The Abraham Lincoln Award: Illinois' High School Readers' Choice Award

2012 MASTER LIST

After  --  Amy Efaw   Speak     2010
Beastly --  Alex Flinn  HarperTeen     2008
Before I Die  --  Jenny Downham  *  David Fickling       2009
Carter Finally Gets It  --  Brent Crawford  Hyperion       2010
Columbine --  Dave Cullen    Twelve      2010
The Compound  --  S.A. Bodeen    Square Fish      2009
Flash Burnout  --  L.K. Madigan    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt     2010
Ghosts of War  --  Ryan Smithson      Harpercollins         2010
Going Bovine  --  Libba Bray  *     Random House      2010
How to Build a House  --  Dana Reinhardt    Wendy Lamb       2009
If I Stay  --  Gayle Forman      Speak         2010
The Looking Glass Wars  --  Frank Beddor  *     Speak        2007
Love is the Higher Law  --  David Levithan  *       Knopf          2010
The Maze Runner  --  James Dashner        Delacorte        2010
Mexican White Boy  --  Matt de la Pena        Delacorte       2010
Reality Check  --  Peter Abrahams      HarperTeen        2010
Shiver  --  Maggie Stiefvater     Scholastic        2010
Story of a Girl  --  Sara Zarr       Little, Brown      2008
Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines  --  Nic Sheff          Atheneum       2008
Why I Fight  --  J. Adams Oaks        Atheneum         2010
Wish You Were Dead  --  Todd Strasser         EgmontUSA          2010
World War Z  --  Max Brooks          Three Rivers          2007

(Starred titles chosen by Student Readers)

A PowerPoint slide show with brief annotation and cover art for each 2012 Master List title is available.  Due to copyright restrictions for the cover art, the PPT may NOT be posted to ANY website. To receive a copy via email for your own in-house use, contact Diane Mankowski at diane_mankowski@glenbard.org.

2011 Master List
2010 Abe Survey Results
2012 Annotated Master List with Websites (PDF * Word)
2012 Semifinal List of Nominees
Battle of the Books Wiki
2012 New Trier Abe Site
Abe Booktalks from Mackin
Registration Brochure
LBSS Grant

BONUS MATERIALS FROM OUR ABE AUTHORS
Here are links to a number of “extras” sent to us by our Abe authors or their editors which they thought you might be able to use with your students.

AMY EFAW
I have been charging $100 for skype talks…I'd love to get readers interested in AFTER with skype talks. www.amyefaw.com                         

PAUL VOLPONI
I’m currently scheduling Skype video conferences for the 2011-2012 school year. During a video conference, which usually lasts about 45-minutes (the average length of a class), I tell about the background of my ALA award winning young adult novels, discuss the writing process, answer questions about my work, ask the students questions about themselves, and encourage students in their own writing. The conferences usually go very well, and a great time is generally had by all, including me. I keep the honorarium at a very low $200.

DAVE CULLEN 
I created several items that I think teachers and students could use. Some were created specifically for them:

1. The Columbine Teacher's Guide:

2. The book trailer: (a 3-minute video summary of the book and the tragedy, narrated by me, commissioned by my publisher)

3. The Columbine Student Guide

4. Columbine Online: a research site on the tragedy, including evidence, reports, diagrams, photos, and just about anything available to do a paper/report on the incident.

Abraham Lincoln Award Winners

  • 2011  Suzanne Collins - Hunger Games
  • 2010  Cassandra Clare --  City of Bones
  • 2009 Ellen Hopkins -- Crank
  • 2008 Stephenie Meyer -- Twilight
  • 2007 Scott Westerfeld -- Uglies
  • 2006 Jodi Picoult -- My Sister’s Keeper
  • 2005 Dave Pelzer -- A Child Called “It”

The Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award
The Abraham Lincoln Award is awarded annually to the author of the book voted as most outstanding by participating students in grades nine through twelve in Illinois. The award is named for Abraham Lincoln, one of Illinois' most famous residents and himself an avid reader and noted author. The award is sponsored by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA).The Abraham Lincoln Award is designed to encourage high school students to read for personal satisfaction and become familiar with authors of young adult and adult books.

Official Nomination Form for 2013

Nominations—2013
Students, librarians, and educators from schools or public libraries that are registered participants in the ALIHSBA program may nominate books for the award. To be eligible for the list, books must meet the following criteria:

  • First published within the past five years
  • Currently in print in paperback
  • Author living at time of selection for the Master List
  • Fiction, non-fiction, or poetry
  • May not be a textbook, a translation, or an anthology by more than one author
  • May not be a previous Rebecca Caudill Award winner
  • May not have appeared on a previous ALIHSBA Master List
  • If part of a series, must be the first volume unless it can stand by itself without reading the previous titles in the series

Past Master Lists Compilation

Nomination forms for the 2013 award will be accepted from April 1 - October 15, 2011.

Registration/Participation
Any Illinois school serving students in grades nine through twelve may register and participate in the award program. If any local school chooses not to participate, public libraries may register to provide access for their students, as well as for home schooled students. Participating schools and libraries must:

  • Submit registration form by November 15
  • Provide a minimum of 12 of the 22 titles on the Master List
  • Provide student voting forms
  • Tally student voting forms and report the results by the deadline shown in the Timeline (below)

To register, complete the registration form and send it with the $10.00 annual fee to the address provided.

Volunteering for Abe Committees

Adults interested in serving a 3-year term on an Abe Award committee should complete and send the application from the link below. We are always looking for new people to serve on the Nominations Committee, Reader Panel, and in other capacities. Even if we can’t use you immediately in your preferred area, we will keep your application on file and work you in as soon as possible. Most of our Abe committee work is done via email, with the exception of the March selection meeting of the Abe Reader Panel, which is held on a Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., usually in the Bloomington/ Springfield/ Peoria area.

Adult Volunteer Application
PDF | Online Application

High school students interested in serving a one-year term as a Student Member of the Abe Award Reader Panel should complete and send the application from the link below. If more than one student from the same area of the state applies, preference will be given to seniors; younger students’ applications will be held in a waiting file for following years. Requirements and duties of the Student Readers are described on the application form.

Student Reader Panel Volunteer Online Application
Online Application

Voting

Voting is coordinated in the schools by the school library media specialist or teacher. If the school has no library media specialist or interested teacher, the library paraprofessional may coordinate the voting and submit results to ISLMA. In a public library, a librarian may collect votes for students who are not involved in the program at school or another library.

To be eligible to vote, a student must have read or listened to at least four books on the Master List. Each student will vote for his or her favorite book from the nominees. The official Vote Reporting Form must be submitted electronically via the ISLMA website by the deadline shown in the Timeline. Statewide results will be tallied and the winner will be announced, by email, on ISLMANET-L, on the ISLMA website, and through the regional library systems.

Resources
The links below are to resources you may wish to use in promoting the Abe Award at your library. You may print and use these in any creative way that works for you!

PR/Motivational Ideas
Abraham Lincoln Bookmark
2012 Abe Logo Bookmark (Word * PDF)
2012 Master List Bookmark
Abraham Lincoln Image
Abe Closeup Lobo (Word * PDF)
Abe Logo (Word * PDF)
2012 Student Reading Certificate  (Save As A Word document =>File=>Open for Editing; this will allow you to type on the certificate) (Word * PDF)
2012 Abe's Double Deuces Certificate (Word * PDF)
Trifold Abe brochure (editable) -- Glenbrook North H.S.
2012 Abe Poster (Word * PDF)

"Island of the Abes" program (Joliet West H.S.)

Abe Award Spine Labels

Master sheets for printing your own Abe spine labels are available at the links below. You can print these on Avery label stock, or simply print on plain paper, cut them apart, and tape them onto your Abe books.

Abe Spine Labels Master Sheet

Timeframe
Nomination period for 2013 Master List - April 1 - October 15, 2011

Student reading period for 2012 Award - March, 2011 - February 29, 2012

Official Online Ballot due - February 29, 2012

Announcement of 2012 winner - March, 2012

Administration
The Abraham Lincoln Award is administered by the ISLMA High School Book Award Steering Committee (click name to send email):

Chairperson Kathy Shannon, klshannon19@earthlink.net, Thornwood H.S.  (ret.) 
  Lisa Dettling,  ldettling@d125.org, Adlai E. Stevenson H.S. 
  Denise Ethun,  dethun@boylan.org, Boylan H.S.
  Jennette Gonzalez,  jgonzalez@ridgenet.org, Ridgewood H.S. 
  Diane Mankowski, diane_mankowski@glenbard.org, Glenbard South H.S.
  Becky Trewartha, trewarth@mchsi.com, Dwight H.S. (ret.) 

 

 
     
 
Date Modified: 10/5/11

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