What do  you think were the top books written for teens in the last year?

CLICK HERE to go to the official ballot page and cast your vote!

Voting is only open for teens (age 12-18) – this is a Teen’s Choice Award! The books you can vote for were all nominated by members of teen book groups in fifteen school and public libraries around the country.

Voting closes today,  Sept. 17, 2010. Winners will be announced in a webcast at www.ala.org/teenstopten during Teen Read Week, Oct. 17-23 that we’ll link to from this blog as well.

Here are the books on the list,  NOW GO VOTE!

Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Heist Society by Ally Carter
Fire by Kristin Cashore
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
The Roar by Emma Clayton
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci
Dragonfly by Julia Golding
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Witch and Wizard by James Patterson
By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
City of Fire by Laurence Yep

This year’s award was given to Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan: Blake’s life is way too complicated. He’s a sophomore in high school with a girlfriend and a friend who is a girl. One of them loves him. One of them needs him. Can he please them both?

Finalists this year were:

• Ash by Malinda Lo: Consumed with grief after the death of her father, Ash’s only escape from her harsh life and cruel stepmother comes from re-reading the fairy tales that her mother once told her and hoping against hope that the fairies will appear to her. When the fairy Sidhean appears, Ash hopes that he will steal her away to his enchanted world; but when she meets the King’s Huntress, Kaisa, she realizes that staying in her own realm can also lead to beauty, romance, and perhaps even love.
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl: Sixteen-year-old Ethan has lived all his life in Gaitlin, South Carolina, a town that hasn’t changed much since the Civil War. While coping with the loss of his mother, a father who spends all of his time in his study, and high school, his world turns upside down with the arrival of Lena, a new girl with whom he seems to share a psychic connection. As they grow closer, Ethan discovers that Lena and her family share a dark secret and that she is headed for doom on her sixteenth birthday.
• The Everafter by Amy Huntley: Maddy is a ghost, surrounded by things she lost when she was alive. By touching these objects, she relives the episodes in her life where she lost them. Even though Maddy’s dead, she explores the lessons these objects hold — and why are they still important. AND
• hold still by Nina LaCour: After Caitlin’s best friend Ingrid commits suicide, Caitlin has a hard time making sense of the loss. She finds Ingrid’s journal and slowly allows herself to read it and learn about why Ingrid felt the need to end her life. Caitlin also grapples with allowing herself to find another friend, to let in a boyfriend, and to understand why her favorite teacher is ignoring her. It is the haunting story of dealing with loss, moving on, and finding peace and hope.

First – become familiar with TERI – The Education Resources Institute. Go to the workshop on April 7th that TERI’s hosting at the Dudley Square branch. Call them at 877-ED-AID-4u (877-332-4348). TERI provides “Free assistance with planning and paying for college and other career-building programs”.

The United States Department of Education web site has a page all about FUNDING YOUR EDUCATION. Naturally, it has a link to “Funding Education Beyond High School: The Guide to Federal Student Aid“. It also has an in-direct link to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Office of Student Financial Assistance. The page also contains this very wise advice” you can find out about nonfederal scholarships and other sources of aid in several ways, including contacting the financial aid offices at the schools you plan to attend and checking information in a public library or online. But be careful. Make sure scholarship information and offers you receive are legitimate. Don’t get scammed: You don’t have to pay to find scholarships.” More helpful tips are also on their page, “How do I find out about scholarships?”

The Federal Financial Aid and Scholarship Wizard is another great site that can help walk you through your search for money for your education.

Sallie Mae, the Fortune 500 company that manages $188 billion in educational loans and serves 10 million student and parent customers, offers a free scholarship search as well (you will have to register to use it).

The famous job search engine, monster, hosts finaid, the smart student guide to financial aid.

Scholarships.com is a constantly updated site that claims to be the “largest free and independent college  scholarship search and financial aid  information resource on the Internet”. Their site allows students to search 2.7 million college scholarships and grants worth over $19 billion and quickly arrive at a list of awards for which they qualify. And it’s all free.

The United States Department of Agriculture offers student programs, scholarships, and internships. Details are online here.

Many non-profit organizations offer special scholarships. As always, you’ll want to pay close attention to what their requirements are and make sure you get everything in before their various deadlines. Here are a few to get you started:

The Thurgood Marshall College Fund works to develop and prepare a new generation of leaders by providing leadership development, scholarships, resources, opportunities and advocacy to Public Historically Black Colleges & Universities, students and alumni.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association offers awards to increase diversity in athletics.

For 40 years the American Political Science Association has offered a minority fellowship program in efforts to increase the number of minority scholars in the discipline. While the deadline for the next round has not yet been announced, it will likely be in October, 2010.

The National Association of Black Journalists annually awards more than $60,000 in scholarships to deserving students interested in pursuing careers in journalism.

Current students interested in studying abroad should definitely check out the SIT Graduate Institute. Among lots of other resources, they offer a list of funding sources for international study.

It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness: Students in undergraduate and graduate programs at accredited colleges and universities are invited to interpret the message and mission of the Christophers in short films of five minutes or less. Every year for the past 23 years they award prizes up to $2,000 to their favorites. The next deadline is coming up in June, 2010.

The Ayn Rand Institute awards $81,250 in prize money each year to the winners of its essay contests. Their three contests are for 8th, 9th, and 10th graders (this deadline passed on March 20, 2010), 11th and 12th graders (deadline of April 26, 2010), and college students and graduating high school seniors (deadline September 17, 2010).

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation awards grants to Gates Millennium Scholars. This years recipients are currently being notified (the deadline passed in January). Among other requirements, recipients of this money are African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian and Pacific Islander American, or Hispanic American; have attained a cumulative GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale (un-weighted); and have demonstrated leadership abilities through participation in community service, extracurricular or other activities.

Many corporations also offer scholarships to students. Some are available only to children of employees, some only to employees themselves, and yet others are available to the general public. You should always check with any company you and your parents have any relationship to see what if anything they have available.  A few companies that offer money to the general public (with restrictions of course – read the fine print) follow.

Microsoft offers four different types of technical scholarships for the 2010-2011 academic year to current undergraduate students: General Scholarships, Women’s Scholarships, Minority Scholarships, and Scholarships for Students with Disabilities. The deadline for this year’s awards has already passed. If you’re interested in becoming a computer scientist though, bookmark this for next year!

Xerox also offers a Technical Minority Scholarship of $1,000 to $10,000 to qualified minorities enrolled in a technical degree program at the bachelor level or above.

The Coca-Cola Company has awarded more than $38 million in scholarships. In addition, their First Generation Scholarship program has awarded more than $19 million in scholarships to support students who are the first in their immediate families to go to college.

Yesterday we posted the video announcement for the top winner, Paper Towns by John Green.

Now you can see the entire list here.