The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to teens. They were first given annually beginning in 1998 and became an official American Library Association award in 2002.  For more information about current and previous winners, click here.  The 2013 Alex Award winning books are:

Caring is Creepy by David Zimmerman

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman

After his mother is struck by a bus and killed, 16 year old straight-A student Joey Crouch boards a bus to Bloughton, Iowa, to live with his estranged father Ken Harnett. Known in town as the Garbageman, Harnett is neither an idea father nor roommate. His small house is unkempt, full of newspaper stacks and a strong odor; Harnett himself disappears for days at a time, leaving Joey with no food or money.

Becca is on her way to college in just a few short months, finally escaping the claustrophobia of her small town life in conneticut. But only hours after she graduates and her heart is broken by the boy she loves, a body of an young women is found on a dusty road, disrupting the carefully constructed plans she had. With very little evidence and the body yet to be identified, gossip runs wild and Becca becomes strangely obsessed with finding out why this stranger was killed so brutally.

Jacob Portman always thought that his grandfather was embellishing tales about the time he spent in a Wales orphanage during WWII in order to frighten him; the photographs he showed him of children with strange characteristics could not possibly be real. But when Jacob's grandfather is murdered and Jacob swears he sees a horrible monster lurking nearby, he decides to investigate his grandfather's past in the hopes of discovering the eery circumstances of his death.