The Gateway Readers Award honors a young adult novel that is selected by Missouri high school students. To be eligible to vote, students must read at least three of the finalists. Voting will occur at participating schools early next March, so you can use the summer months to get crack-a-lackin’ on this list! The winner will be announced in April 2017.
“Red Rising” by Pierce Brown
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Insti-tute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class.
“We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart
Spending the summers on her family’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teen-aged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.
“Love and Other Foreign Words” by Erin McCahan
Brilliant fifteen-year-old Josie has a knack for languages, but her sister’s engagement has Josie grappling with the nature of true love, her feelings for her best friend Stu, and how anyone can be truly herself, or truly in love, in a social language that is not her own.
“Don’t Look Back” by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Seventeen-year-old Sam seems to have every-thing until she and her best friend, Cassie, disappear one night. Now Sam has returned with amnesia, striving to be a much better person and aware that her not remembering may be the only thing keeping Cassie alive.
“The Book of Ivy” by Amy Engel
In an apocalyptic future where girls from the losing faction are forcibly married to boys of the winning faction, sixteen-year-old Ivy is tasked to kill her fiancé Bishop, although when she finally meets him, he is not the monster she has been led to believe.
“The Winner’s Curse” by Marie Rutkoski
An aristocratic girl who is a member of a war-mongering and enslaving empire purchases a slave, an act that sets in motion a rebellion that might overthrow her world as well as her heart.
“The Young Elites” by Marie Lu
Adelina Amouteru survived the blood fever, a deadly illness that killed many, but left others with strange markings and supernatural powers. Cast out by her family, Adelina joins the secret society of the Young Elites and discovers her own dangerous abilities.
“Made for You” by Melissa Marr
Southern small town darling Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital with the frightening ability to see through the eyes of the victims of a serial killer, and realizes that she, too, is a target of the depraved stalker.
“Free to Fall” by Lauren Miller
In a near-future world where everyone is controlled by their smartphones, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn suddenly begins listening to the voice within–which kids are taught to ignore– and discovers a terrible plot at the heart of the corporation that makes the devices.
“The Kiss of Deception” by Mary E. Pearson
Princess Lia is expected to have the revered gift of sight, but she does not. She knows her
parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to a prince she has never
met in order to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom. Lia flees to a distant
village and settles into a new life. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets, even as she finds herself falling in love.
“Nil” by Lynne Matson
Transported through a “gate” to the mysterious island of Nil, seventeen-year-old Charley
has 365 days to escape–or she will die.
“Torn Away” by Jennifer Brown
In the aftermath of a tornado that has devastated her hometown of Elizabeth, Missouri,
sixteen-year-old Jersey Cameron struggles to overcome her grief as she is sent to live with
her only surviving relatives.
“Call Me By My Name” by John Ed Bradley
Growing up in Louisiana in the late 1960s, where segregation and prejudice still thrive,
two high school football players, one white, one black, become friends, but some changes
are too difficult to accept.
“Since You’ve Been Gone” by Morgan Matson
Quiet Emily’s sociable and daring best friend, Sloane, has disappeared leaving nothing but a random list of bizarre tasks for her to complete, but with unexpected help from popular
classmate Frank Porter, Emily gives them a try.
“Some Boys” by Patty Blount
Shunned by her friends and even her father after she accuses the town golden boy of rape,
Grace wonders if she can ever trust Ian, a classmate who is funny, kind, and has secrets of his own.
Originally published at 2016 Final Gateway Award Nominations.
