Each year the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) awards a best young adult nonfiction book published that year. In December, five titles were named as nominees.
Winter Park Library currently has four of these
titles in our collection, and members of the Teen Book Guild read them and
share our thoughts below. On Monday, January 22, the winner of the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults will be announced as part of the Youth Media Awards given at the LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore.
Accountable: The True Story of a
Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by
Dashka Slater
Dashka Slater’s book
follows the lives of students in a small California town after an offensive
private account on Instagram gets leaked. The account is filled with quotes
from the real people who were affected and how their lives changed. It deserves
to win since it shows the amount of damage just one decision can make.
Cyberbullying is a huge problem since people don’t have to confront their target in person. Accountable shines a light on the issue and
provides a real story to show the importance of thinking before you act. (BK)
America Redux:
Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History by Ariel Aberg-Riger
This
nonfiction work smoothly incorporates both text and images/illustrations to
impart a large chunk of American history. But don’t be fooled into thinking it
reads like a textbook. It is the most creative depiction of historical
information I’ve ever seen, and it often looks like a scrapbook just teeming
with tidbits of history. Everything on the page catches your eye at once and
invites you to read more. It covers topics from the Civil War and abolitionist
movement to women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.
This
book is incredible in the way that it takes a subject that can so often be
dreadfully boring and transforms it into a creative format that entices the
reader while still getting the information across. Another highlight of this
book was that it combines well-known knowledge with more obscure facts that
would be new to most readers. Everyone who reads this stunning work will
certainly learn something new. (GH)
Family Style: Memories of an American
from Vietnam by Thien Pham
Family Style tells the story of the
Pham family and their experiences through food. The family is originally from
Vietnam and immigrated to California. The book is separated into chapters based
on a certain food like Salisbury steak and croissants. Family
Style does a great job showing the ups and downs of moving to another
country in an interesting way. It is very important to learn about the
struggles of immigrants to gain empathy and learn that everyone deserves to be
treated well. This book deserves the award because it uses food to convey
messages about the characters’ lives which is unique but the plot is still
clear and to the point. (BK)
Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting
Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and
Lesley Younge
This
historical work uses the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano as its primary source.
Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge have compiled his accounts and added
insight of their own to this book, which is written in verse. This poetic way
of writing follows Equiano’s personal account of the transatlantic slave trade.
Very few primary source materials from this journey have been found, which
makes Equiano’s story even more important. You follow him as a young child in
Africa to his life of slavery (and then freedom) in America.
The prose
and poetry of this work is beautiful, and I love the way that the verse form of
Equiano’s account of his life is supplemented with additional information from
Edinger and Younge. The secondary annotations are seamlessly woven into the bookl
when needed and aid in the understanding of historical events. The verse form
makes for a quick read, but every sentence is packed with meaning. Equiano’s
story is must-read. (GH)
Winter Park Library currently has four of these titles in our collection, and members of the Teen Book Guild read them and share our thoughts below. On Monday, January 22, the winner of the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults will be announced as part of the Youth Media Awards given at the LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore.
Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater
Dashka Slater’s book follows the lives of students in a small California town after an offensive private account on Instagram gets leaked. The account is filled with quotes from the real people who were affected and how their lives changed. It deserves to win since it shows the amount of damage just one decision can make. Cyberbullying is a huge problem since people don’t have to confront their target in person. Accountable shines a light on the issue and provides a real story to show the importance of thinking before you act. (BK)
America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History by Ariel Aberg-Riger
This nonfiction work smoothly incorporates both text and images/illustrations to impart a large chunk of American history. But don’t be fooled into thinking it reads like a textbook. It is the most creative depiction of historical information I’ve ever seen, and it often looks like a scrapbook just teeming with tidbits of history. Everything on the page catches your eye at once and invites you to read more. It covers topics from the Civil War and abolitionist movement to women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.
This book is incredible in the way that it takes a subject that can so often be dreadfully boring and transforms it into a creative format that entices the reader while still getting the information across. Another highlight of this book was that it combines well-known knowledge with more obscure facts that would be new to most readers. Everyone who reads this stunning work will certainly learn something new. (GH)
Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham
Family Style tells the story of the Pham family and their experiences through food. The family is originally from Vietnam and immigrated to California. The book is separated into chapters based on a certain food like Salisbury steak and croissants. Family Style does a great job showing the ups and downs of moving to another country in an interesting way. It is very important to learn about the struggles of immigrants to gain empathy and learn that everyone deserves to be treated well. This book deserves the award because it uses food to convey messages about the characters’ lives which is unique but the plot is still clear and to the point. (BK)
Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge
This historical work uses the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano as its primary source. Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge have compiled his accounts and added insight of their own to this book, which is written in verse. This poetic way of writing follows Equiano’s personal account of the transatlantic slave trade. Very few primary source materials from this journey have been found, which makes Equiano’s story even more important. You follow him as a young child in Africa to his life of slavery (and then freedom) in America.
The prose and poetry of this work is beautiful, and I love the way that the verse form of Equiano’s account of his life is supplemented with additional information from Edinger and Younge. The secondary annotations are seamlessly woven into the bookl when needed and aid in the understanding of historical events. The verse form makes for a quick read, but every sentence is packed with meaning. Equiano’s story is must-read. (GH)
