Kentucky Bluegrass Book Awards 2016

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South.

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.

Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii by Vicky Alvear Schecter Tagus is a medical slave who wants be a gladiator, Lucia is the daughter of Tag's owner and betrothed to an older man, and the two teenagers are in love with each other--but it is the year 79 and soon Vesuvius will alter their lives forever.

I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora When best friends Lucy, Elena, and Michael receive their summer reading list, they are excited to see 'To Kill A Mockingbird' included. However, not everyone in their class shares the same enthusiasm. To get the entire town talking about the Harper Lee classic, they hatch a plot that quickly becomes more that they bargained for.

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare Warned away from magic all of his life, Callum endeavors to fail the trials that would admit him to the Magisterium - only to be drawn into its ranks against his will and forced to confront dark elements from his past. Book 1 of an exciting new fantasy series.

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be. The siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and the secrets of the cursed house in this spooky tale.

The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer After 12-year-old Grace's mother's sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. Then she discovers clues in a mysterious treasure hunt--one that will help her find her true home.

Skink: No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen With the help of an eccentric ex-governor, a teenage Richard searches for his missing cousin in the Florida wilds. There are a million places she could be, a million unpleasant fates that might have befallen her, but one thing is certain: in the Florida swamp, justice is best served wild.

Unfriended by Rachel Vail When thirteen-year-old Truly is invited to sit at the Popular Table, she finds herself caught in a web of lies and misunderstandings, made inescapable by the hyper-connected social media world.

Wildflower by Alecia Whitaker Sixteen-year-old Bird Barrett is discovered by a country music record label while playing in her family's bluegrass band. As her star rises, she must learn to stay true to her roots while navigating a brave new world of glamour and gold records in Nashville, Tennessee.

Above: A Novel by Isla Morley Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an abandoned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. She focuses frantically on finding a way out until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in.

Complicit by Stephanie Kuehn Two years ago, fifteen-year-old Jamie Henry breathed a sigh of relief when a judge sentenced his older sister to juvenile detention for burning down their neighbor's fancy horse barn. The whole town did. But today Cate got out. And now she's coming back.

Faking Normal by Courtney Stevens Alexi Littrell hasn't told anyone what happened to her over the summer by her backyard pool. Instead, she hides in her closet, counts the slats in the air vent, and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does.

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer Smith Sparks fly when sixteen-year-old Lucy and seventeen-year-old Owen meet on an elevator rendered useless by a New York City blackout. Soon after, the two teens leave the city, but as they travel farther away from each other geographically, they stay connected.

I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. When nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell has his leg blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise--a quirky motel off California's dusty Highway 99.

Inhuman by Kat Falls In the wake of a devastating biological disaster, the United States east of the Mississippi has been abandoned. Now called the Feral Zone, a reference to the virus that turned millions of people into bloodthirsty savages, the entire area is off-limits. Lane McEvoy can't imagine why anyone would risk it. But when Lane learns that someone close to her has crossed into the Feral Zone she has little choice but to follow.

The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb In 1945, at the end of World War II, Adolf Eichmann, the head of operations for the Nazis' Final Solution, walked into the mountains of Germany and vanished from view. Sixteen years later, an elite team of spies captured him at a bus stop in Argentina and smuggled him to Israel, resulting in one of the century's most important trials -- one that cemented the Holocaust in the public imagination.

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos In attempting to describe himself in his college application essay, Harbinger (Harry) Jones goes way beyond the 250-word limit and gives a full account of his life. The first defining moment: the day the neighborhood goons tied him to a tree during a lightning storm. The second defining moment: the day in 8th grade when Johnny rescued him from the bullies and suggested that they form a band.

The Walk On by John Feinstein After moving to a new town his freshman year, Alex Myers is happy to win a spot on the varsity football team as a quarterback but must deal with the idea of not playing for two years since the first-string quarterback is the son of the corrupt head coach.

The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski As a general's daughter, seventeen- year-old Kestrel enjoys an extravagant and privileged life. Arin has nothing but the clothes on his back. Then Kestrel makes an impulsive decision that binds Arin to her. Though they try to fight it, they can't help but fall in love. In order to be together, they must betray their people . . . but to be loyal to their country, they must betray each other.

Read More Than 1 KBA Book this Year and… You may vote for your favorite book in the library. Your vote will be tallied with participants from all over Kentucky. If you vote, your name will be entered into drawings for prizes!!!