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2002 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults

The Best Books for Young Adults committee of the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, has chosen the following books as Top Ten Young Adult Books:

View the entire list.

Draft - January 2002

Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 2001. Delacorte, $14.95 (0-385-72933-2).
Four lifelong high-school friends and a magical pair of jeans take summer journeys to discover love, disappointments, and self-realization.<

Cormier, Robert. The Rag and Bone Shop. 2001. Delacorte, $15.95 (0-385-72962-6).
When twelve-year-old Jason is questioned as a witness in a young girl's murder investigation, he doesn't realize that his interrogation in the hands of a skilled detective will become a matter of life and death.

Crutcher, Chris.Whale Talk. 2001. HarperCollins, $16.95 (0-06-029369-1).
Multiethnic T. J. leads a high-school swim team of nonconformists on a quest for a varsity letter jacket.

Flinn, Alex.Breathing Underwater. 2001. HarperCollins, $15.95 (0-06-029198-2).
After Nick's girlfriend, Caitlin, has a restraining order issued against him, he is forced to come to grips with his anger and low self-esteem.

Jenkins, A. M.. Damage. 2001. HarperCollins, $15.95 (0-0602-9099-4).
Football star and high-school senior Austin clings to a relationship with beautiful, sexy Heather in the hope she will be his salvation.

Mosher, Richard. Zazoo. 2001. Houghton Mifflin, $16.00 (0-618-13534-0).
From the moment almost 14-year-old Zazoo sees the handsome young man on the black bicycle, her life is changed forever with never-explored questions about her own past and that of her beloved "Grand-Pierre."

Nix, Garth. Lirael. 2001. HarperCollins, $16.95 (0-06-027823-4).
Lirael becomes a librarian in the vast warren of a library that not only houses books but also guards monstrous dangers and arcane magic that lets her conjure up the Disreputable Dog who accompanies her on a quest when the dead start warring on the living.

Taylor, Mildred. The Land. 2001. Penguin Putnam, $17.99 (0-8037-1950-7).
In a prequel to the Newbery-Award winner Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Cassie Logan's grandfather, Paul Edward, tells of his heart-breaking but ultimately triumphant struggle to acquire the land that would become the Logan family legacy.

Williams-Garcia, Rita. Every Time a Rainbow Dies. 2001. William Morrow, $15.95 (0-688-16245-2).
Thulani is drawn out from his grief over the death of his mother when he comes to the aid of a rape victim and is obsessed with forming a relationship with her.

Wolff, Virginia Euwer. True Believer. 2001. Atheneum, $17.00 (0-689-82827-6).
In this poetic sequel to Make Lemonade, LaVaughn finds that her changing goals and relationships bring her both pain and joy.

Committee members were: Donna McMillen, Chair, Fairwood Library, King County Library System, Renton,WA; Nicolas Buron, Queens Borough Public Library, New York, NY; Margaret Butzler, Bethel Park Public Library, Bethel Park, PA; Nicole Cooke, Montclair, NJ; Valerie Diamond, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD; Cynthia Dobrez, Harbor Lights School, Holland, MI; Donna Gilliland, University of Saint Thomas, Keffer Library, Minneapolis, MN; Nancy Maltby Henkel, Maple Valley Library, King County Library System, Maple Valley, WA; Diana Tixler Herald, Grand Junction, CO; Jan Hoberecht, Newton, KS; Andrea Howe, Albuquerque Academy Library, Albuquerque, NM; Susan Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT; Betsy Levine, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA; Diane Monnier, Bethesda Regional Library, Bethesda, MD; Cindy Welch, Harold Washington Library, Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL; Stephanie Zvirin, Consultant, American Library Association, Chicago, IL; Angelina Benedetti, Administrative Assistant, King County Library System, Issaquah, WA.