Lancashire Book of the Year (LBOY) is the longest running young people's regional book award in the country.
The award remains one of the few book awards in which young people themselves are solely responsible for choosing both the shortlist and the overall winning book.
The award is voted for by Year 9 students in high schools around the county. Each school is given a collection of books, submitted by publishers as being the best books they had produced for the 12-14 age group. The young people then read and shortlist the books before choosing the overall winner.
The eleven titles have been chosen and are being read by our young judges.
16-year-old songwriter Nova is having the best summer of her life. Helping out with her parents' food truck, she gets to attend not one, but five different music festivals! Things get even better when she meets cute American boy, Sam, an aspiring musician like her.
Borrow a copy from your local library.
A Japanese teenager, Mizuki, is worried about her grandfather who is clearly desperately upset about something. He says that he has never got over something that happened in his past and gently Mizuki persuades him to tell her what it is.
Borrow a copy from your local library.
When a dolphin takes up residence in Carrig Cove, Emer and her best friend, Fee, feel like they have an instant connection with it.
Borrow a copy from your local library.
Ross Molloy just wants to be normal. He doesn't want to lose his hair, or wear a weird hat, or deal with the disappearing friends who don't know what to say to 'the cancer kid'. But with his recent diagnosis of a rare eye cancer, simply blending in is no longer an option.
Borrow a copy from your local library.
When 15-year-old Nathan discovers that his older brother Al, has taken his own life, his whole world is torn apart. Al was special. Al was talented. Al was full of passion and light - so why did he do it?
Borrow a copy from your local library.
On a mysterious island where the inhabitants worship a god of secrets and hidden truths, masked assassins are trained to do his bidding - or so they believe...
Borrow a copy from your local library.
I Know What You Did Last Summer meets One of Us is Lying in this fast-paced suspense thriller following five teens who must cover up the suspicious death of their teacher.
Borrow a copy from your local library.
Luka Kane has been inside hi-tech prison the Loop for over two years. A death sentence is hanging over his head but his day-to-day routine is mind-numbingly repetitive. Then everything changes. Soon, Luka has to face a new reality: breaking out of the Loop might be his only chance to save himself - and the world
Borrow a copy from your local library.
Norah Whittaker's upbringing has been charmingly unconventional: she's grown up on a houseboat spending her days fishing, cherry picking and helping her mum out at her vintage market stall. As well as laughing at her chaotic dad. But when her dad's latest get-rich plan ends up getting him arrested, everything changes
Borrow a copy from your local library.
Granville is in a mess. The streets are infested with Charge, a deadly synthetic drug concocted by an enigma known as The Chemist. Tommy finds himself in the midst of scandal, as terrifying danger closes in on him; drugs, deaths and deception
Los Angeles, 1992. Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It's the end of high school and they're spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer. But everything changes one afternoon in April, when four police officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death.
Borrow a copy from your local library.
This year the longlist is made up of 68 fiction titles which you can borrow or download. You can find all the titles on our catalogue.
The year I didn't eat by Samuel Pollen (paperback)
The year I didn't eat (eBook)
As well as giving a star rating or writing a review, you can join in conversations online.
Follow @LancsLibraries on Twitter for updates from us including other favourite reads. Let others know what you have been reading and what you thought about the books by using #LBOY2021 in your tweets.
Follow @lancslibraries on Facebook for updates from us including other favourite reads. Let others know what you have been reading and what you thought about the books using #LBOY2021 in your posts.
