Alex Awards

Background

The Alex Awards were first given annually beginning in 1998, and became an official ALA award in 2002.

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. The winning titles are selected from the previous year's publishing.

The award is sponsored by the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust and Booklist. Edwards was a young adult specialist for many years at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore. Her work is described in her book Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts, and over the years she has served as an inspiration to librarians who serve young adults. The Alex Awards are named after Edwards, who was called “Alex” by her friends.

Currently

Nominations are open until December 31, 2008 for the 2009 awards.

Past Winners

2008

• American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China, Matthew Polly
• Bad Monkeys, Matt Ruff
• Essex County Volume 1: Tales from the Farm, Jeff Lemire
• Genghis: Birth of an Empire, Conn Iggulden
• The God of Animals, Aryn Kyle
• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah
• Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones
• The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
• The Night Birds, Thomas Maltman
• The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz

2007

• The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly
• The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig
• Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe, and A High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska, Michael D'Orso
• Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
• Floor of the Sky, Pamela Carter Joern
• Color of the Sea, John Hamamura
• The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Michael Lewis
• Black Swan Green, David Mitchell
• The World Made Straight, Ron Rash
• The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield

2006

• Midnight at the Dragon Café, Judy Fong Bates
• Upstate, Kalisha Buckhanon
• Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
• As Simple As Snow, Gregory Galloway
• Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
• Gil’s All Fright Diner, A. Lee Martinez
• The Necessary Beggar, Susan Palwick
• My Jim, Nancy Rawles
• Jesus Land: A Memoir, Julia Scheeres
• The Glass Castle: A Memoir, Jeannette Walls