Alex Awards

The Alex Awards annually recognize "ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18".[1] Essentially, the award is a listing by the American Library Association parallel to its annual Best Books for Young Adults, a longer list of recommended books that have been promoted in the YA category. Since 2002, the Alex Awards have been administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). YALSA also names several other "Top Tens" annually.[2]

The awards, named after Baltimore librarian Margaret Alexander Edwards, who was known as "Alex", are sponsored by the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust and Booklist magazine.[3] The list of books published during the previous year serves to provide the choice of titles selected for the awards, which were initially bestowed in 1998.