National Book Award For Young People: Longlist And Finalists For 2015

I'm not a big fan of book awards. While journalists and bloggers are rushing to pay attention to one winner, thousands of books go undiscovered. Oh, what I could have read, if I'd only known about it.

Well, while I was on vacation, the National Book Award longlist was announced. A longlist for each category, including Young People's Literature. The longlists were made of ten books. Yes. Ten. And here they all are, because we should be exposed to all of them, not just the eventual winner. 

• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
• Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M. T. Anderson 
• The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin 
• Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson 
• This Side of Wild: Mutts, Mares, and Laughing Dinosaurs by Gary Paulsen 
•  Bone Gap by Laura Ruby 
• X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon 
• Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin 
• Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
• Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Some of these books I hadn't heard of. The NBA (yeah, that's National Book Award) longlist has brought them to my attention. Well done.

As it turns out, yesterday the finalists were announced. The list of ten was cut down to five. 

• The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjami
• Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
• Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin
• Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
• Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm psyched for Nimona. It was reviewed in the July/August Horn Book. I've heard about it a number of times now. Whether it wins or not, I want to read it.