Florida Teens Read!

Voting is open until the end of the month for this year's Florida Teens Read!  book award sponsored by the Florida Association for Media in Education.  Teens in Florida read and Florida media specialists know it! Florida Teens Read is a list of 15 titles that have been chosen by a committee of thirteen media specialists specifically to engage high school students (grades 9 through 12) and reflect their interests as well as represent a variety of genres, formats, reading levels, viewpoints, and ethnic and cultural perspectives.

Students need to have read at least 3 of the books on the current list in order to vote. They need to identify their student number and county, and they can only vote once.

The 2010-2011 Florida Teens Read! list has been finalized:

After by Amy Efaw
Devon Davenport is a straight-A student and prominent player on her school's soccer team, but when she is linked to an abandoned baby found in the trash she is accused of attempted murder.

Brutal by Michael B. Harmon
Forced to leave Los Angeles for life in a quiet California wine town with a father she has never known, rebellious sixteen-year-old Poe Holly rails against a high school system that allows elite students special privileges and tolerates bullying of those who are different.

Candor by Pam Bachorz
For a fee, "model teen" Oscar Banks has been secretly--and selectively--sabotaging the subliminal messages that program the behavior of the residents of Candor, Florida, until his attraction to a rebellious new girl threatens to expose his subterfuge.

Compound by S. A. Bodeen
Fifteen-year-old Eli, locked inside a radiation-proof compound built by his father to keep them safe following a nuclear attack, begins to question his future, as well as his father's grip on anity as the family's situation steadily disintegrates over the course of six years.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace of killing and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.

King of Screwups by K.L. Going
Liam Geller is one of the most popular boys in school but can't seem to do anything right in the eyes of his father; so he goes to live with his homosexual, rocker uncle who helps him to understand that there is much more to him than his father will ever see.

Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan
High school student Charlie West awakens injured in a concrete bunker, discovers that he has lost a year of his life and has no memory of escaping from prison after being convicted of murdering his former best friend, and learns that he is being pursued by both the law and a group of terrorists trying to destroy the U.S. government.

No Choirboy by Susan Kuklin
A collection of essays in which inmates at American prisons who were sentenced to death while still in their teens share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up in prison and how they feel about capital punishment.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley
Terra, a sensitive, artistic high school senior born with a facial port-wine stain, struggles with issues of inner and outer beauty with the help of her Goth classmate Jacob.

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick
While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali.

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
After a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody's college hopes, he drops out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town; but when his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody travels cross-country to join the search.

Secret Story of Sonia Rodgriguez  by Alan Lawrence Sitomer
Tenth-grader Sonia Rodriguez reveals secrets about her life and her Hispanic family while she studies hard so that she can be the first member of her family to successfully finish high school.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.

Willow by Julia Hoban
Sixteen-year-old Willow, who was driving the car that killed both of her parents, copes with the pain and guilt by cutting herself, until she meets a smart and sensitive boy who is determined to help her stop.

FAME also sponsors the Sunshine State Young Reader's Award Program for students in grades 3-8. The program, cosponsored by the School Library Media Services Office of the Department of Education to encourage students to read independently for personal satisfaction, based on interest rather than reading level.