Young Readers Choice Awards

Young Readers Choice Awards

The YRCA is the oldest and only international reader's choice award. Students who live in the Pacific Northwest are eligible to vote. There are three age divisions. To vote, you must have read or listened to at least two of the nominated titles in a division. You may vote in more than one division.  Burnaby students can vote in person at any branch of Burnaby Public Library from March 15 to April 15 2012. 

Intermediate nominees

The Hunchback Assignments
Arthur Slade
In Victorian London, fourteen-year-old Modo, a shape-changing hunchback, becomes a secret agent for the Permanent Association, which strives to protect the world from the evil machinations of the Clockwork Guild.

Leviathan
Scott Westerfeld
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.

The Maze Runner
James Dashner
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

Peace, Love and Baby Ducks
Lauren Myracle
Fifteen-year-old Carly's summer volunteer experience makes her feel more real than her life of privilege in Atlanta ever did, but her younger sister starts high school pretending to be what she is not, and both find their relationships suffering.

Princess of the Midnight Ball
Jessica Day George
A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king's gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group
Catherine Jinks
Fifteen-year-old vampire Nina has been stuck for fifty-one years in a boring support group for vampires, and nothing exciting has ever happened to them--until one of them is murdered and the others must try to solve the crime.

Skeleton Creek
Patrick Carman
Although housebound following an eerie accident, teenaged Ryan continues to investigate the strange occurences in his hometown of Skeleton Creek, recording his findings in a journal and viewing email video clips sent by fellow detective Sarah. The reader may view Sarah's videos on a website by using links and passwords found in the text.

Thirteenth Child
Patricia Wrede
Eighteen-year-old Eff must finally get over believing she is bad luck and accept that her special training in Aphrikan magic, and being the twin of the seventh son of a seventh son, give her extraordinary power to combat magical creatures that threaten settlements on the western frontier.

Senior nominees

Along for the Ride
Sarah Dessen
When Auden impulsively goes to stay with her father, stepmother, and new baby sister the summer before she starts college, all the trauma of her parents' divorce is revived, even as she is making new friends and having new experiences such as learning to ride a bike and dating.

Going Bovine
Libba Bray
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

Hush, Hush
Becca Fitzpatrick
High school sophomore Nora has always been very cautious in her relationships, but when Patch, who has a dark side she can sense, enrolls at her school, she is mysteriously and strongly drawn to him, despite warnings from her best friend, the school counselor, and her own instincts.

Lockdown
Alexander Gordon Smith
When fourteen-year-old Alex is framed for murder, he becomes an inmate in the Furnace Penitentiary, where brutal inmates and sadistic guards reign, boys who disappear in the middle of the night sometimes return weirdly altered, and escape might just be possible.

The Monstrumologist
Rick Yancey
In 1888, twelve-year-old Will Henry chronicles his apprenticeship with Dr. Warthrop, a scientist who hunts and studies real-life monsters, as they discover and attempt to destroy a pod of Anthropophagi.

Shiver
Maggie Stiefvater
In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.

The Sweetness of the Bottom of the Pie
Alan Bradley
Introducing Flavia de Luce, an eleven-year-old with a penchant for poison that she nurtured to defend herself from her nasty older sisters. One day, while searching for ingredients, Flavia discovers a dead body in the cucumber patch.

Witch and Wizard
James Patterson
A sister and brother, along with thousands of young people, have been kidnapped and either thrown in prison or turned up missing after accusations of witchcraft were made against them, and the ruling regime will do anything in order to suppress life and liberty, music and books.