Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers
By Kathleen Wood
Ta Dah! The high school students of Georgia
have spoken. The winning author from the 2005-2006 list of nominees
for the Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers is L.A. Meyer
for Bloody Jack, an adventure story about a young girl who goes
to sea on a British Navy sailing ship disguised as a boy.
The honor books this year are Imani in Never Say Goodbye by
Jackie Hardrick, a fast moving story about real social issues
confronting high school students in an urban school, and Shattering
Glass by Gail Giles, a suspense filled story that explores the
mechanics of social structure and the corruption of power in
a group of high school boys.
The Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers is in its third
year and a growing number of high school students across Georgia
are reading books on the list and voting to select the winning
authors.
The new list of nominated books for 2006-2007 is available
at the Georgia Peach Book Award web site, http://www.glc.k12.ga.us/pandp/media/peachbookaward.htm,
which is linked from the GLMA web site, the Helen Ruffin Reading
Bowl web site, and the Georgia Public Library Service site. The
list this year includes some attention grabbing nonfiction titles,
a book with a soccer theme, and a humorous detective novel.
Each year’s list of nominated books is selected by a
committee of four high school Media Specialists and four young
adult public librarians. Information about criteria for selection
of books is available on the Georgia Peach Book Award web site.
Additional information available on the web site includes ballots
for student votes, a tally sheet for libraries to report their
student vote totals, and suggestions for program promotion.
The Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers is supported
by GLMA, GLA, GAE, the Georgia Department of Education, and Georgia
Public Library Service.