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ALA has released the titles for the inau­gural William C. Mor­ris Award, which hon­ors a book writ­ten for young adults by a first-time, pre­vi­ously unpub­lished author. Bill Mor­ris was a ter­rific per­son and advo­cate for teens and their books. He was also the first pub­lisher I met when I joined ALAN and the first to let me crash a cock­tail party. Here’s to Bill and his legacy!

A Curse Dark As Gold
by Eliz­a­beth C. Bunce
pub­lished by Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic (9780439895767)

This super­nat­ural novel retells the story of Rumpel­stilt­skin, set­ting it at the dawn of the Indus­trial Rev­o­lu­tion and cen­ter­ing it around the life of Char­lotte Miller. When the bank wants to repos­sess her mort­gaged mill, Char­lotte strikes a bar­gain with the mys­te­ri­ous Jack Spin­ner, (a crea­ture who knows the art of turn­ing straw into gold), but then dis­cov­ers she must free her loved ones from a generations-old curse.

Gracel­ing
by Kristin Cashore
pub­lished by Harcourt/Houghton Mif­flin Har­court (9780152063962)

In the Seven King­doms, those born with eyes of two dif­fer­ent col­ors are Gracel­ings who develop intense and pow­er­ful skills. Katsa’s Grace is killing, and she serves as King Randa’s enforcer until she and Prince Po join forces to solve the rid­dle of his grandfather’s kid­nap­ping. The closer they get to the answer and to each other, the more dan­ger­ous their quest becomes.

Absolute Bright­ness
by James Lecesne
pub­lished by HarperTeen/ Laura Geringer Books (9780061256288)

When Phoebe’s flam­boy­ant, effem­i­nate cousin, Leonard, moves to her New Jer­sey town, he brings a con­fus­ing mix of beauty and irri­ta­tion as he inserts him­self into the day-to-day run­ning of her mother’s beauty par­lor busi­ness and Phoebe’s life at school. When Leonard dis­ap­pears, seem­ingly with­out a trace, Phoebe embarks on a mis­sion to uncover the truth, and con­fronts first-hand the price Leonard paid for being dif­fer­ent.

Madap­ple
by Christina Mel­drum
pub­lished by Knopf, an imprint of Ran­dom House Children’s Books (9780375851766).

Fifteen-year-old Aslaug was raised in iso­la­tion by a mother who was both strange and ill. Her mother’s death brings an onslaught of new expe­ri­ences as Aslaug must learn to cope with the unwanted atten­tion of the police, rel­a­tives she never knew she had, and mul­ti­ple charges of mur­der.

Me, the Miss­ing, and the Dead
by Jenny Valen­tine
pub­lished by Harper­Teen (9780060850685)

Sixteen-year-old Lon­doner Lucas Swain, on a whim, decides to take a cab home and hap­pens upon an urn with the ashes of Vio­let Park in the taxi office. He feels the spirit of Vio­let lead­ing him through a maze of lay­ered clues, as he bit by bit solves the puz­zle of his father’s dis­ap­pear­ance more than five years ago.

Con­grats to the final­ists! The win­ner will be announced Jan. 26, 2009 at ALA Midwinter.