The Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award 2009

What is the Abe Award?
The Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award (known as the "ABE AWARD") is given each year to an author whose book is voted Most Outstanding by participating Illinois high school students. The award is sponsored by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA).

How can I participate?
Read a minimum of 4 ABE-nominated books (listed below) prior to the final voting in February 2009. Copies of each book are available in the RHS Library. For each book you read, fill out the ABE FORM and return it to the library. This form will enter you in a drawing to receive great prizes. In February, you can vote for your favorite and have a say in the winner!

After the Wreck I picked Myself Up, Spread my Wings and Flew Away by Joyce Carol Oates

Blaming herself for the car accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge that killed her mother, fifteen-year-old Jenna undergoes a difficult physical and emotional recovery. (FIC OATES)

The Bonemender by Holly Bennett

Garielle Is a Bonemender of extraordinary talent. Between her work as a healer and her duties as one of the royal family of Verdeau, her life is busy, comfortable and predictable--until the day a stranger arrives at her gate, desperately seeking help for his injured friend. To Gabrielle's wonder, they are Elves, a people not seen in Verdeau in many years. And they bring news of a coming invasion that threatens that freedom of the entire Krylian basin, human and Elvish alike. As Verdeau arms for war, Gabrielle must mobilize the bonemenders and prepare herself for the nightmarish work of battlefield healing. But what awaits her on that bloody field is worse than anything she has imagined. (FIC BENNETT)

Catch by Will Leitch

Everything comes easy for Tim Temples. He's got a sweet summer job, lots of love from the ladies, and parties with his high school buddies. Why does he need to go to college? Then Tim falls for Helena, a worldly and mysterious twenty-two-year-old. Their relationship opens his eyes to life outside the small town of Mattoon, IL. Now Tim has to choose: Will he settle for being a small town hero, or will he leave it all behind to follow his dreams? (FIC LEITCH)

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Based on a real-life event, this novel relates the disturbing story of one girl's descent into addiction.

Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter until she meets a boy who introduces her to drugs were she becomes a very different person, struggling to control her life and her mind. (FIC HOPKINS)

Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock

After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her. (FIC MURDOCK)

The Girls by Loir Lansens

Rose and Ruby are twenty-nine-year-old conjoined twins. They have been called many things: freaks, horrors, monsters, devils, witches, retards, wonders, marvels, but to most they are a curiosity. In small-town Leaford, where they live and work, they are know as the 'The Girls.' (FIC LANSENS)

Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

In a land that has been at war so long that no one remembers the reason for fighting, the shape shifters who rule the two factions agree to marry in hope of bringing peace, despite deep-seeded fear and distrust of each other. (FIC ATWATER-RHODES)

I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver, pathetic card-player, and useless at romance. When Ed inadvertently stops a bank robbery he begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to people who need help. (FIC ZUSAK)

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital. (FIC VIZZINI)

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

In the near future, corporations rule the world and the one who defies them is pursued relentlessly. (FIC BARRY)

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods. (FIC RIORDAN)

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. (FIC GREEN)

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer (against the wishes of her father and boyfriend), takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a guest renews her determination to live her own life. (FIC DONNELLY)

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected. (FIC WESTERFELD)

Raiders Night by Robert Lipsyte

What's it mean to think team? It means you don't talk team business with anybody who isn't on the team. It means whatever happens inside the team stays inside. It means you can only trust a brother Raider. Any questions?

At Nearmont High School, football stars are treated like royalty, and Matt Rydek has just ascended to the throne. He's got it all: hot girls, chill friends, plenty of juice to make him strong, and a winning team poised to go all the way. If he can keep his eye on the ball now, his future will be set. But when the team turns on one of its own, should Matt play by Raiders rules, or should he go long alone? (FIC LIPSTYE)

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid, but in reality she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and there is little hope of escape. (FIC MCCORMICK)

Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

Haunted by flashbacks, fifteen-year-old Meredith learns that three years in prison has not changed the abusive father who molested her. (FIC WIESS)

Taken by Chris Jordan

In a terrible instant, Kate Bickford's young son vanishes. Racing home hoping to find her son, Kate comes face-to-face with his abductor, who wants all the money she has. If she doesn't follow something he calls 'The Method', the consequences will be gruesome. (FIC JORDAN)

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father, Daniel's life -- a straight-A student; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is, until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter (FIC PICOULT)