NEW YORK (AP) — Angie Thomas’ debut novel, “The Hate U Give,” a story of police violence that has become one of the year’s top-selling works for young people, was among the nominees announced Tuesday for the National Book Awards.
The National Book Foundation released a long list of 10 books, several with socially conscious story lines, in the young people’s literature category. Over the next three days, the foundation will announce long lists for poetry, nonfiction and fiction. Short lists of five come out Oct. 4 and winners will be revealed during a Nov. 15 ceremony in New York City.
The young people’s list includes two former National Book Award nominees: Jason Reynolds, the lone male cited Tuesday, for “Long Way Down” and Rita Williams-Garcia for “Clayton Byrd Goes Underground.” Two debut novelists also were chosen: Thomas and Ibi Zoboi, for “American Street.”
Immigration, an especially contentious issue during President Donald Trump’s administration, is a central theme in “American Street” and in Mitali Perkins’ “You Bring the Distant Near” and Erika L. Sanchez’s “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.”
Other nominees are Samantha Mabry’s “All the Wind in the World,” Laurel Snyder’s “Orphan Island,” Robin Benway’s “Far from the Tree” and Elana K. Arnold’s “What Girls Are Made Of.”
A panel of five judges made their selections from 337 books submitted by publishers.
