Every year, students are given the opportunity to vote for the winner of the Volunteer State Book Award. Students who read at least three books from the list of 25 nominees can vote. Voting closes on April 1, so make sure you read at least three before then!

The winner of the 2007 award was One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies, by Sonya Sones.



2007-08 list of nominees

 Abrahams, Peter.  Down the Rabbit Hole. 

                Middle school soccer star Ingrid Levin-Hill is drawn into the murder case of Cracked-up Katie.

 

 Alphin, Elaine Marie.  The Perfect Shot. 

                When Amanda, along with her mother and brother, are found shot to death in their family home, Brian Hammett begins a life and death struggle to find the truth.

 

 Auseon, Andrew.  Funny Little Monkey. 

                Fifteen-year-old Artie is intelligent, perceptive, hilarious, and barely 4 feet tall because of Growth Hormone Deficiency Syndrome.

 

 Draper, Sharon.  Copper Sun. 

                After Amari witnesses the slaughter of her family, she is captured by slave traders and sent to the Carolinas.

 

 Ehrenhaft, Daniel.  Tell It To Naomi. 

                Dave Rosen, a friendless sophomore, begins writing an advice column under his sister’s name.

 

 Flinn, Alex.  Fade to Black. 

                An HIV-positive high school student is hospitalized after being attacked.  The only witness is a fellow student who has Down Syndrome and is known for her absolute inability to lie.

 

Green, John.  Looking for Alaska. 

                Miles Halter’s decision to attend an Alabama boarding school leads to all kinds of new experiences including a friendship with Alaska Young, a beautiful troubled classmate. 

 

Hautman, Pete.  Invisible. 

                In this intense psychological thriller, social outcast Doug Hanson tries to navigate through high school with the help of his friend Andy, a popular football star.

 

 Hoose, Phillip.  The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. 

                This brilliantly researched book traces the effort to save the Ivory-billed woodpecker from extinction.  Jim Tanner, one of the men helping, taught at ETSU and University of Tennessee.

 

Johnson, Maureen.  13 Little Blue Envelopes. 

                Ginny, aged 17, begins a whirlwind adventure in Europe when she receives a letter from her recently deceased Aunt Peg.

 

 Lester, Julius.  Day of Tears. 

                Through monologues and dialogue, this historical novel looks back through time, beginning with the largest slave auction in United States history.

 

 Lubar, David.  Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. 

When Scott Hudson begins his first year at J.P. Zenger High, his life becomes a tangled mess of girls, friends, bullies and homework.

 

 Lyon, George Ella.  Sonny’s House of Spies.

                Set in Alabama in the 1950s, thirteen-year-old Sonny finds a letter from the father who left and goes to Mobile to look for him.

 

 Meyer, Stephanie.  Twilight. 

                Bella, the new girl in Forks, Washington, falls for the strikingly handsome Edward, a vampire.

 

 Morgenroth, Kate.  Jude. 

                Fifteen-year-old Jude witnesses the murder of his drug dealer father and is suspected by the police of being an accomplice.

 

Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Dairy Queen. 

                D.J. Schwenk begins training Brian Nelson, the quarterback of her town’s rival football team.

 

 Myers, Walter Dean.  Autobiography of My Dead Brother. 

                Myers explores the pressures and stress of being a young African-American male growing up in modern Harlem.

 

 Pearson, Mary E.  A Room on Lorelei Street.  

                Seventeen-year-old Zoe tries desperately to make it on her own after leaving home to rent a room on Lorelei Street.

 

 Shusterman, Neal.  The Schwa Was Here.  

                When eighth-grader “Antsy” Bonano befriends a functionally invisible classmate, his somewhat average life turns into a series of crazy adventures and quirky mishaps.

 

 Sonnenblick, Jordan.  Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie.  
                Steven, a geeky eighth-grader, deals with his brother Jeffrey’s leukemia in a funny, poignant and contemporary manner.

 

Staples, Suzanne Fisher.  Under the Persimmon Tree.  

                Najamah travels to a refugee camp after she watches in horror as the brutal Taliban kidnap her father and older brother and an air raid kills her mother and baby brother.

 

 Volponi, Paul.  Black and White. 

                Eddie and Marcus are superstars on their high school basketball team until an armed robbery they commit goes wrong.

 

 Weaver, Will.  Full Service.  

                In the summer of 1965, Paul Sutton takes on a job at the Shell station in his hometown of Hawk Bend, Minnesota.

 

 Weeks, Sarah.  So B. It: A Novel.  

                After spending her life with her mentally disabled mother and agoraphobic neighbor, Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada to New York to find out where she came from.

 

 Westerfeld, Scott.  Peeps. 

                College freshman Cal Thompson has his studies put on hold after he contracts a parasite that turns their hosts into man-eating vampires.