Printz Award Winners

More for Ages 11-13

Articles

Activities

Book Lists

This annual award is granted to a "book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature." Often exploring tough subjects, these moving, sometimes funny, and often startling titles will show your teen the power of a good book.

The White Darkness

by Geraldine McCaughrean

Fourteen-year-old Symone is taken on a surprise trip to Antarctica by her uncle Victor. In search of a legendary gateway to the interior of Earth, Victor's behavior teaches Sym about her troubled...

American Born Chinese

by Gene Luen Yang

Three connected stories are presented in comic book format that show the difficulties facing young Chinese Americans trying to understand and fit in with American culture.

Looking for Alaska

by John Green

Miles "Pudge" Halter befriends some fellow boarding-school students and falls in love with Alaska Young, the razor-sharp, self-destructive nucleus of the group. When tragedy strikes, Pudge discovers...

How I Live Now

by Meg Rosoff

Troubled 15-year-old Daisy is sent to stay with relatives in England for the summer. But when war strikes England and her family is split up, Daisy must learn how to survive on her own.

The First Part Last

by Angela Johnson

On his sixteenth birthday Bobby learns Nia is pregnant. While the world around them says they should give the baby up for adoption, circumstances change at Feather's birth, and Bobby struggles to figure...

Postcards from No Man's Land

by Aidan Chambers

Told in dual narratives, seventeen-year-old Jacob Todd visits Amsterdam and learns that his dead grandfather (also named Jacob) had a Dutch family in addition to his English family. Geertrui, the woman...

A Step from Heaven

by An Na

From her early school years through her teens, Young Ju Park struggles to please her unhappy, violent father by becoming a proper American student while retaining her identity as a proper Korean girl.

Kit's Wilderness

by David Almond

After thirteen-year-old Kit's grandmother dies, his family moves back to a small mining community to be with his grandfather. Befriended by a boy who plays the game of Death, Kit learns the significance...

Monster

by Walter Dean Myers

Young, black 16-year-old Steve Harmon, an amateur filmmaker, is on trial for the murder of a Harlem drugstore owner and could face the death penalty. Steve copes by writing a movie script based on his...