What's an Alex Award?

In ZanesvilleWarning! Don't look for these books in the Young Adult section! These are "Adult Books," written for adults. Teens beware!

Ok, now that I've got your attention, let me also say that these books are just great for teens. So great, in fact, that the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) made an award just for them, and named them after a famous Baltimore librarian - sort of. Her name was Margaret A. Edwards, but her friends called her Alex, and that's where we get the Alex Awards. The 2012 Alex Awards feature ten books written for adults, but with special appeal to teens.

2081

This was the shortest film I've ever seen. It was based on Kurt Vonnegut's short story called "Harrison Bergeron". The original story was published in 1961 and this twenty-six minute film adaptation was published in 2009. The film was meant to be dystopian science fiction but it could pass for just about anything. It's the year 2081 and there have been an additional 185 amendments to the US Constitution to remove all inequalities in American society. Harrison Bergeron the lone anarchist rebels against this idea and plants a bomb to mount an insurrection.

Outland

OutlandHigh Noon is one of the classic westerns of all time. The story of a town marshal waiting for the arrival of a band of outlaws arriving on the noon train with just one plan, to kill the marshal. Played by Gary Cooper, the marshal finds little support from the citizens of the town. He has the option to leave but a duty to stay. In Outland we travel in time to the future. We are on a remote mining facility on one of Jupiter's moons. Once there, a newly arrived marshal finds evidence of a major drug problem that endangers the lives of all the workers. As the evidence mounts we soon find the marshal waiting for the arrival of a band of assassins arriving on the next earth shuttle with just one plan, to kill the marshal. Played by Sean Connery, the marshal finds little support from the citizens, administration and works of the facility. He had an option to leave, but a duty to stay.

Real Steel

It is not often that a movie impresses me with its sheer chutzpah in taking three previously made stories and combining them into a new film. This is what the film Real Steel has done and it works amazingly well. Take The Champ, about a boxer and his son, and the complete plot of Rocky, mix with the episode Steel from the Twilight Zone about a robot boxer, stir well and out pops Real Steel.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

In The Passage, author Justin Cronin, shows us a world in which humans struggle to survive in a bleak future overrun by horrific vampires. The only hope for humanity is a mysterious young girl.
 
When the military attempts to use a virus to create the next race of super-soldiers a bloodthirsty horde is released upon the world, knocking the human race down a step in the food chain. Cronin, admittedly, takes us where many, many authors have taken us before. However, few authors have done so with the style that one expects from Cronin, a former Hemingway/PEN award winner.

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