Abe Lincoln 2011 Titles

Abraham Lincoln Nominating Committee 2011

Unwind by Neil Shusterman

Unwind by Neil Shusterman

The Second Civil War has come and gone and with its end comes the creation of "Unwinds"-young adults between the ages of 13 and 17 whose parents or guardians have decided to donate them to the state, so that they can be "unwound" and their body parts can be harvested and used in transplants. Three teens fight the system to try and stay whole until they reach the safe age of 18 . . . a gritty, brutal and haunting story of survival that will force you to read until the bitter end. An Abraham Lincoln 2011 Nominee.

2010 Abe Lincoln Book Awards Video

Aftershock by Kelly Easton

From School Library Journal
In a state of shock, 17-year-old Adam walks away from the scene of the car accident that has killed his parents. Stranded on a lonely road in rural Idaho, he heads east, on foot, as random snippets of memory wander in and out of his mind. Too traumatized to speak, his silence is misinterpreted by the succession of characters he meets on the odyssey home to Rhode Island. Stumbling upon a Wiccan meeting in a forest, he is taken in by one of the chatty young women and takes a job as a dishwasher in a local diner, where he is treated as deaf. Weeks later, he hitchhikes with a trucker and finds backbreaking work in Colorado fields with Mexican migrant farmers. He struggles to survive as he devours a frozen pizza found in a taxidermist's cabin, sleeps in a Dumpster, crashes a picnic, and steals a car. The adventures intertwine with thoughts about his girlfriend, locker-room antics, his parents, their bookstore, and his autistic cousin–spontaneously, as if his mind has short-circuited from the crash. Adam, though still mute, arrives home emotionally ready to accept his parents' death. While some situations seem far-fetched and there is some raw language, readers will be caught up in the teen's predicament.–Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

Deborah Heiligman

Beginning with Darwin's notorious chart listing reasons to wed and not to wed, Heiligman has created a unique, flowing, and meticulously researched picture of the controversial scientist and the effect of his marriage on his life and work. Using the couple's letters, diaries, and notebooks as well as documents and memoirs of their relatives, friends, and critics, the author lets her subjects speak for themselves while rounding out the story of their relationship with information about their time and place. She shows how Darwin's love for his intelligent, steadfast, and deeply religious cousin was an important factor in his scientific work—pushing him to document his theory of natural selection for decades before publishing it with great trepidation. Just as the pair embodied a marriage of science and religion, this book weaves together the chronicle of the development of a major scientific theory with a story of true love. School Library Journal

Science and romance...hand in hand!--J. Asmus

Reality Check

by Peter Abrhams

Set in Little Bend, CO, and North Dover, VT, Abrahams's novel follows Cody, 16, who sustains a serious knee injury that leaves him on the bench during the most important recruiting year in his high school career. With no college scholarship in sight, he drops out of school. When his rich girlfriend, Clea, is reported missing from her Vermont boarding school, he drives East to find her and endangers himself in the process. That Cody is a country boy and a dropout both complicate and inform his detective persona; the realization that "with the exception of football" he was wasting his time in school sends him "some message about a whole different way for him to look at things, to live." It is this "whole different way" that allows Cody—a fish out of water among wealthy Dover Academy students—to solve the mystery, though not before a red herring is revealed and a surprise villain is unmasked.--School Library Journal

J.Asmus--This book is a page-turner!