The Lincoln Award is given to the book from that year's master list that earns the highest number of student votes.

For a book to reach the master list, adult and young adult fiction and nonfiction titles must be nominated by teachers or librarians and vetted by the nominations committee. While the popularity of a particular title is important, the overall quality of the work is of primary importance. Each year, a panel of high school librarians, teachers, public librarians and students determines the final master list of twenty titles.

 *Student-chosen titles

• The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers...   by Dashka Slater

• The Astonishing Color of After      by Emily X.R. Pan

• Children of Blood and Bone  by Tomi Adeyemi

• Dear Martin  by Nic Stone

• Don’t Get Caught  byb Kurt Dinan

• Far From the Tree  by Robin Benway

• The Female of the Species*  by Mindy McGinnis

• Hooper  by Geoff Herbach

• How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

• I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

• Long Way Down  by Jason Reynolds

• Monday’s Not Coming*  by Tiffany D. Jackson

• Nyxia  by Scott Reintgen

• Only Child*  by Rhiannon Navin

• The Poet X  by Elizabeth Acevedo

• Sadie  by Courtney Summers

• The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

• They Both Die at the End   by Adam Silvera

• Turtles All the Way Down*  by John Green

• Words in Deep Blue  by Cath Crowley

Past Award Winners