2012 Carnegie Medal Shortlist.

From the Carnegie/Greenaway website:

Ruta Septys, Between Shades of Grey: 

What follows is a coming-of-age tale set in a desolate, violent, unpredictable environment. Lina, her family and the rest of the deportees attempt to hold onto hope and to retain their humanity while living in conditions no one should ever have to live in, while being forced to make choices no one should ever have to make—all because they were related to the wrong person, because they said the wrong thing, because they caught the wrong eye, because they smiled at the wrong moment. It’s beautifully written, with regular, warm glimpses into Lina’s past that both provide needed respites from her present and emphasize the horrors of it.

Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls:

A Monster Calls isn't a fable that features Everyman Characters To Make A Point: It's a story about people. Conor isn't just a stand-in for any random person experiencing heartbreak. He's a real, three-dimensional boy, with a real, three-dimensional life. His grandmother is a real person, as is his mother and his mostly-absent father and the people at school and everyone else in the book.

And, for that matter, the monster isn't just a mechanism for passing on platitudes: It's a true Wild Thing. Inhuman and eternal, but empathetic, like Marcus Zusak's Death.

David Almond, My Name is Mina
Amazon | Indiebound. 

Lissa Evans, Small Change for Stuart (US title: Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms)
Amazon | Indiebound.  

Sonya Hartnett, The Midnight Zoo
Amazon | Indiebound.  

Ali Lewis, Everybody Jam
Amazon | Indiebound.  

Andy Mulligan, Trash  
Amazon | Indiebound.  

Annabel Pitcher, My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece 
Amazon | Indiebound.