The North Carolina Young Adult Book Award was initiated in 2008 to encourage reading at the middle and high school levels by involving students in the process of selecting and voting on the best books for their age group.  Studies consistently show that reading for pleasure begins to wane as children reach middle school age and the goal of this award is to get these kids interested in reading good, current books that appeal to their age level.   Each year the committee selects ten books for middle school readers and ten books for high school readers to make up the two NC YA Book Award lists.  The titles are chosen from nominations of books published within the last three years that have been submitted by students and media coordinators across the state. Throughout the school year, students are encouraged to read from the lists and think critically about what they read.  Then in March, they vote for their favorite book.  After tallying the student votes a winner is announced in April and the new book lists are published.

We are in the process of migrating all of our resources to this website including our book trailers, curriculum links, summaries and other promotional materials for current and past lists.