2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists announced.

The YA list is:

Beauty Queens, by Libba Bray:

That’s a lot of girls, a lot of questions and a lot of issues. So, although they come off as real people in their private moments, and although there was a clear effort to portray each one as an individual, most of them come off as caricatures in the group scenes. Part of the reason for that, of course, can be attributed to satire as a genre: It’s always hard to develop emotional ties with characters who act, in part, to provide commentary on larger cultural issues.

The Big Crunch, by Pete Hautman:

It’s a quiet love story that delivers an emotional kick in the gut. It’s unpredictable and unusual, true and real. The Big Crunch acknowledges the ephemeral nature of first love, but celebrates the depth of feeling that accompanies it. It’s introspective without navel-gazing, and it’s tightly written, sharply detailed, with a crisp, clear focus. It’s painful without being angsty, and hopeful without being saccharine or ever sacrificing realism.

A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd, by Patrick Ness:

Every line of Patrick Ness' beautiful, deceptively simple prose Tells The Truth. The truth about the isolation of grief, about the anger that comes out of loss, the truth about guilt, and about how knowledge and logic have absolutely nothing to do with emotion.

Life: An Exploded Diagram, by Mal Peet.
Amazon | Indiebound. 

The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater.
Amazon | Indiebound.  

See the others at the LA Times.

Comments

[Afton]

I love me some Libba, but I honestly can't believe Beauty Queens is on this list. I've read all except Peet's (sitting on my nightstand at this minute) and Beauty Queens isn't even on the same planet as the others. I don't think BQ ever would have been published without Libba's NY Times Bestselling author status. Anyway, just my opinion.

[Tamson!]

I LOVE The Big Crunch cover. We used to hear that you couldn't have an illustrated cover for YA. I hope this is a harbinger of change.

[Leila]

@Afton: Yeah, I wasn't as in love with BQ as many others were. I think there was so much going on that it never really came together* for me.

*It's five AM, and I just spent fifteen minutes reading through arguments about which is correct: gelled or jelled. So I went with 'came together', because it's just too early for this nonsense.