Morris Awards
2025
2025 Morris Awards Winner

Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens.
 
Not Like Other Girls
by Meredith Adamo
YA F ADA


When her former best friend Maddie disappears after coming to her for help, Jo-Lynn, an outcast ever since her nude photos were leaked, finds a way back inside the clique where she is forced to confront everything she'd rather forget to find the girl who betrayed her.
2025 Morris Awards Finalists
Aisle Nine
by Ian X. Cho

t’s Black Friday—and the apocalypse is on sale!
 
Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper’s life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can’t remember and the person he’s sure he’s supposed to be.
 
Jasper spends his days working as a checkout clerk at the Here for You discount mart, where a hell portal in aisle nine means danger every shift. But at least at the mart he can be near his crush, Kyle Kuan, a junior member of the monster-fighting Vanguard, though Kyle really seems to hate Jasper for reasons he doesn’t remember or understand.
 
But when Jasper and Kyle learn they both share a frightening vision of the impending apocalypse, they’re forced to team up and uncover the uncomfortable truth about the hell portals and the demons that haunt the world. Because the true monsters are not always what they seem, the past is not always what we wish, and like it or not, on Black Friday, all hell will break loose starting in aisle nine. Perfect for fans of Grasshopper Jungle or The Last of Us comes Aisle Nine, the debut young adult novel from rising YA star Ian X. Cho.
Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear
by Robin Wasley

During a magical apocalypse, which has unleashed monsters and murderers, ordinary teen Sid Spencer teams up with a ragtag crew of would-be heroes to save the world as she knows it and do something extraordinary. 
Shut Up, This Is Serious
by Carolina Ixta
YA F IXT


An unforgettable YA debut about two Latina teens growing up in East Oakland as they discover the world is brimming with messy complexities, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Erika L. Sánchez.
 
Belén Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff: to experience love or maybe have a boyfriend or at least just lose her virginity. But nothing is normal in East Oakland. Her father left her family. She’s at risk of not graduating. And Leti, her super-Catholic, nerdy-ass best friend is pregnant—by the boyfriend she hasn’t told her parents about, because he’s Black, and her parents are racist.
 
Things are hella complicated.
 
Weighed by a depression she can’t seem to shake, Belén helps Leti, hangs out with an older guy, and cuts a lot of class. She soon realizes, though, that distractions are only temporary. Leti is becoming a mother. Classmates are getting ready for college. But what about Belén? What future is there for girls like her?
The Wilderness of Girls
by Madeline Claire Franklin

After being placed in foster care, Rhi is hungry for a fresh start and begins working at the Happy Valley Wildlife Preserve. While in the woods, she stumbles upon a surreal sight: a pack of wolves guarding four feral and majestic girls. After Rhi gains their trust, they reveal that they're princesses from another land, raised by a magical prophet they call Mother--and they're convinced Rhi is their lost fifth sister. Unsure what to believe, Rhi ushers the girls to civilization, where they're met with societal uproar and scrutiny, dubbed by the ravenous media and true crime junkies as "The Wild Girls of Happy Valley." Desperate to return to their kingdom, the girls look to Rhi for help. Rhi knows the girls are deluded, but at the same time she's drawn inby their boldness and authenticity--traits she is afraid she has lost within herself. And when Rhi witnesses strange phenomena she can't quite explain, the line between fantasy and reality blurs. As the hunt for answers intensifies, Rhi must make a decision that will change the course of her life and the lives of her Wild Girls forever.
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