2025 Nutmeg Award High School Nominees

2025 Nutmeg Book Award
High School Nominees
Grades 9-12
ALL MY RAGE
by Sabaa Tahir
What do you do when home doesn't feel like
home? Salahudin and Noor, best friends, want
nothing more than to get out of Juniper,
California. Both have dreams, but battle their
own issues that are holding them back. Part
love story, part tragedy, All My Rage is a
beautiful story and a must read.
I MUST BETRAY YOU
by Ruta Sepetys
The gripping tale of a teenage boy in 1989
Romania who infiltrates the secret police to find
his missing family, navigating a treacherous
landscape of deception and loyalty during the
country's revolution.
AS LONG AS THE LEMON TREES
GROW by Zoulfa Katouh
Salama is living a nightmare. Surviving through
the Syrian revolution, she is faced with an
agonizing decision: should she stay to help the
wounded, or should she leave to take her
pregnant sister-in-law, Layla, to a safer place?
A tribute to the stories of countless Syrians
who must find hope where none can be found.
KNEEL
by Candace Buford
A small-town football player in Louisiana fights
the system of injustice in his community when
his best friend is unfairly arrested and kicked off
the team. When is it worth risking your future to
take a stand for what is right?
A DEADLY EDUCATION
by Naomi Novik
El, a sorceress and outcast, attends
Scholomance, a school of magic, where in order
to graduate she must survive. Literally. Survive,
graduate, or die. Can she control her own
magical skills, find alliances, and survive
without destroying everyone and everything?
NOT SO PURE AND SIMPLE
By Lamar Giles
Del FINALLY gets the chance to hang around with
girl-of-his-dreams Kiera...only to learn that
there's way more to romance than he thought.
Del soon finds that when it comes to love and
relationships, nothing is pure and simple....or is
it?
GOLDEN ARM
by Carl Deuker
Laz loves baseball and, for him, it may be his
only way out of his Seattle trailer park. When
his high school team folds and his home is
about to be destroyed, Laz gets an offer he
can’t refuse. But with Laz’s brother falling
deeper into trouble, can he follow his dreams
and play the game he loves? Or will everything
come crashing down around him?
PROJECT HAIL MARY
By Andy Weir
When the Sun begins to dim, spelling doom for
humanity, the Earth's greatest scientific minds
band together to attack the problem. But their
brilliance pales in comparison to that of a high
school science teacher, who finds himself in
space with the hopes of humanity on his
shoulders and his memories mysteriously
missing.
THE HONEYS
by Ryan La Sala
Aspen Conservancy Summer Program isn't all
sunshine and flowers; there is a dark
undercurrent that flows through the camp. Will
Mars discover what really happened to their
sister following Caroline's summer with the
group of girls known as The Honeys?
THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD
by Tiffany D. Jackson
When her racial identity is revealed and the star
quarterback asks her to prom, Maddy
Washington is caught at the center of a town full
of people who hate her simply for existing.
Inspired by Stephen King's novel Carrie, mixed
with the brutal reality of racism and a touch of
unlikely romance, this is a story you'll never
forget.
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