The 2012 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Winner has been announced...

...and it goes to the very deserving Shine, by Lauren Myracle:

Biggest surprise for me? That more people aren't describing Shine as a crime/mystery novel. Because, yes, it's a nuanced portrait of a small Southern town—the beautiful, the downright ugly, and the in-between—filled with three-dimensional characters, and it's a story about friendship, family, fear, and forgiveness, but the driving force behind all of the action is a question: What Really Happened at the Come 'n' Go That Night?

See the rest of the finalists here.