Current Teen Nutmeg Nominees (2010)

Accidental Love by Gary Soto

Boy meets girl (accidentally), girl falls for boy (love).  But they’re from two different schools, two different neighborhoods, and truly two different worlds.  The odds of them making it are slim to none in this well-crafted story of young love.

Code Orange by Caroline Cooney

While completing his infectious disease report for science class, Mitty fears he may have contracted smallpox.  When he searches the internet for information about this disease, he alerts a terrorist group who plans to kidnap him and use him as a biological weapon against the people of New York City.

Crackback by John Coy

Miles can’t remember why football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, criticized by his father, and shunned by his best friend for avoiding performance enhancing drugs.

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

What is the most annoying thing in the world?  For Steven, the answer is obvious; his little brother Jeffrey.  When Steven finds out that Jeffrey is sick, however, he must use all of his skills as a drum-playing, girl-crushing, friend-finding, parent-manipulating teenager to help his family keep laughing through this heartbreaking year.

Epic by Conor Kostick

Epic is a fantasy role-playing game that is more than just a game—it’s New Earth’s government and economy.  Everyone has always played Epic the same way, by slowly accumulating wealth, but no one can rival the Committee, the world’s tyrannical ruling group.  But Erik, a risk taker, thinks he and his friends may be able to change all that.

Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury

It is 1941. Eddy Okubo is 16 years old, a Japanese American, and enlists in the US Army to protect the country he loves.  The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and suddenly Eddy is the enemy.  He and 24 other Japanese American soldiers are sent on a terrifying secret mission that will test their loyalty and courage.

Jeremy Fink and The Meaning of Life by Wendy Maas

If before your 13th birthday, you received a quadrupled-locked, mysterious box engraved “The Meaning of Life”, lovingly handcrafted by your dead father, what do you do?  You run around all of Manhattan with your best friend, trying to find the missing four keys.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda, a sixteen year old high school sophomore, is looking forward to getting her license, junior year, and just being a teenager.  She doesn’t give a second thought to the news of a meteor speeding towards the moon, until it hits. Life as she knew it will never return.

Pieces of Georgia by Jen Bryant

Artistic loner Georgia McCoy writes a series of letters to her dead mother in the hope of understanding her father’s sadness, her friend’s curiosity about drugs, and her own feelings of loneliness.  When she receives an anonymous membership to the local art museum, Georgia’s life changes dramatically.

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

When Stephenie’s uncle dies and includes her in his will, she meets Skulduggery Pleasant and quickly enters a world of secrets, magic, and danger.  Can Stephenie and Skulduggery work together to defeat the evil powers of Serpine?