What is the Black-Eyed Susan What is the Black-Eyed Susan Award?Award?

The Black-Eyed Susan Book Award honors outstanding books, chosen annually by Maryland students.  Committees of school library media specialists and other interested persons meet over the course of a year to determine which books will go on the lists; anyone is invited to suggest titles.   

Requirements1. Students are required to read 3 books.

2. When the required number of books have been read, each student will cast one vote for the book he or she considers to be the most outstanding in each category. 

3. Votes from across the state are sent in to the Black-Eyed Susan committees and tallied to determine the winners.  The winning authors and/or illustrators receive a pewter plate engraved with the  year and the Black-Eyed Susan Book Award logo.  Authors, illustrators and publishers recognize the award as an honor bestowed by Maryland students.

Library Visit One

1. Present book talks for each title.

2. Students pick one book.

3. Read at least one book over the next 3 weeks.

4. Some students may want the challenge of reading all 10 titles.

Black-Eyed Susan Award Nominees

2012-2013 

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Five Flavors of Dumb by John Anthony

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee

The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt

High School Nominees

Perry's parents insist that he take Gobi, their quiet, Lithuanian exchange student, to senior prom but after an incident at the dance he learns that Gobi is actually a trained assassin who needs him as a henchman, behind the wheel of his father's precious Jaguar, on a mission in Manhattan..

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick

by Joe Schreiber

Between Shades of Gray

by Ruta Sepetys

In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR

Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain.

Bruiser by

Neal Shusterman

In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomoly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Divergent by

Veronica Roth

Book Trailer

Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates' popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along.

Five Flavors of Dumb

ByJohn Anthony

Book Trailer

Examines the experiences of the children and husband of Henrietta Lacks, who, twenty years after her death from cervical cancer in 1951, learned doctors and researchers took cells from her cervix without consent which were used to create the immortal cell line known as the HeLa cell; provides an overview of Henrietta's life; and explores issues of experimentation on African-Americans and bioethics.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

byRebecca Skloot

Book Trailer

Seventeen-year-old Pancho is bent on avenging the senseless death of his sister, but after he meets D.Q, who is dying of cancer, and Marisol, one of D.Q.'s caregivers, both boys find their lives changed by their interactions.

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors

ByFrancisco X. Stork

BOOK TRAILER

In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African-Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.

The Scorpio RacesBy

Maggie Stiefvater

Upon graduating from high school in the tiny town of Starling, Tennessee, aspiring country singer Retta Lee Jones manages to get herself to Nashville, where, in spite of some bad luck and hard times, she tries to persevere in pursuing her dreams.

Book Trailer

Somebody Everybody Listens To

bySuzanne Supplee

Although they have never gotten along well, seventeen-year-old Levi follows his older brother Boaz, an ex-Marine, on a walking trip from Boston to Washington, D.C. in hopes of learning why Boaz is completely withdrawn.

The Things a Brother Knows

ByDana Reinhardt

YALSA’s TeenTop Ten Book Trailers

• http://libraries.idaho.gov/files/Teens%20Top%2010%20Nominations%202010-Linked%20Book%20Trailers.pdf

• Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls.