_This week, The New Yorker will be announcing the longlists for this year’s National Book Awards. Today, we present the ten contenders in the category of Young People’s Literature. Check back tomorrow for Poetry. _
Rae Carson’s “Walk on Earth a Stranger” is about a young woman with the ability to sense the presence of gold. Laura Ruby’s “Bone Gap” is a magical-realist story of a mysterious kidnapping in a Midwestern town. “X: A Novel” is about Malcolm X’s youth—and it was co-written by his daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz. “Nimona” is the first book by Noelle Stevenson, the author of a beloved Web comic about the female sidekick of a supervillain. “This Side of Wild” is a memoir by Gary Paulsen, who has written more than a hundred books.
The remarkably wide-ranging list contenders for this year’s National Book Award for Young People’s Literature also includes nonfiction works about the Siege of Leningrad and the Vietnam War, as well as novels about grief, sexuality, and mental illness. The complete list is below.
Becky Albertalli, "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda"_
_ Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children's Books
M. T. Anderson, "Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad"
Candlewick Press
Ali Benjamin, "The Thing About Jellyfish"_
_ Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group** **
Rae Carson, "Walk on Earth a Stranger"_
_ Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Children's Books
Gary Paulsen, "This Side of Wild: Mutts, Mares, and Laughing Dinosaurs"_
_ Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Laura Ruby, "Bone Gap"_
_ Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins Children's Books** **
Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon, "X: A Novel"
Candlewick Press
Steve Sheinkin, "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War"_
_ Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Neal Shusterman, "Challenger Deep"_
_ HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children's Books
Noelle Stevenson, "Nimona"_
_ HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children's Books
The judges in this year’s Young People’s Literature category are John Joseph Adams, the series editor of “Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy”; Teri Lesesne, a professor in the Department of Library Science at Sam Houston State University, in Huntsville, Texas; Laura McNeal, the author of “Dark Water,” a 2010 Finalist for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature; G. Neri, the Coretta Scott King Book Award-winning author of “Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty”; and Eliot Schrefer, the author of the N.B.A. finalists “Endangered” and “Threatened.”
National Book Awards finalists will be announced on October 14th, and winners will be announced at a ceremony in New York on November 18th.
