Dr. Renee Lyons
JOHNSON CITY: Looking for a good book to recommend to a young adult? Dr. Renee Lyons at East Tennessee State University may have some suggestions.
Lyons has spent the past year reading more than 100 books for young adults as part of her work as a committee member for the Alex Book Award. In the upcoming months, the committee will present the award to the top 10 books for 2018.
The Alex Book Award is an annual award given by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.
According to Lyons, the committee is charged with identifying the top 10 books published for adults that also crossover to readers ages 12 to 18.
"We spend the year following book releases and look for selections - both fiction and non-fiction - that meet our awards criteria," said Lyons, an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction in the Clemmer College of Education. "Committee members nominate books and each of us reads all of the books that are nominated."
This year, the number of nominated books exceeded 100.
"We discuss the books throughout the year during our virtual meetings, and soon we will meet to vote on which 10 books will receive the Alex Book Award."
Lyons is the program coordinator of ETSU's school library media program. The recipients of the Alex Book Award will be presented at the winter meeting of the American Library Association.
