by Rebecca Makkai (2011)
Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?
Rudolfo A. Anaya
A sixteen-year-old boy, nicknamed after the mountain Tortuga because he is encased in a full-body cast, embarks on a journey of spiritual and physical recovery in a hospital for crippled children after being paralyzed in a swimming accident.
Ethan Flagg
Cowboy Laramie Juke helps out a new buddy whose family is being harassed by Highspade Jack Daley, the unscrupulous Mayor of Jacinto. Attempting to get rid of the Cavendish clan, who have discovered a rich gold seam - the source of which hides beneath his own land - Daley has hired the notorious Shotgun Murphy. But when Juke arrives in Jacinto, he is mistaken for the gunman ... leading to a deadly encounter where nothing is as it seems, and no one can be trusted.
Willo Davis Roberts
Upset that his parents do not seem to pay any attention to him or care about him, eleven-year-old David becomes even more worried when they deposit him for the summer with a grandmother he hardly knows so that they can go about their own busy lives.
Jeff Gomez
Contends that printed books will be replaced by digital books and that book distributors and readers should actively support the transformation by encouraging digital book creation and the standards required for storage and delivery.