The National Book Foundation began their week of longlists with the young people’s literature candidates on Monday morning. Actual finalists in all four categories will be named at once on October 14. But it’s already clear that there will be no candidates from the children’s divisions of Penguin Random House, which did not garner a single longlist spot — while HarperCollins’ imprints have five titles in contention:
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Balzer + Bray)
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick Press)
The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin (Little, Brown Children’s)
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson (Greenwillow)
This Side of Wild: Mutts, Mares, and Laughing Dinosaurs by Gary Paulsen (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)
X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon (Candlewick Press)
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook Press)
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (Harper Children’s)
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen)