Volunteer State Book AwardMiddle School

Given by Tennessee Library Association

Other Names: TASL Volunteer State Book Children's Choice Award
250 Works 0 Books
Purpose of the Award

The purpose of the Volunteer State Book Award is to promote awareness, interest, and enjoyment of recently published children's and young adult literature of high quality to show more the children and teens of Tennessee. The award also hopes to promote literacy and life‐long reading habits by encouraging students to read award‐worthy contemporary literature which broadens understanding of the human experience and provides accurate, factual information. This award will honor outstanding books chosen annually by Tennessee students.




Its Unique Feature

The Volunteer State Book Award differs from awards such as the Newbery and Caldecott Medals in that students choose the book which receives the award each year. Tennessee students from Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade read or have read to them at least three of the twenty titles on the annual master list. They then vote for their favorite book.





Who May Participate?

Any public or private school or public library in Tennessee is eligible to participate. It is not required that the entire school be involved. Each participating school or library system must have a minimum of twelve of the twenty titles per division available.




How Books are Chosen

Twenty books that appeal to students in each grade category are selected by professional librarians and educators who work continuously with students in grades K‐12. Four separate lists are compiled each year.

Books may be fiction or nonfiction.

Only one title of any one author will be included on that year's list.

Only titles published in the current year of voting will be eligible.

Only books by authors residing in the United States are eligible. Authors who reside part‐time in the US are also eligible to receive the award.

Textbooks, anthologies, translations, and books from foreign publishers are not eligible.

Titles from vanity publishers or that have been self‐published are not eligible. Titles that are available only in digital format are likewise not eligible.

All books on the final list will have been read by a minimum of five members of the committee.




How to Vote

Students who have read or had read to them a minimum of three of the twenty books will be allowed to vote.

The library media specialist or public librarian will conduct the voting.

Digital ballots will be posted on the VSBA website. There will be no paper ballots.

Voting opens March 1st and closes April 30th.
show less
Stages:
All, Winner (133), Nominee (1,204), No Stage (2)
Categories:
All, Grades 10-12 (4), Grades 4-6 (24), Grades 7-12 (3), Grades 7-9 (4), Grades K-3 (25), High School (250), Intermediate (262), Middle School (250), Primary (289), Young Adult (92), No Category (3)
Years:
All, 2024 (20), 2023 (20), 2022 (20), 2021 (30), 2020 (20), 2019 (20), 2018 (20), 2017 (20), 2016 (20), 2015 (20), 2014 (20), 2013 (20)

Winner 11

Nominee 250

WorkYear
In Honor of Broken Things by Paul Acampora2024
Ode to a Nobody by Caroline Brooks DuBois2024
Drew LeClair Gets a Clue by Katryn Bury2024
Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case2024
Karthik Delivers by Sheela Chari2024
The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton2024
Invisible by Christina Diaz Gonzalez2024
Two Degrees by Alan Gratz2024
Dinged: (A Game Changer companion novel) by Tommy Greenwald2024
The School for Whatnots by Margaret Peterson Haddix2024
Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis by Susan Hood2024
Attack of the Black Rectangles by A. S. King2024
Hummingbird by Natalie Lloyd2024
Tumble by Celia C. Pérez2024
Air: A Novel by Monica Roe2024
The Tryout: A Graphic Novel by Christina Soontornvat2024
Eden's Everdark by Karen Strong2024
Hunters of the Lost City by Kali Wallace2024
Anne of West Philly: A Modern Graphic Retelling of Anne of Green Gables (Classic Graphic Remix) by Ivy Noelle Weir2024
Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution by Sherri Winston2024
Ground Zero by Alan Gratz2023
Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake2023
Fifty-Four Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers by Caela Carter2023
Marshmallow & Jordan by Alina Chau2023
Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero by Saadia Faruqi2023
Starfish by Lisa Fipps2023
The Accidental Apprentice by Amanda Foody2023
Alone by Megan E. Freeman2023
Taking Up Space by Alyson Gerber2023
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera2023
The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm2023
Ophie’s Ghosts by Justina Ireland2023
We Are Family by LeBron James2023
Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca2023
Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes2023
Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin2023
The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan2023
The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga2023
Long Lost by Jacqueline West2023
The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin2023
Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston2022
The Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling2022
Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley2022
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender2022
Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone2022
Wink by Rob Harrell2022
Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon2022
When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson2022
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson2022
Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim2022
The Magic Fish: A Graphic Novel by Trung Le Nguyen2022
Becoming Muhammad Ali by James Patterson2022
City Spies by James Ponti2022
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds2022
Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes2022
How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity's Greatest Adventure by John Rocco2022
Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan2022
A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat2022
Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk2022
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson2022
New Kid by Jerry Craft2021
The Line Tender by Kate Allen2021
Where the Watermelons Grow by Cindy Baldwin2021
Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake2021
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce2021
The Usual Suspects by Maurice Broaddus2021
Charlie Hernández & the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo2021
Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender2021
Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya2021
Like Vanessa by Tami Charles2021
So Done by Paula Chase2021
The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor2021
Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly2021
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix2021
The Door to the Lost by Jaleigh Johnson2021
A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata2021
Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly2021
Tight by Torrey Maldonado2021
The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty2021
Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina2021
White Bird: A Wonder Story by R. J. Palacio2021
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes2021
We're Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey2021
Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed2021
City of Ghosts by V.E. Schwab2021
Chasing King's Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassin by James L. Swanson2021
Hope in The Holler by Lisa Lewis Tyre2021
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang2021
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga2021
Front Desk by Kelly Yang2021
Refugee by Alan Gratz2020
Tumble & Blue by Cassie Beasley2020
The Last Cherry Blossom by Kathleen Burkinshaw2020
Greetings from Witness Protection! by Jake Burt2020
The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya2020
Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani2020
Cyclone by Doreen Cronin2020
Real Friends by Shannon Hale2020
Midnight Without a Moon by Linda Williams Jackson2020
All's Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson2020
Amina's Voice by Hena Khan2020
Warcross by Marie Lu2020
The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore2020
Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh2020
Tentacle and Wing by Sarah Porter2020
The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez2020
Miles Morales: Spider-Man (A Marvel YA Novel) by Jason Reynolds2020
Lost Boys by Darcey Rosenblatt2020
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson2020
Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk2020
Scythe by Neal Shusterman2019
Booked by Kwame Alexander2019
Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson2019
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill2019
The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron2019
Audacity by Melanie Crowder2019
We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler by Russell Freedman2019
Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart2019
Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes2019
Mayday by Karen Harrington2019
Bubonic Panic: When Plague Invaded America by Gail Jarrow2019
Night on Fire by Ronald Kidd2019
Strong Inside (Young Readers Edition): The True Story of How Perry Wallace Broke College Basketball's Color Line by Andrew Maraniss2019
Wires and Nerve, Volume 1 by Marissa Meyer2019
The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall2019
Ghost by Jason Reynolds2019
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly2019
Things Too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry by Susan Vaught2019
Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks2019
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk2019
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley2018
The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste2018
The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin2018
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown2018
Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans by Don Brown2018
Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko2018
Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff2018
Last of the Sandwalkers by Jay Hosler2018
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson2018
The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson2018
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba2018
Pax by Sara Pennypacker2018
Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound by Andrea Davis Pinkney2018
I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest2018
Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan2018
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt2018
Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith2018
Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead2018
Last in a Long Line of Rebels by Lisa Lewis Tyre2018
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen2018
Sisters by Raina Telgemeier2017
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander2017
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier2017
Kinda Like Brothers by Coe Booth2017
The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer2017
Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela DePrince2017
A Bird On Water Street by Elizabeth O. Dulemba2017
Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald2017
Space Case by Stuart Gibbs2017
Greenglass House by Kate Milford2017
Positive: A Memoir by Paige Rawl2017
If You're Reading This by Trent Reedy2017
The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson2017
Threatened by Eliot Schrefer2017
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin2017
Beneath by Roland Smith2017
Loot by Jude Watson2017
A Path Begins by J. A. White2017
Revolution by Deborah Wiles2017
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson2017
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz2016
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb2016
Jinx by Sage Blackwood2016
Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking: A 14 Day Mystery by Erin Dionne2016
Foul Trouble by John Feinstein2016
Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War by Helen Frost2016
Zebra Forest by Adina Rishe Gewirtz2016
Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington2016
The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata2016
Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne2016
March: Book One by John Lewis2016
The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano2016
Far Far Away by Tom McNeal2016
Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure by David Meissner2016
Endangered by Eliot Schrefer2016
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan2016
The President Has Been Shot!: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James L. Swanson2016
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake2016
Paperboy by Vince Vawter2016
Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang2016
The Selection by Kiera Cass2015
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo2015
A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream by Richard Bernstein2015
Pinned by Sharon Flake2015
The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost2015
Spy School by Stuart Gibbs2015
In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz2015
Titanic: Voices From the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson2015
One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt2015
See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles2015
We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson2015
Cinder by Marissa Meyer2015
Wonder by R. J. Palacio2015
Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz2015
Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank2015
Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin2015
Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America's First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone2015
Drama: A Graphic Novel by Raina Telgemeier2015
Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool2015
Crow by Barbara Wright2015
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys2014
Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson2014
Jefferson's Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley2014
How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg2014
The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis2014
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen2014
My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson2014
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos2014
Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy2014
Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall2014
Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri2014
Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins2014
Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus2014
Bluefish by Pat Schmatz2014
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt2014
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick2014
The Silver Bowl by Diane Stanley2014
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens2014
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater2014
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker2014
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan2013
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi2013
King of Ithaka by Tracy Barrett2013
The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael D. Beil2013
Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell2013
Heist Society by Ally Carter2013
Is It Night or Day? by Fern Schumer Chapman2013
Matched by Ally Condie2013
The War to End All Wars: World War I by Russell Freedman2013
Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising by Jason Henderson2013
A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park2013
Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen2013
Slob by Ellen Potter2013
Scrawl by Mark Shulman2013
The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman2013
After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick2013
Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson2013
Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool2013
Countdown by Deborah Wiles2013
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia2013

Descriptions

Purpose of the Award

The purpose of the Volunteer State Book Award is to promote awareness, interest, and enjoyment of recently published children's and young adult literature of high quality to the children and teens of Tennessee. The award also hopes to promote literacy and life‐long reading habits by encouraging students to read award‐worthy contemporary literature which broadens understanding of the human experience and provides accurate, factual information. This award will honor outstanding books chosen annually by Tennessee students.


Its Unique Feature

The Volunteer State Book Award differs from awards such as the Newbery and Caldecott Medals in that students choose the book which receives the award each year. Tennessee students from Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade read or have read to them at least three of the twenty titles on the annual master list. They then vote for their favorite book.


Who May Participate?

Any public or private school or public library in Tennessee is eligible to participate. It is not required that the entire school be involved. Each participating school or library system must have a minimum of twelve of the twenty titles per division available.


How Books are Chosen

Twenty books that appeal to students in each grade category are selected by professional librarians and educators who work continuously with students in grades K‐12. Four separate lists are compiled each year.

Books may be fiction or nonfiction.

Only one title of any one author will be included on that year's list.

Only titles published in the current year of voting will be eligible.

Only books by authors residing in the United States are eligible. Authors who reside part‐time in the US are also eligible to receive the award.

Textbooks, anthologies, translations, and books from foreign publishers are not eligible.

Titles from vanity publishers or that have been self‐published are not eligible. Titles that are available only in digital format are likewise not eligible.

All books on the final list will have been read by a minimum of five members of the committee.


How to Vote

Students who have read or had read to them a minimum of three of the twenty books will be allowed to vote.

The library media specialist or public librarian will conduct the voting.

Digital ballots will be posted on the VSBA website. There will be no paper ballots.

Voting opens March 1st and closes April 30th.

(English, Award granter)
URL: https://sites.google.com/view/volunteer-state-book-award/resources/helpful-tools/vsba-guidelines
Sponsored by the Tennessee Library Association and the Tennessee Association of School Librarians. (English, Member-written)
The purpose of the Volunteer State Book Award is to promote awareness, interest, and enjoyment of good new children's and young adult literature. The award also hopes to promote literacy and life-long reading habits by encouraging students to read quality contemporary literature which broadens understanding of the human experience and provides accurate, factual information. This award will honor outstanding books chosen annually by Tennessee students.
http://www.discoveret.org/tasl/vsba.htm (English, Member-written)

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