Presented by:
Rhonda Bell
Lisa Fierro
Tracy Shouse
2026-2027 HS KBA Nominees
https://tinyurl.com/hskba26
Rhonda Bell
Western Hills High School
rhonda.bell@franklin.kyschools.us
rhonda.bell@kasl.us
Lisa Fierro
Martha Layne Collins High School
lisa.fierro@shelby.kyschools.us
@mlchs_library
Tracy Shouse
Spencer County High School
tracy.shouse@spencer.kyschools.us
About
Us
Agenda
Committee Information
Committee Members:
The new committee is formed in May so members can start reading over the summer.
Applications to join the committee remain on file for 3 years.
Who Can Join?
Important Dates
August-March: read & promote KBA books
March: official voting window opens
March: the 2027-2028 list revealed
Mid April: winner announced
May: KBA book grant opens
The first book in a series may be nominated for KBA consideration. Subsequent and companion books would not be eligible unless the title
can stand alone.
Titles must have a publication date within the last three years of the list that is being assembled. We are accepting titles with publication dates of 2025, 2026, and 2027.
And here are this year’s KBA
nominees…
All the Noise at Once
Even though autistic Black teen Aiden fails at his football tryouts, he still makes the team thanks to his star quarterback brother Brandon, though some on the team are not happy about it. When a fight breaks out between Aiden and a few white players at a team hangout, Brandon tries to intervene and gets arrested for assaulting an officer. With Brandon's football career on the line, Aiden works to clear his brother's name by investigating what really happened the day he got arrested.
Best of All Worlds
Xavier Oak would much rather be playing D&D with his friends and hanging out with his crush, but instead he is forced to accompany his dad and pregnant stepmother, Nia, for a weekend at the lakeside family cottage. When Xavier wakes up on their first morning there, he's confused to see that the cottage isn't where it was the day before, and Xavier, his dad, and Nia quickly come to the realization they are trapped inside a dome with no way out. Three years pass and they have reluctantly adjusted to their new normal, but everything changes when another family arrives. At first, it seems like a blessing to have another set of people to help out, but as divisions between the families become clear, Xavier's family is soon faced with an impossible decision.
The Dead of Summer
Ollie Veltman knows something isn't right when he returns to the tiny island of Anchor's Mercy off the coast of Maine with his mother who was recently pronounced cancer-free. Though he tries to connect with former friends to share his suspicions, they shun him, claiming he abandoned them. After a tropical storm hits the island, a strange sickness begins spreading and Ollie and two former friends band together to investigate its cause.
Death in the Jungle
A chronicle of one of American history's most notorious cults, which includes firsthand accounts, that follows Jim Jones from humble origins to "Jonestown" in Guyana, South America, and traces his transformation of Peoples Temple into an experiment in mind control.
Diet Soda Club
After their mother takes off with her boyfriend, high schooler Reed is left to care for his ten-year-old sister Beatrice, who has spinal muscular atrophy, and turns to making fake IDs to cover their living expenses and growing hospital bills.
www.youtube.com/@ChazHayden
Needy Little Things
Sariyah Lee Bryant can hear what people need—tangible things, like a pencil, a hair tie, a phone charger—an ability only her family and her best friend, Malcolm, know the truth about. But when she fulfills a need for her friend Deja who vanishes shortly after, Sariyah is left wondering if her ability is more curse than gift. This isn’t the first time one of her friends has landed on the missing persons list, and she’s determined not to let her become yet another forgotten Black girl.
Not trusting the police and media to do enough on their own, Sariyah and her friends work together to figure out what led to Deja’s disappearance. But when Sariyah’s mother loses her job and her little brother faces complications with his sickle cell disease, managing her time, money, and emotions seems impossible. Desperate, Sariyah decides to hustle her need-sensing ability for cash—a choice that may not only lead her to Deja, but put her in the same danger Deja found herself in.
The Rose Bargain
London, 1848—For four hundred years, England has been under the control of an immortal fae queen who tricked her way onto the throne. To maintain an illusion of benevolence, Queen Mor grants each of her subjects one opportunity to bargain for their deepest desire.
As Ivy Benton prepares to make her debut, the queen announces a competition for Prince Bram’s hand. Ivy is the first to sign her name in blood. What a bargain can’t fix, a crown certainly could.
Ivy soon finds herself a surprising front-runner—with the help of an unexpected ally: Prince Bram’s brother, the rakish Prince Emmett, who promises to help Ivy win his brother’s heart…for a price. But as the season sweeps Ivy away, with glittering balls veiling the queen’s increasingly vicious trials, Ivy realizes there’s more at stake than just a wedding. Because all faerie bargains come with a cost, and Ivy may have discovered hers too late.
Under the Surface
Ruby and her classmates are on their senior year trip to Paris, France, and Ruby is nervous about possibly revealing her feelings to her classmate Sean in the most romantic city in the world. When Ruby's best friend sneaks out the first night to meet a mysterious French boy, Ruby goes after her with two classmates, but they soon find themselves distracted by another alluring prospect: attending the mystery boy's exclusive party in the Paris catacombs. But things take a dangerous turn when they get lost in the tunnels before making it to the party, and they realize they are trapped underground with someone or something chasing them. On the surface, Sean races to find Ruby while a media firestorm heats up over the four missing teens, and underground, the group starts to uncover dark secrets about the catacombs and each other as they search for a way out.
Resources
The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding on a Tuesday
Seventeen-year-old Delia's frustrating journey to find a diagnosis for her excruciating menstrual pain leads to a fateful decision to self-medicate with marijuana, putting her future in jeopardy.
A YALSA BEST FICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
When We Ride
A novel-in-verse that follows Mexican American Diego Benevides who works hard and promises his single mother he will graduate from high school and get into college. Diego, who has a car, drives his best friend Lawson around town. But when Lawson begins selling drugs, their friendship is tested and everything Diego has worked for is threatened.
Resources
Shelf markers (Canva link)
KBA Fortune Teller (Canva link)
Bookmarks
Printable sheet (Canva link)
KBA Promotion Ideas
This bulletin board stays up all year in my library so that I can reference it often. Students can refer to it when looking for something to read.
I have two small bulletin boards in the hallway just outside of my library. I put this up before school started since the Summer Olympics were going on. KBA Seals
KBA Promotion Ideas
This is one of my November bulletin boards in the hallway. I try to showcase the KBA titles any chance I get.
Who doesn’t love Buddy, the Elf? Each year In the month of December I reuse the bulletin board elements and change out the KBA books to that year’s nominees.
KBA Promotion Ideas
Since I have two bulletin boards in the hallway, for March the one on the left says, “I-rish I had more time to read…” Then the board on the right says, “books rock!”
I put this bulletin board up in the hallway for the month of January.
KBA Promotion Ideas
This is the first bulletin board I made after I bought a Cricut for the library and learned how to use it. I cut the letters separately, and I would not do that again now that I know other techniques. Not bad for my first try.
This one is not my best work, but at the end of the school year when the library is closed for testing, I put this one up showcasing the KBA nominees for the following year. The words are a nod to Grease and Summer Loving.
Voting Promotion Ideas
Voting Promotion Ideas
Voting Promotion Ideas
Voting Promotion Ideas
Additional Resources
Thank You
Enjoy reading!