This year's Chicago Tribune Young Adult Literary Prize is going to...

Please tell me I'm not alone in not knowing about this award.

Anyway, Joan Bauer. I love her earlier books*, and while I've enjoyed her more recent ones, I haven't loved them. Partly, I think that's because the newer ones have been geared a bit younger, but I also feel that the more recent books have lacked the depth of the earlier ones.

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