Alex Awards

2013 Alex Awards
Adult Books that Appeal to Teen Readers

Call numbers for the Duluth Public Library are in ( ) after the description.
If it looks good to you and the Library doesn't have it, ask about interlibrary loan,
and we'll get it for you from another library.

Backderf, Derf. My Friend Dahmer: A graphic novel
You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer--the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper--seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, "Jeff" was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche--a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget. (364.1523 D444m)

Baggott, Julianna. Pure
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet, she thinks about what is lost--how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. (Fic SF Baggott)

Ballard, Chris. ONE SHOT AT FOREVER: A SMALL TOWN, AN UNLIKELY COACH AND A MAGICAL BASEBALL SEASON
In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to become the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long hair, and warming up to Jesus Christ Superstar, the Ironmen would play a dramatic game against a Chicago powerhouse that would change their lives forever.

Brunt, Carol Rifka. Tell the Wolves I'm Home
In this striking literary debut, Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal in 1987 as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don't know you've lost someone until you've found them. (Fic Brunt)

Erdrich, Louise. The Round House
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared. While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning. (Fic Erdrich)

Hassman, Tupelo. Girlchild
Rory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn't got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she's checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Uniforms, disposing of outgrown; The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost) for tips to get off the Calle: that is, the Calle de las Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop. Rory's been told that she is one of the "third-generation bastards surely on the road to whoredom." But she's determined to prove the county and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother's habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social workers' reports, half-recalled memories, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions,and her grandmother's letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world even as she searches for the way out of it. (Fic Hassman)

Ross, Richard. JUVENILE IN JUSTICE
Award winning photographer Richard Ross spent over 5 years speaking with 1,000 youth confined in more than 200 juvenile detention facilities in 31 states. The result is visually profound and provocative. Stark facts such as "Nearly 3 of every 4 youth confined (...) are not in for a serious violent felony crime" or "Black youth are are 9 times as likely to be sentenced to adult prisons as white youth" are one to a page. Portraits of youth are accompanied by short text: a quote from the youth, staff or short narrative explanation. The fact of the youth's anonymity (legally required), captured in personal and thought provoking ways ("fk me" cut into the skin of girl's arm) is haunting.

Semple, Maria. Where'd you go, Bernadette?
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world. (Fic Semple)

Sloan, Robin. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life--mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore. (Fic Sloan)

Zimmerman, David. Caring is Creepy
Fifteen-year-old Lynn suspects that her mother's pill-popping boyfriend has enlisted her in his petty criminal enterprises placing her in squarely in the cross-hairs of violent threats. (Fic Zimmerman)

The Alex Awards were created to recognize that many teens enjoy and often prefer books written for adults, and to assist librarians in recommending adult books that appeal to teens. The award is named in honor of the late Margaret Alexander Edwards, fondly called “Alex” by her closest friends, a young adult specialist at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. She used adult books extensively with young adults to broaden their experiences and enrich their understanding of themselves and their world.

See lists from previous years

Copyright American Library Association 2013. This document may be reprinted and distributed for non-commercial and educational purposes only, and not for resale. No resale use may be made of material on this web site at any time. All other rights reserved.

1/28/13
Duluth Public Library, 520 W. Superior St., Duluth, MN 55802

	Backderf, Derf. My Friend Dahmer: A graphic novel You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer--the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper--seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, "Jeff" was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche--a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget. (364.1523 D444m)
	Baggott, Julianna. Pure Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet, she thinks about what is lost--how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. (Fic SF Baggott)
	Ballard, Chris. ONE SHOT AT FOREVER: A SMALL TOWN, AN UNLIKELY COACH AND A MAGICAL BASEBALL SEASON In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to become the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long hair, and warming up to Jesus Christ Superstar, the Ironmen would play a dramatic game against a Chicago powerhouse that would change their lives forever.
	Brunt, Carol Rifka. Tell the Wolves I'm Home In this striking literary debut, Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal in 1987 as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don't know you've lost someone until you've found them. (Fic Brunt)
	Erdrich, Louise. The Round House One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared. While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning. (Fic Erdrich)
	Hassman, Tupelo. Girlchild Rory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn't got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she's checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Uniforms, disposing of outgrown; The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost) for tips to get off the Calle: that is, the Calle de las Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop. Rory's been told that she is one of the "third-generation bastards surely on the road to whoredom." But she's determined to prove the county and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother's habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social workers' reports, half-recalled memories, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions,and her grandmother's letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world even as she searches for the way out of it. (Fic Hassman)
	Ross, Richard. JUVENILE IN JUSTICE Award winning photographer Richard Ross spent over 5 years speaking with 1,000 youth confined in more than 200 juvenile detention facilities in 31 states. The result is visually profound and provocative. Stark facts such as "Nearly 3 of every 4 youth confined (...) are not in for a serious violent felony crime" or "Black youth are are 9 times as likely to be sentenced to adult prisons as white youth" are one to a page. Portraits of youth are accompanied by short text: a quote from the youth, staff or short narrative explanation. The fact of the youth's anonymity (legally required), captured in personal and thought provoking ways ("fk me" cut into the skin of girl's arm) is haunting.
	Semple, Maria. Where'd you go, Bernadette? Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world. (Fic Semple)
	Sloan, Robin. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life--mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore. (Fic Sloan)
	Zimmerman, David. Caring is Creepy Fifteen-year-old Lynn suspects that her mother's pill-popping boyfriend has enlisted her in his petty criminal enterprises placing her in squarely in the cross-hairs of violent threats. (Fic Zimmerman)