History of the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award

The Evergreen Young Adult Award, formerly known as the WashYARG [Washington Young Adult Materials Review Group] Young Adult Reader's Choice Award is sponsored by WashYARG. This review group, consisting of young adults' librarians from the state of Washington began the award in an effort to give teens in the state a voice in deciding the best literature aimed at their age group.The response from young adults in middle and in high schools has steadily increased each year.

Each year, from suggestions made by school librarians and by teens themselves, from lists of awards such the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults, the Evergreen Award Nominating Committee selects ten titles that represent a mix of teen-appealing titles. The Nominating Committee meets immediately after the quarterly meeting of WashYARG at the King County Library System service center in Issaquah, Washington.

The nominated titles are returned to the young people of Washington State to read and to vote on and a Nominee Ballot is published by WASHYARG for their use. As more teachers and librarians use the list as a source of popular reading and to help their students fulfill required outside reading assignments as pleasurably as possible, we hope that more and more teens will discover their opportunity to voice their opinion to librarians and to publishers.

The deadline to vote on the nominees is March 15th of each year. After the ballots are counted, the winner is announced. Readers may vote on their favorite title by returning a ballot to their closest library, or mailing it in by this deadline.