The RI Teen Book Award is a statewide book award for high school students. Each year, approximately 20 books are nominated for this award. The ASFMS library has some copies of many of the nominated titles and encourages students to read as many of these titles as possible. Any student who has read three or more of the nominated titles is eligible to vote for the RI Teen Book Award. Voting takes place in January, and the winning title is announced in the spring. Use the website below to find out more about the award, and to see this year's list of nominated titles.
Visit the official RITBA site for more information.
Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
In Pakistan, Amal holds onto her dream of being a teacher even after becoming an indentured servant to pay off her family's debt to the wealthy and corrupt Khan family.
The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden
Seventh-grader Zoey Albro focuses on caring for three younger siblings and avoiding rich classmates at school until her fascination with octopuses gets her on the debate team and she begins to speak out.
Bone Jack by Sara Crowe
Ash Tyler hopes to make his psychologically scarred father proud by training for his town's Stag Chase, but when he meets the mysterious Bone Jack, dark energies take root and the world as he knows it is upended.
City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab
Ever since she drowned and survived, Cass has walked the line between the world of the living and the dead, with the ability to pull back the Veil that separates them. Her best friend is now a ghost--and the strangest thing is that her parents have landed a TV gig on a show about the world's most haunted places. Edinburgh, Scotland, is the first of the show's locations, and it is also the first place Cass meets someone else who has her same ability. Good thing--Edinburgh is a city of ghosts, and some are dangerous.
Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow
Melly only joined the school band because her best friend, Olivia, begged her to. But to her surprise, quiet Melly loves playing the drums. It's the only time in her life she doesn't feel like a mouse. Now she and Olivia are about to spend the next two weeks at Camp Rockaway, jamming under the stars in the Michigan woods. But this summer brings big changes for Melly: her parents split up, her best friend ditches her, and Melly finds herself falling for a girl at camp named Adeline. To top it off, Melly's not sure she has what it takes to be a real rock n' roll drummer. Will she be able to make music from all the noise in her heart?
Echo's Sister by Paul Mosier
Eleven-year-old Echo finds the courage to help her younger sister fight cancer, and, in the process, finds the love and support of an entire community.
The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya
When his family's restaurant and Cuban American neighborhood in Miami are threatened by a greedy land developer, thirteen-year-old Arturo, joined by Carmen, a cute poetry enthusiast, fight back, discovering the power of poetry and protest through untold family stories and the work of José Martí.
Game Changer by Tommy Greenwald
While thirteen-year-old Teddy fights for his life after a football injury at training camp, his friends and family gather to support him and discuss events leading to his coma. Told through dialogue, text messages, newspaper articles, transcripts, an online forum, and Teddy's inner thoughts.
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till.
Greetings from Witness Protection! by Jake Burt
Thirteen-year-old Nikki Demere is an orphan and a kleptomaniac, making her the perfect girl to portray the Trevors' daughter in witness protection, but she soon learns that the biggest threat to her new family's security comes from her own past.
How We Roll by Natasha Friend
Quinn is a teen who loves her family, skateboarding, basketball, and her friends, but after she's diagnosed with a condition called alopecia which causes her to lose all of her hair, her friends abandon her. Jake was once a star football player, but because of a freak accident--caused by his brother--he loses both of his legs. Quinn and Jake meet and find the confidence to believe in themselves again, and maybe even love.
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them. And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she'll have to answer the question over and over again. Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who also feels isolated because of his own disability, and they discover a room at Stagecoach Pass that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined.
Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood
In 1940, a group of British children, their escorts, and some sailors struggle to survive in a lifeboat when the ship taking them to safety in Canada is torpedoed.
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure--but when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert.
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
After eleven-year-old Ollie's school bus mysteriously breaks down on a field trip, she has to take a trip through scary woods, and must use all of her wits to survive. She must stick to small spaces.
The Truth As Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor
Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason's learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason's best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family's orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can't understand why Lieutenant Baird won't believe the story Mason has told about that day. Both Mason and his new friend, tiny Calvin Chumsky, are relentlessly bullied by the other boys in their neighborhood, so they create an underground club space for themselves. When Calvin goes missing, Mason finds himself in trouble again.
A World Below by Wesley King
Mr. Baker's eighth grade class thought they were in for a normal field trip to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, but their journey takes a terrifying turn when an earthquake hits and the students are plunged into a frigid underground lake, forcing them to fight for survival and find their way back above ground.
Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol (Illustrator)
Her friends live in fancy houses and their parents can afford to send them to the best summer camps. Vera's single mother can't afford that sort of luxury, but there's one summer camp in her price range - Russian summer camp.Vera is sure she's found the one place she can fit in, but camp is far from what she imagined. And nothing could prepare her for all the "cool girl" drama, endless Russian history lessons, and outhouses straight out of nightmares!
Estranged by Ethan M. Aldridge (Illustrator)
Edmund and the Childe were swapped at birth. Now Edmund lives in secret as a changeling in the World Above, his fae powers hidden from his unsuspecting parents and his older sister, Alexis. The Childe lives among the fae in the World Below, where being a human makes him a curiosity at the royal palace. But when the cruel sorceress Hawthorne seizes the throne, the Childe and Edmund must unite on a dangerous quest to save both worlds--even if they're not sure which world they belong to.
Illegal by Eoin Colfer; Andrew Donkin; Giovanni Rigano (Illustrator)
Ebo is alone. His brother, Kwame, has disappeared, and Ebo knows it can only be to attempt the hazardous journey to Europe, and a better life, the same journey their sister set out on months ago. But Ebo refuses to be left behind in Ghana. Ebo's epic quest takes him across the Sahara Desert to the dangerous streets of Tripoli, and finally out to the merciless sea. But with every step he holds on to his hope for a new life, and a reunion with his family.
