M. Rosoff. New York: Wendy Lamb books 2004
ANNOTATION: This book is a Realist Fiction story about a fifteen year old girl, Elizabeth, who goes on a quest of finding love by travelling from her home in New York to London. While in New-York, she was not happy with her family situation because she never got along with her stepmother. When the opportunity was presented to her by her father to go to london to meet her aunt and cousins, she jumped at the idea. She was excited to get away from her dad and stepmum and she was hopeful that she will be able to connect with her new family and find a loving and peaceful home again but little did she know that she will actually fall in love also!
GENRE: This books falls under the category of Realistic Fiction and it won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in Young Adult Literature in the year 2005.
NOMINATION JUSTIFICATION: I nominate this book for an award and I justify my nomination based on the fact that this book targets the right audience. It is full of different teen characters who are going through issues that everyday teens experience; finding love, eating disorders, relationship with parents and friendship. The story is also based on a crisis period ranging from war, political uncertainty and terroristic threats which teens experience today either directly or indirectly. However, this book deals with the issue of incest in a very negative way and some readers might be put off by that aspect of the story just as I was. Overall, I think the positive story of survival and human endurance, overrides the negative aspects of the plot.
