Information Copied from: http://www.alan-ya.org/2011/06/the-last-summer-of-the-death-warriors-wins-walden-award/
by thunderchikin
About this author: David Macinnis Gill is the award-winning author of Invisible Sun, Black Hole Sun, and Soul Enchilada from Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins. Read more from this author
The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is pleased and proud to announce the winner of the 2011 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. Established in 2008 to honor the wishes of young adult author Amelia Elizabeth Walden, the award allows for the sum of $5,000 to be presented annually to the author of a young adult title selected by the ALAN Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Committee as demonstrating a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit. This year’s committee considered nearly 300 young adult titles during the selection process.
The 2011 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award winner is:
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork (Arthur A. Levine)
When Pancho arrives at St. Anthony’s Home, he knows his time there will be short: If his plans succeed, he’ll soon be arrested for the murder of his sister’s killer. But then he’s assigned to help D.Q., whose brain cancer has slowed neither his spirit nor his mouth. D.Q. tells Pancho all about his “Death Warrior’s Manifesto,” which will help him to live out his last days fully–ideally, he says, with the love of the beautiful Marisol. As Pancho tracks down his sister’s murderer, he finds himself falling under the influence of D.Q. and Marisol, who is everything D.Q. said she would be; and he is inexorably drawn to a decision: to honor his sister and her death, or embrace the way of the Death Warrior and choose life.
Nuanced in its characters and surprising in its plot developments–both soulful and funny–Pancho & D.Q. is a “buddy novel” of the highest kind: the story of a friendship that helps two young men become all they can be.
The 2011 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award finalists are:
- After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick (Scholastic Press)
- I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña (Delacorte Press)
- Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick (Little, Brown and Company)
- Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler (Viking)
The authors of the winning title and the finalists will be invited to speak on a panel on Monday, November 21st at the 2011 ALAN Workshop in Chicago, Illinois. They will also be honored at an open reception immediately following the Monday sessions of the ALAN Workshop. All Walden Award titles will be identified by an award sticker—gold for the winner and silver for the four finalists.
The Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee would like to thank: the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Foundation; the ALAN Executive Council; the ALAN Board of Directors; NCTE; and the more than twenty publishers who submitted titles for consideration.
The 2011 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee was comprised of eleven members representing the university, K-12 school, and library communities. They are:
- Teri Lesesne, Committee Chair Professor Department of Library Science, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX
- Daria Plumb, Past Chair Classroom Teacher Riverside Academy, Dundee, MI
- Carolyn Angus Director George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA
- Erica Berg Classroom Teacher Rockville High School, Vernon, CT
- Jean Boreen Professor Department of English, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
- Lois Buckman Librarian Caney Creek High School, Conroe, TX
- Jeff Harr Classroom Teacher Theodore Roosevelt High School, Kent, OH
- Jeff Kaplan Associate Professor College of Education, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
- Diane Tuccillo Teen Services Librarian Poudre River Public Library District, Fort Collins, CO
- Jennifer Walsh Classroom Teacher Forsythe Middle School, Ann Arbor, MI
- Barbara Ward Assistant Professor Washington State University, Department of Teaching and Learning, Pullman, WA.
Daria Plumb, Past Chair
Classroom Teacher
Riverside Academy, Dundee, MI
Carolyn Angus
Director
George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA
Erica Berg
Classroom Teacher
Rockville High School, Vernon, CT
Jean Boreen
Professor
Department of English, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ
Lois Buckman
Librarian
Caney Creek High School, Conroe, TX
Jeff Harr
Classroom Teacher
Theodore Roosevelt High School, Kent, OH
Jeff Kaplan
Associate Professor
College of Education, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
Diane Tuccillo
Teen Services Librarian
Poudre River Public Library District, Fort Collins, CO
Jennifer Walsh
Classroom Teacher
Forsythe Middle School, Ann Arbor, MI
Barbara Ward
Assistant Professor
Washington State University, Department of Teaching and Learning, Pullman, WA
For more information on the award, please visit ALAN Online: The Official Site of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents http://www.alan-ya.org/ .
