Missouri Gateway Nominees

1. Missouri Gateway Nominees 2019-2020

2. DEAR MARTIN By Nic Stone Author WebsiteJustyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League ╼ but noneof that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despiteleaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can’t escape the scorn of hisformer peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for answers. But do they hold upanymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny,windows rolled down, music turned up ╼ way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it’s Justycewho is under attack.

3. DEFY THE STARS Series: Constellation By Claudia Gray Book 1 Author WebsiteShe’s a solder - Noemi Vidal is willing to risk anything to protect her planet,Genesis, including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she’s a rebel.He’s a machine - abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel’sadvanced programming has begun to evolve. He wants only to protect hiscreator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he’s an abomination.Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to worktogether as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they’re not without sacrifice. Thestakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more timethey spend together, the more they’re forced to question everything they’dbeen taught was true.

4. DREAMLAND BURNING By Jennifer Latham Author Website Some bodies won’t stay buried. Some stories need to be told. When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’sproperty, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murderwill lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the past, the present,and herself. One hundred years earlier, a single violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violenceagainst blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must makehard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face hisInner demons in order to do what’s right the night Tulsa burns.

5. ELIZA AND HER MONSTERSBy Francesca Zappia Author Website Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster. In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’sLady Constellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomicMonstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much asshe loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfersto her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he drawsher out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might beworthwhile.But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built ╼ her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity╼ begins to fall apart.

6. FAR FROM THE TREEBy Robin Benway Author Website A contemporary novel about three adopted siblings who find each other at just the right moment. Being the middle child has its ups and downs. But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption,she goes looking for her biological family, including ╼ Maya, her Loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’squick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bondingover their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the fostercare system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets andfears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.

7. GOODBYE DAYS: A NOVELBy Jeff Zentner Author Website “I may have killed my three best friends,” 17-year-old Carver agonizes. How so? He sent a text to his friend Mars, knowing the boy was driving atthe time; distracted by replying to the text, Mars crashed into a stoppedtruck, killing himself and Carver’s two other best friends, Blake and Eli.Now Mars’ father, a judge, has called on the district attorney to open aninvestigation and weight charges of criminally negligent homicide againstCarver. Bereft and virtually friendless, riddled by guilt, and overwhelmedby stress, Carver begins having panic attacks, which send him into therapy. Interestingly, he makes an unlikely new friend in Eli’s girlfriend,Jesmyn, but when he tells her that he desires more than friendship withher, she rejects him. Meanwhile, Carver’s attempts at atonement withBlake’s grandmother, Eli’s parents, and Mars’ father meet with mixedsuccess, feeding his subconscious desire for punishment.

8. THE HATE U GIVEBy Angie Thomas Author Website Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poorneighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school sheattends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered whenStarr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil atthe hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lordtry to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is:what really went down that night? And the only person alive who cananswer that is Starr. But what Starr does ╼ or does not ╼ say couldupend her community. It could also endanger her life.

9. INVICTUSBy Ryan Graudin Author Website Time flies when you’re plundering history. Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in95 AD, Far’s birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himselfis all he’s ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam,Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends aspart of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past. Butduring during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysteriousgirl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed withknowledge that will bring Far’s very existence into question, she willlead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frighteningtruth: history is not as steady as it seems.

10. A LIST OF CAGESBy Robin Roe Author Website Fourteen-year-old Julian is a damaged boy, taciturn and withdrawn,painfully shy and still bereft from the death of his parents when he was a child. A poor student with illegible handwriting, he is often the subject of teachers’ scorn and classmates’ teasing. As a result, he regularly skipsclasses to hide in a secret room he has found. His home life is even worse:He is the ward of his uncle by marriage, a cold, distant, dangerous manwho often punishes Julian cruelly, whipping him with a switch and lacerating the skin on his torso. Things begin to gradually change whenhe encounters Adam, a teenager who had once been Julian’s fosterbrother before the uncle took custody. Adam, who had ADHD as a child,is still a restless but exuberant, happy presence, beloved by fellow studentsand teachers alike. When he unofficially adopts Julian, he brings lightinto the boy’s hitherto dark existence, though danger still lurks.

11. MOXIEBy Jennifer Mathieu Author Website Moxie girls fight back!Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her small-town Texas high schoolthat thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dresscodes and hallway harassment. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up withalways following the rules.Viv’s mom was a punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ‘90s, so now Viv takes a pagefrom her mother’s past and creates a feminist zine that she distributesanonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but othergirls respond. Pretty soon Viv is forging friendships with other youngwomen across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, and sherealizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.

12. THE NAMES THEY GAVE USBy Emery Lord Author Website Everything is going right for Lucy Hansson, until her mom’s cancer reappears. Just like that, Lucy breaks with all the constants in her life:her do-good boyfriend, her steady faith, even her longtime summer churchcamp job. Instead, Lucy lands at a camp for kids who have been throughtough times. As a counselor, Lucy is in over her head and longs to bewith her parents across the lake. But that’s before she gets to know hercoworkers, who are as loving and unafraid as she so desperately wantsto be. It’s not just new friends that Lucy discovers at camp ╼ more than oneold secret is revealed along the way. In fact, maybe there’s much moreto her family and her faith than Lucy ever realized.

13. NYXIA Series: Nyxia TriadBy Scott Reintgen Book 1 Author Website Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why theBabel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroeson their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to returnto Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whomhave troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now eachrecruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden ╼ aplanet that Babel has kept hidden ╼ where they will mine a substancecalled Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in theuniverse. But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight thatwon’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

14. ONE OF US IS LYINGBy Karen McManus Author Website On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’tan accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to postjuicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes allfour of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What reallymatters is how far you would go to protect them.

15. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GIRL NEXT DOORBy Jared Reck Author Website The unrequited love of the girl next door is the centerpiece of this fiercelyfunny, yet heartbreaking debut novel. Fifteen-year-old Matt Wainwrightis in turmoil. He can’t tell his lifelong best friend, Tabby, how he really feelsabout her; his promising basketball skills are being overshadowed by hisattitude on the court, and the only place he feels normal is in Englishclass, where he can express his inner thoughts in quirky poems andessays. Matt is desperately hoping that Tabby will reciprocate hisfeelings; but then Tabby starts dating Liam Branson, senior basketballstar and all-around great guy. Losing Tabby to Branson is bad enough;but, as Matt soon discovers, he’s close to losing everything that mattersmost to him.

16. SOLDIER BOYBy Keely Hutton Author Website Here is the true story of Ricky Richard Anywar, abducted in 1989 at agefourteen by Joseph Kony’s rebel army in the Ugandan civil war (one ofAfrica’s longest running conflicts). Ricky is trained, armed, and sent tobattle government troops alongside his brutal kidnappers, but over histwo and a half years of enslavement, he never stops dreaming of escape. Here also is the story, set twenty years later, of a fictional character named Samuel, a boy deathly afraid of trusting anyone ever again, and representative of the thousands of child soldiers Ricky has helpedrehabilitate as founder of the internationally acclaimed charity Friendsof Orphans.