. in Fiction & Screenwriting from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. He currently teaches at Barnard College in Manhattan, New York.

Ben has written articles for various magazines including Vanity Fair and Playboy. His short stories have appeared in several magazines. The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, a Morris Award winner, is his debut novel. He can be found online at www.benphilippe.com.

Oh yes! Ben has a dog Blue of which he is very proud.

Tiffany D. Jackson author of Monday’s Not Coming

Tiffany D. Jackson, a Brooklyn native and lover of naps, cookie dough, and beaches, is a TV professional by day and novelist by night. Her second novel, Monday’s Not Coming, was named one of the Best YA Books of 2018 by School Library Journal, Barnes & Noble, Buzzfeed, BCCB, and Texas Library Association.  

Author of Allegedly, Monday’s Not Coming, and Let Me Hear a Rhyme, Jackson received her bachelor of arts in film from Howard University and her master of arts in media studies from the New School. You can visit her online at www.writeinbk.com.

Rainbow Rowell author of Pumpkinheads

Rainbow Rowell is the award-winning author of such books as Eleanor & Park, Carry On, and Wayward Son. She made her comics debut as the writer of Marvel’s monthly Runaways series. Pumpkinheads is her first graphic novel.

When she’s not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books and planning Disney World trips. She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons and can be found online at https://www.rainbowrowell.com/

Faith Erin Hicks illustrator of Pumpkinheads

Faith Erin Hicks is a Canadian writer and artist who worked in the animation industry for several years before transitioning into writing and drawing comics full time in 2008. Her graphic novels include Friends with Boys, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (with Prudence Shen), The Last of Us: American Dreams (with Neil Druckmann), and the Eisner Award-winning The Adventures of Superhero Girl.

Faith currently lives in Vancouver, BC with her partner, Tim, and their helpful cat. Be sure and check her out at http://www.faitherinhicks.com/.

Jonathan Auxier author of Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster

Jonathan Auxier is the award-winning author of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, which was a BookPage Magazine Best Book of 2011 and Diamond Willow Award winner. This novel was successfully followed by The Night Gardener which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. His third book, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, received four starred reviews and was shortlisted for the Sunburst Fantasy Award in Canada. His latest novel, Sweep, named one of CBC Books’ Best Canadian Children’s & YA Books of 2018, received six starred reviews as well as the Governor General’s Award.

Jonathan, a Canadian-born writer, grew up near Vancouver and now lives in Pittsburgh with his family where he teaches creative writing and children’s literature. He can be found online at https://www.thescop.com/.

Don Brown author of The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees

Don Brown is the award-winning author and illustrator of numerous books including Drowned City. His latest book on the Syrian refugee crisis is a Sibert Honor Medalist, New York Public Library Best Of 2018, and a Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Excellence in Nonfiction Winner.

Don lives in New York with his family. Visit him online at https://www.booksbybrown.com/.

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Members of the 2020 TRCA Committee are: Eve Trainer, Jan Matthews, Matt Cole, Myrna Allen, and Susan Cochrane.

Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2019 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. This year’s contending novels include a work of nonfiction, a graphic novel, Black fiction, mystery fiction, realistic fiction, and historical fiction. The books, a diverse collection, explore subjects such as gender nonconformity, adoption, teenage pregnancy, rape, and murder.

Dashka Slater author of The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

Dashka Slater has been telling stories since she could talk. When she was little, she told stories to her mother, who wrote them down until Slater was old enough to write them down herself.

An award-winning journalist she is also the author of nine books. The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the 2018 Stonewall Book Award and the 2018 Beatty Award from the California Library Association.

Natalie C. Anderson author of City of Saints & Thieves

Natalie C Anderson is an American writer and international development professional based in Geneva, Switzerland with her husband and son. You can also sometimes find her in the mountains of North Carolina or Nairobi, Kenya. She’s spent the last decade working with NGOs and the UN on refugee issues around the world, mainly Africa.

Francesca Zappia author of Eliza and Her Monsters

Francesca Zappia lives in central Indiana. When she is not writing, she spends most of her time reading, drawing, watching anime, and playing way too much Pokémon. She is also the author of Made You Up and Eliza Mirk’s favorite,The Children of Hypnos, a biweekly serial novel posted on Tumblr and Wattpad.

Robin Benway author of Far from the Tree

Robin grew up in Orange County, California, attended NYU, where she was the 1997 recipient of the Seth Barkas Prize for Creative Writing, and is a graduate of UCLA. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she spends her time hanging out with her dog, Hudson, making coffee, and procrastinating on writing.

Jeff Zentner author of Goodbye Days

Jeff Zentner lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He came to writing through music, starting his creative life as a guitarist and eventually becoming a songwriter. He’s released five albums.and has recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. 

As a kid, his parents would take him to the library and drop him off, where he would read until closing time. He worked at various bookstores through high school and college.

Goodbye Days is his love letter to the city of Nashville and the talented people who populate it. He lives in Nashville with his wife and son

Antonio Iturbe author of The Librarian of Auschwitz

Antonio Iturbe is a Spanish journalist, novelist and professor. While pursuing his degree in journalism, Antonio balanced his studies with several jobs: parking guard, baker, and bill collector.

In researching this story, he interviewed Dita Kraus, the real-life librarian of Auschwitz.

Jason Reynolds author of Long Way Down

Jason Reynolds graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in English. He writes novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audiences, including Long Way Down, a novel written in verse.

Reynolds was motivated to write Long Way Down by his visits to juvenile detention centers, where he often meets children caught in a cycle of violence that, under slightly different circumstances, might have been his own.

Karen McManus author of One of Us Is Lying

Karen M. McManus earned her BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross and her MA in journalism from Northeastern University. When she isn’t working or writing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, McManus loves to travel with her son.

One of Us Is Lying, her debut novel, is a New York Times bestseller, a CBC Teen Choice Book Award Nominee, and a Goodreads Best Young Adult Book of the Year Nominee.

Elizabeth Acevedo author of The Poet X

Elizabeth Acevedo is the daughter of Dominican immigrants. She has a BA in performing arts from George Washington University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland. Elizabeth has been on television, given TEDTalks, and traveled all over the world.

She is the winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the recipient of the Boston-Globe Hornbook Award Prize for Best Children’s Fiction of 2018.

Laurie Halse Anderson author of Speak: The Graphic Novel ; illustrated by Emily Carroll

Laurie Halse Anderson is an American writer, known for children’s and young adult novels.

She lives in Pennsylvania, where she likes to watch the snow fall as she writes. She and her husband, Scot, plus dogs Kezzie and Thor, and assorted chickens and other critters enjoy country living and time in the woods.

Emily Carroll, an Eisner Award winning illustrator and author of Through the Woods, has also illustrated the children’s graphic novel Baba Yaga’s Assistant in addition to creating numerous popular Web comics.

Carroll entered into the world of independent video game development in 2013, creating illustrations for The Fullbright Company’s Gone Home, as well as collaborating with game developer Damian Sommer to create The Yawhg.

I live in Stratford, Ontario with a very large dog, a very small dog, one cat (no teeth), and a wife who is extremely wonderful.

Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2018 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. This year’s contending novels include realistic fiction, fantasy fiction, dystopian fiction, mystery fiction and science fiction and explore subjects as diverse as race relations, transgender persons, mental health, traditional families, and immigration.

Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2018 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. This year’s contending novels include realistic fiction, fantasy fiction, dystopian fiction, mystery fiction and science fiction and explore subjects as diverse as race relations, transgender persons, mental health, traditional families, and immigration.

Kelly Barnhill author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Kelly Barnhill, author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, describes herself as a former teacher, bartender, waitress, activist, park ranger, secretary, janitor and church-guitar-player. She is a mother of three whose husband designs sustainable houses.

Her novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon, a New York Times Bestseller and a School Library Journal Best Book of 2016, was awarded the 2017 Newbery Medal.

Angie Thomas author of The Hate U Give

Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi. A former rapper, she holds a BFA in Creative Writing. Her debut novel, The Hate U Give, was a Goodreads Choice Awards Best Young Adult Fiction winner, a School Library Journal Best YA of 2017 and a National Book Award Longlist title.

Film rights for The Hate U Give have been optioned by Fox 2000 with Hunger Games and Everything, Everything actress Amandla Stenberg to star.

Donna Gephart author of Lily and Dunkin

According to Donna Gephart, a self-described nerd, her love for libraries and reading led her to a career as an author. Lily and Dunkin received a Voice Award from the Palm Beach County Action Alliance for Mental Health and a Rainbow Award for Best Transgender Book. Lily and Dunkin is a Junior Library Guild Selection novel and an Amazon Best Book of the Month.

Originally from Philadelphia, Donna now lives in South Florida with her family, including her dog, Benji.

Cherie Dimaline author of The Marrow Thieves

Cherie Dimaline, a member of the Georgian Bay Métis Nation, was named the Emerging Artist of the Year at the Ontario Premier’s Awards for Excellence in Arts in 2014. She is also the first Aboriginal writer in residence for the Toronto Public Library.

Her recent young adult novel The Marrow Thieves won the Governor General’s Award for English-language children’s literature  and the $50,000 Kirkus Prize in the young adult literature category.

Rebecca Podos author of The Mystery of Hollow Places

Rebecca Podos is a graduate of the writing, literature, and publishing program at Emerson College, where she won the MFA award for best thesis. Rebecca’s debut novel, The Mystery of Hollow Places, was nominated for a 2016 Agatha Award. The novel, whose main character Imogene Scott is the daughter of a bestselling mystery writer, was a Kirkus Prize 2016 Nominee, and a Junior Library Guild Selection title.

Traci Chee author of The Reader

Traci Chee is the author of The Reader, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and a 2016 Kirkus Prize finalist. Chee loves poetry and paper crafts, and dabbles at piano playing, egg painting, and hosting potluck game nights for family and friends. She studied literature and creative writing at UC Santa Cruz and earned a Master of Arts degree from San Francisco State University. According to Traci, she grew up in a small town with more cows than people. She currently lives in California with her dog.

Jeff Zentner author The Serpent King   

Jeff Zentner’s book The Serpent King is a recent winner of the William C. Morris Award and the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award.

Zentner, who began his creative life as a guitarist and eventually songwriter, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

As a kid, his parents would take him to the library and drop him off, where he would read until closing time. He worked at various bookstores through high school and college.

Nicola Yoon author of The Sun is Also a Star

Nicola Yoon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything, and The Sun Is Also a Star. She grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, and lives in Los Angeles with her daughter and husband.

A lover of kimchi and karaoke, Yoon  majored in electrical engineering at Cornell University she but discovered her knack for writing by accident when she took a creative writing class as an elective.

Adam Silvera author of They Both Die at the End

Adam Silvera, a former children’s bookseller, literary marketing assistant, and book reviewer for children’s and young adult novels, grew up in the Bronx revering the work of J.K. Rowling.

All of Silvera’s novels have received multiple starred reviews. His third novel, They Both Die at the End, is a New York Times bestseller, a Book Riot Best Queer Book of 2017, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.

Sandhya Menon author of When Dimple Met Rishi

Sandhya Menon is the New York Times bestselling author of the smash-hit When Dimple Met Rishi. She was born and raised in India on a steady diet of Bollywood movies and street food. A confessed dessert nut she loves anything containing Nutella or chocolate. She currently lives in Colorado with her husband and two children.

Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2017 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. This year’s contending novels include a hard-edged, ripped-from-the-headlines book dramatizing police brutality and race relations in America; a novel where sixteen-year-old gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical; and story of a teenager learning to live with clinical depression.

Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely authors of All American Boys

Jason Reynolds didn’t grow up expecting to be a writer: indeed, he was 17 before he read a book from start to finish. But it might be his atypical background that allows him to connect so powerfully with teenage readers.

Jason published several poetry collections before publishing his first novel, When I Was The Greatest, in 2014. In 2015, Reynolds published The Boy in the Black Suit, about a child grieving the loss of his mother and All American Boys, which he co-authored with Brendan Kiely.

Brendan Kiely is the co-author, with Jason Reynolds of the young adult novel, All American Boys, which won the Coretta Scott King Honor Award and the inaugural Walter Dean Myers Award for outstanding children’s literature in the young adult category. Brendan is also the author of the novel The Gospel of Winter, which has been published in ten languages.

Brendan grew up in the Boston area and attended The City College of New York where he earned an MFA in creative writing. He found his enthusiasm for young people working at a high school in New York City for ten years before becoming a full-time writer.These days, Brendan lives with his wife in Greenwich Village

Melanie Crowder author of Audacity

Melanie Crowder is the acclaimed author of several books for young readers. She writes YA historical fiction and Middle Grade novels of all sorts. Audacity,a novel in verse featuring the real-life Clara Lemlich, a courageous, tenacious warrior for workers’ rights in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City, is a 2015 National Jewish Book Award finalist.

Melanie teaches English to non-native-English-speaking students at her local school and holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives under the big blue Colorado sky with her wife, two kids, and one good dog.

E. K. Johnston author of Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Emily Kate Johnston, publishing as E.K. Johnston, is a Canadian author and forensic archaeologist.

Johnston, who started writing fan fiction in 2002, wrote her first manuscript seven years later. Her first book, The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, was published in 2014. Exit, Pursued By A Bear is her fifth novel.

Johnson’s favourite authors include Elizabeth Wein, JRR Tolkien, and Holly Black. She plays the alto saxophone and the clarinet, and currently lives in Stratford, Ontario.

Becky Albertalli author of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertalli is a clinical psychologist who has had the privilege of conducting therapy with dozens of smart, weird, irresistible teenagers. She also served for seven years as co-leader of a support group for gender nonconforming children in Washington, DC. She now lives with her family in Atlanta. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is her first novel.

Frances Hardinge author of The Lie Tree

Frances Hardinge was born in Brighton, England, and dreamed of writing at the age of four. She studied English at Somerville College, University of Oxford. Her writing career started after she won a short story magazine competition. Her debut novel, Fly By Night, won the 2006 Branford Boase Award and was listed as one of the School Library Journal Best Books, while her 2015 novel The Lie Tree won the 2015 Costa Book Award, the first children’s book to do so since Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass in 2001.

Hardinge is often seen wearing a black hat and enjoys dressing in old-fashioned clothing.

Francisco X. Stork author of The Memory of Light

Francisco Xavier Arguelles was born in 1953 in Monterrey, Mexico and moved to El Paso, Texas at the age of nine. At Spring Hill College, Francisco majored in English Literature and Philosophy and received the college’s creative writing award. After college he attended graduate school at Harvard University and Columbia Law School. Francisco is married to Jill Syverson-Stork. He is the father of Nicholas and Anna and the grandfather of Charlotte.

He lives near Boston with his wife.

Patrick Ness author of The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Patrick Ness was born in Virginia, then moved to Hawaii where he lived until he was six. He then spent the next several years in Washington state, before moving to study English Literature at the University of Southern California. Patrick moved to the United Kingdom in 1999, where I’ve lived (mostly in London) ever since.

Ness is the author of several novels, including The Knife of Never Letting Go, A Monster Calls and The Rest of Us Just Live Here.

Stephanie Oakes author of The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

Stephanie Oakes lives in Spokane, Washington, and works as a library media teacher in a combined middle and elementary school. She has an MFA in poetry from Eastern Washington University. Her first novel, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, was a Morris Award finalist.

You can follow Stephanie on Facebook and twitter.

Susin Nielsen author of We Are All Made of Molecules

Susin Nielsen got her start writing a spec script for the popular television series Degrassi Junior High. She went on to pen sixteen episodes of the hit show and four of the Degrassi books. She has written for many TV series, including Heartland.  Her first novel, Word Nerd, was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature. Her next two novels, Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom and The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, won numerous awards.  

Susin lives in Vancouver with her family and two destructive, naughty cats. When not writing, she loves to road bike, be in the great outdoors, read and travel.

Ryan Graudin author of Wolf by Wolf

Ryan Graudin was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. With a severe case of wanderlust, she has travelled to South Korea, New Zealand, Peru and Kenya. When she’s not traveling, she’s busy writing and spending time with her husband and wolf dog.