Gateway Readers Awards

The Gateway Readers Award is for authors of books chosen by high school students in Missouri because reading is the gateway to knowledge, teenage years are the gateway to adulthood, and Missouri was the gateway to the West.

 This award is selected by students in grades 9 through 12 and is presented annually.

 GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING BOOKS:

1. Books should interest teenagers in grades nine through twelve.
2. Books should be written by an author living in the United States.
3. Books should be of literary value which may enrich teenager's personal lives.
4. Books should be published two years prior to nomination on a Master List of 15 Nominees.
5. Some consideraton should be given to genre diversity, gender representation, range of reading level (avoiding elementary levels), racial diversity, and diversity of social, political, economic, and religious viewpoints. Books should be appropriate for teenagers.

 GOALS:

To encourage Missouri young adults in grades 9 through 12 to select and read quality literature that appeals to their needs, interests and reading levels.
To recognize and honor outstanding works in young adult literature.
To develop a cooperative relationship among schools, libraries and teens.
To encourage the development of school and public library services to teens.

 WHO MAY VOTE:

Missouri students in grades nine through twelve are eligible to vote for their favorite book if they have read at least THREE of the titles on the current master list.

 VOTING:

In March, students will vote for the book they liked best. Schools will design their own ballots and each student will get one vote. Votes are tallied by each school and placed on a tally sheet which can be downloaded here (available during voting only.) The results from the tally sheet should be entered into the online voting system.

All votes must be entered by Midnight on March 10, 2010.

Mailed or faxed entries will NOT be accepted.

2009-2010 Gateway Award Nominations

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Twisted
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.
       
Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
       
Bowers, Laura. Beauty Shop for Rent -- : Fully Equipped, Inquire Within
Raised by a great-grandmother and a bunch of beauty shop buddies, fourteen-year-old Abbey resolves to overcome her unhappy childhood and disillusionment with the mother who deserted her.
 
Crocker, Nancy. Billie Standish Was Here
Billie Standish has pretty much no one. Her parents are too caught up in their own lives, and the only two girls in town her age want nothing to do with her. When it looks like a nearby levee might break, and Billie's elderly neighbor, Miss Lydia, is the only other person besides her family to stick around, a friendship is born out of circumstance. What happens during that time, in that empty town, is a tragedy that Billie can't bear alone. Can the love of one woman nearing the end of her life save the life of a young woman just at the beginning of living hers?
 
Crutcher, Chris. Deadline
Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos."
 
Dallas, Sandra. Tallgrass
During World War II, a family finds life turned upside down when the government opens a Japanese internment camp in their small Colorado town. After a young girl is murdered, all eyes (and suspicions) turn to the newcomers, the interlopers, the strangers. This is Tallgrass as Rennie Stroud has never seen it before. She has just turned thirteen and, until this time, life has pretty much been what her father told her it should be: predictable and fair. But now the winds of change are coming and, with them, a shift in her perspective. And Rennie will discover secrets that can destroy even the most sacred things. Part thriller, part historical novel,Tallgrass is a riveting exploration of the darkest--and best--parts of the human heart.
 
Draper, Sharon. November Blues
This stunning sequel to the Coretta Scott King Honor Book "The Battle of Jericho" has energy, pathos, and drama, and doesn't shrink from telling kids how it is to be 16 years old and pregnant.
 
Flinn, Alex. Beastly
A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form.
 
Giles, Gail. Right Behind You
When he was nine, Kip set another child on fire. Now, after years in a juvenile ward, he is ready for a fresh start. But the ghosts of his past soon demand justice, and he must reveal his painful secret. How can Kip tell anyone that he really is--or was--a murderer?

Marr, Melissa. Wicked Lovely
Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see faeries, is drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle between the Summer King and the Winter Queen, and the survival of her life, her love, and summer all hang in the balance.
 
Shusterman, Neal. Unwind
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives.
 
Smith, Roland. Peak
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.
 
Sorrells, Walter. First Shot
As David enters his senior year of high school, a family secret emerges that could solve the mystery of why his mother was murdered two years ago.
 
Strasser, Todd. Boot Camp
After ignoring several warnings to stop dating his teacher, Garrett is sent to Lake Harmony, a boot camp that uses unorthodox and brutal methods to train students to obey their parents.
 
Zevin, Gabrielle. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
After a nasty fall, Naomi realizes that she has no memory of the last four years and finds herself reassessing every aspect of her life.

2008-2009 Gateway Award Nominations

Dessen, Sarah. Just Listen
Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.
       
Draper, Sharon. Copper Sun
Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
       
Ferguson, Alane. The Christopher Killer
On the payroll as an assistant to her coroner father, seventeen-year-old Cameryn Mahoney uses her knowledge of forensic medicine to catch the killer of a friend while putting herself in terrible danger.
 
Flinn, Alex. Diva
Despite her mother's objections, sixteen-year-old Caitlin determines to pursue her dream of becoming an opera singer by attending a performing arts school in Miami.
 
Giles, Gail. What Happened to Cass McBride
After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle Kirby decides to exact revenge on the person he holds responsible.
 
Korman, Gordon. Born to Rock
High school senior Leo Caraway, a conservative Republican, learns that his biological father is a punk rock legend.
 
Larson, Kirby. Hattie Big Sky
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe. Alone in the world, teen-aged Hattie is driven to prove up on her uncle's homesteading claim. For years, sixteen-year-old Hattie's been shuttled between relatives. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim near Vida, Montana. With a stubborn stick-to-itiveness, Hattie faces frost, drought and blizzards. Despite many hardships, Hattie forges ahead, sharing her adventures with her friends--especially Charlie, fighting in France--through letters and articles for her hometown paper. Her backbreaking quest for a home is lightened by her neighbors, the Muellers. But she feels threatened by pressure to be a "Loyal" American, forbidding friendships with folks of German descent. Despite everything, Hattie's determined to stay until a tragedy causes her to discover the true meaning of home.
 
McCormick, Patricia. Sold
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape.
 
Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life As We Knew It
Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
 
Pierce, Tamora. Terrier: The Legend of Beka Cooper #1
When sixteen-year-old Beka becomes "Puppy" to a pair of "Dogs," as the Provost's Guards are called, she uses her police training, natural abilities, and a touch of magic to help them solve the case of a murdered baby in Tortall's Lower City.
 
Price, Charlie. Dead Connection
A loner who communes with the dead in the town cemetery hears the voice of a murdered cheerleader and tries to convince the adults that he knows what happened to her.
 
Reinhardt, Diana. A Brief Chapter In My Impossible Life
Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom's life changes in unexpected ways when her parents convince her to make contact with her biological mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family who is losing her battle with cancer.

 Sonnenblick, Jordan. Notes From the Midnight Driver
After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness.
 
Volponi, Paul. Rooftop
Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on the roof of a New York City housing project, seventeen-year-old Clay is dragged into the whirlwind of political manipulation that follows.

Werlin, Nancy. Rules of Survival
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.