MTCBA Nominees

"When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as "edgy" humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account's discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created...

"In this memoir, Christine Suggs explores a trip they took to Mexico to visit family, as Christine embraces and rebels against their heritage and finds a sense of belonging"-- "Sixteen-year-old Christine takes their first solo trip to Mexico to spend a few weeks with their grandparents and tía. At first, Christine struggles to connect with family they don't yet share a language with. Seeing the places their mom grew up--the school she went to, the...

When a girl goes missing in her secluded Appalachian town, seventeen-year-old Linden, who can taste other people's emotions, recovers haunting memories of her own disappearance and explores the legend of the Moth-Wigned Man, leading her to wonder if there are some secrets best left buried. Rural Caball Hollow, surrounded by the vast National Forest. Like her sisters, Linden James was born with an unusual ability: she can taste what others are feeling....

"Verónica has always dreamed of being a mermaid. When she's in the water, the pain caused by her hip dysplasia fades, and people can't see the scars from her numerous surgeries. On land, things are less clear. First, there's her cute new neighbor, Alex, who she's falling hard for but is afraid to get close to. And then - amazingly - a spot opens up at Mermaid Cove, a local Florida attraction where professional mermaids perform underwater. But she...

Stuck at the lake in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, Drew and her younger sister and brother struggle to stay together after their manipulative, con artist mother dies, which they can only do if they can keep her death a secret. Heidi Hill has been juggling shady side hustles for all of Drew's life, and Drew knows that when she's asked to do "one thing" it really means all the necessary things her mother thinks are boring. Which includes taking...

J.B., Ramón, and Trey, students of the Urban Promise Prep School, must follow the school's strict rules, but when their principal is murdered, the three boys must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. The Urban Promise Prep School vows to turn boys into men. As students, J.B., Ramón, and Trey are forced to follow the prestigious program's strict rules. Extreme discipline, they've been told, is what it takes to be...

Samira Murphy is caring for her widowed grandmother, and trying to get her older brother into recovery for alcohol addiction. With attendance at her dream college on the line, she takes a long shot DNA test to find the support she so desperately needs from a father she hasn't seen since she was a baby. Henry Owen is torn between his unreliable bio-mom and an overly strick aunt and uncle who stepped in to raise him. He takes a DNA test to find the...

In a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers, Io, a descendant of the Greek Fates, must solve a series of impossible murders to save her sisters, her soulmate, and her city. Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private...

With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family's involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people's inheritance.

Effie Galanos' goals for her senior year include her navigating her way through her high school that is not really wheelchair-friendly, getting into the perfect college, and getting her crush Wilder to accompany her to the prom--but by spring she is beginning to see herself entirely differently. "If Effie's being honest with herself, she knows just what she wants. She wants to enjoy all the firsts and lasts of senior year with her two best friends....