The Printz award recognizes the best literary works dedicated to teens and young adults. While there is a Printz award winner announced every year, there can be a max of four runners-up designated each year. The 2022 Printz award has been conferred to the title Firekeeper’s Daughter written by Angeline Boulley. Plus, four titles have come to be designated as the runner’s up.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

It’s like author Angeline Boulley hitting the bull’s eye with her debut novel, the Firekeeper’s Daughter. The book is a true masterpiece that does not only appeal to the teens but can be just as captivating for the adults as well. For starters, it’s a mystery story where the main protagonist Daunis Fontaine dreams of studying medicine but has to keep that on hold once tragedy strikes her family. Eventually, Daunis has to give up everything to be with her ill mother.

Thereafter, something happens that adds some spark to her life but also changes her life once and for all. She meets Jamie, a new recruit in her brother Levi’s hockey team and develops a crush for him. Things are fine thus far though Daunis has this strange feeling that Jamie might be hiding something and that it could be serious. To her horror, Daunis gets to know how serious that is when she witnesses a murder which draws her in the middle of an investigation.

While all of the proceedings forced Daunis to go undercover, she decides to find the truth on her own and begins a parallel investigation to find out what the truth is. Eventually, she finds out she has to be strong and resilient as a true Ojibwe woman to prevent the killers to strike her own family.

The book is rated 14 years and above though even adults would hate to miss out on the book.

Starfish by Lisa Fipps

The Lisa Fipps novel is about Ellie who is different from others in that she is a little more fat than others of her age. That became more apparent when she chose to wear a whale swimsuit on her fifth birthday which created a sensation at the swimming pool, which further brought her, or perhaps her extra bulk in the limelight. She gets bullied by all including her mother which makes her withdraw into her shell.

Interestingly, the only space she finds solace in is the swimming pool where she feels weightless, a feeling she cherishes in a world where everyone seems concerned by her weight, except her. Eventually, Ellie learns to live her life undaunted by all the criticism targeted at her thanks to the support she gets from her father, her therapist as well as a neighbor.

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

The story centers around Maverick Carter, a seventeen-year-old who is also the son of an ex-gang legend who unfortunately is serving a prison term. Mav, meanwhile, does odd jobs for the gang which however is barely enough. His mother also works two jobs to support the family. Life goes on with a loving girlfriend and a loyal cousin which makes Mav to believe he has his life under control though little does he know there is a rude surprise awaiting him.

Mav suddenly discovers he has a child all of seven years of age whom he has to take care of. He now has his hands full and has to do all at once, finish his studies, live his own life, and take care of his child. For Mav, it is like discovering the man within him to take on the circumstances.

Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon

In this novel, author Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Black Panther Party, a grouping of black people living in the US, and how it learnt to survive in a hostile environment where the white people always considered the blacks as nothing more than a second class citizen. The party members primarily comprised of women but were the target of one of the most comprehensive efforts to supress them and deprive them of their rights.

The novel traces the fight for justice of the blacks all the way back to the time when they were first brought to the US as slaves to the present times when the protests were being held under the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter.’ Kekla hopes her book will inspire readers to have an objective view of the entire thing and rise to the occasions just as the Panthers did to establish a new world order based on equality and justice.

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