About RITBA

A Voice for Teen Literature

The Rhode Island Teen Book Award is a collaborative project of the School Librarians of Rhode Island (SLRI) and the Rhode Island Library Association (RILA).

The goal of the Rhode Island Teen Book Award is to promote quality literature for teens by highlighting well-written books that will be of interest to those between the ages of 14 and 18 years of age. It is the hope of the committee that by allowing teens to select the winner from each year's list of nominees, teens will be encouraged to not only read more, but also discuss the books they are reading with their friends and family at school, the local library, and at home. 

Selection Statement

The Rhode Island Teen Book Award Committee, composed of Rhode Island teachers, school librarians, public librarians, and paraprofessionals uses specific selection criteria to create an annual list of nominated titles. The committee is intentional in seeking books that affirm marginalized groups and champions stories and characters that reflect the lived experiences of Rhode Island youth as well as the larger world. The committee aims to provide a list of nominees that maintains diversity in race, gender, sexuality, family makeup, socioeconomic background and ability. Nominees are thoughtfully curated to allow all youth to be seen and their voices actively heard.

RITBA Committee Members

Board

Chair: Sarah Hunicke (Barrington High School) 
Vice Chair: Joanne Gongoleski (Narragansett High School)
Secretary:  Danielle Grise (Portsmouth High School)
Treasurer:
Social Media and Publicity: Amanda Davia and Joanne Gongoleski (Narragansett High School)

Members

Tina Ash (East Providence High School), Donna Broomfield (Woonsocket High School), Patricia Shawcross Buffington (Toll Gate High School),  Regina Connolly (Salve Regina University), Amanda Davia (Narragansett High School), Joanne Gongoleski (Narragansett High School), Danielle Grise (Portsmouth High School), Wendy Gustavel (Rocky Hill Country Day School), Aliyah Harris (Coventry Public Library/Mansfield HS), Sarah Hunicke (Barrington High School), Sarah Hunzeker (Bishop Hendricken High School), Michaela Hutchinson (George Hail Library), Kelly Inman (West Warwick High School), Maura Keating (Classical High School), Shannon McLoud (Providence Career and Technical Academy), Kristin Munson (Lincoln Public Library), Bianca Parenteau (Central Falls High School), Jodilyn Solomon (Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex), Kylie Woodmansee (Coventry Public Library), Kimberly Yeaw (Providence Career & Technical Academy)

History of the RI Teen Book Award Committee

Rhode Island was on the forefront of having a statewide book award for teens. Thanks to some cutting edge teachers and library media specialists connected with the Rhode Island Education Media Association (RIEMA), work to start such an award began in 1998. Over the course of two years, the group expanded to include some local young adult librarians from public libraries. The first chairperson of the RITBA committee was Joe Light, one of the media specialists at Westerly High School at the time.

The first thing the initial award committee needed to do was design a series of goals and criteria to use to narrow the selection of titles for a nominee list. It was clear from the beginning the committee did not want to just select a title on its own.  Instead, it would compile a list of nominees tweens and teens could read and judge. They opted to focus on timeliness, requiring the nominees to be printed within two years of the list’s announcement.

In 2001, the team, under Light’s leadership, produced a list of 20 books blending a mixture of quality writing and reading interest. In fact, these two characteristics are a part of the award’s primary goal since there was great concern that many award-winning selections on the national scale are extremely well written, but languish on the shelves due to lack of a strong readership among tweens or teens. 

The first election was scheduled to take place in January 2002. With some help from their peers in RIEMA and marketing through the Young Adult Round Table, organized at that time by Frank Iacono at the Office of Library and Information Services, the award committee was able to have a number of schools and libraries collect votes from more than 300 young adults. They selected Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser. 

One of the methods of getting the word out about the award was to have a statewide contest to design a logo. Schools and libraries from all over Rhode Island encouraged students in middle and high school to submit logo designs. The winner, which was selected in 2001 to coincide with the announcement of the first book choice, was a 10th grade student at LaSalle Academy named Hillary J. Matoian.

For 23 years, schools and libraries across Rhode Island made ballots available to middle school and high school students who read three books from a selected list of titles so they could vote for their favorite between January 1 and the end of February. In 2025, voting changed to allow students to rate each book they read from July 1 through the end of February. These ratings are used to determine RI teens' favorite book.

The Rhode Island Library Association joined RIEMA in sponsoring the award in 2002. Every year, the number of participating voters and school/library sites increases. The RI Teen Book Award has been deemed such a success that librarians and school library media specialists from the Bay State utilized it as a model for their own award. The Massachusetts Teen Choice Book Award is sponsored by the Massachusetts Library Association Youth Services Section and the Massachusetts School Library Association.

The RITBA Committee welcomes any school or library that would like to participate in the election. Those interested can find information about voting here.  Visitors to the website will also find a complete list of all the winners, lists of previous nominees, promotional ideas and materials, and supporting discussion guides for many of the nominees and award winners since 2006.