The National Book Awards announced the longlist for their Young People’s Literature award.
The National Book Award aims to celebrate the best of American literature and has been running since 1950. The longlist titles for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature are:
- Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
- Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson**
- The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin*
- Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
- This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen**
- Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
- X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon
- Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin**
- Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
- Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Worth noting is the lack of female characters on the list: while six of the authors are ladies, only three of the titles feature lady characters as protagonists, with even less featuring relationships (friendship, familial or romantic) between female characters.
Judges for the longlist are John Joseph Adams, Teri Lesesne, Laura McNeal, G. Neri and Eliot Schrefer. Finalists will be announced on October 14, with winners announced at a ceremony in New York City on November 18.
Who do you want to win? Sound off in the comments below!
* = middle grade titles nominated for the longlist
** = nonfiction titles nominated for the longlist
