Annal:1998 Edgar Allan Poe Award® for Best Young Adult

Ghost Canoe

Will Hobbs

• 1998 Edgar-Young Adult winner
• Score: 10.48

After a sailing ship breaks up on the rocks off Washington’s storm-tossed Cape Flattery, Nathan McAllister, the fourteen-year-old son of the lighthouse keeper, refuses to believe the authorities, who say there were no survivors. Unexplained footprints on a desolate beach, a theft at the trading post, and glimpses of a wild “hairy man” convince Nathan that someone is hiding in the remote sea caves along the coast. With his new friend, Lighthouse George, a fisherman from the famed Makah whaling tribe, Nathan paddles the fierce waters of the Pacific—fishing, hunting seals, searching for clues. Alone in the forest, Nathan discovers a ghostly canoe and a skeleton that may unlock the mystery of ancient treasure, betrayal…and murder.

Deal with a Ghost

Marilyn Singer

• 1998 Edgar-Young Adult nominee
• Score: 6.48

This puppy not only couldn’t play the Game, he hadn’t even read the manual. And he didn’t have a clue he was facing a master…

It’s called the Dating Game—or is it the Baiting Game? Whatever it’s called…it means stealing other girls’ boyfriends, then breaking their hearts.

Tangerine

Edward Bloor

• 1998 Edgar-Young Adult nominee
• Score: 6.48

A season with the toughest soccer team in the county gives a teen the confidence to stand up to his wicked brother.

“Smart, adaptable, and anchored by a strong sense of self-worth, Paul makes a memorable protagonist in a cast of vividly drawn characters; multiple yet taut plotlines lead to a series of gripping climaxes and revelations. Readers are going to want more from this author.”—Kirkus Reviews

Thin Ice

Marsha Qualey

• 1998 Edgar-Young Adult nominee
• Score: 6.48

Seventeen-year-old Arden Munro has been raised by her older brother, Scott, ever since the death of their parents 10 years earlier. He has been her only family. But now Scott too is dead—or so believe the local police and everyone in Arden’s community. Arden, however, is convinced that Scott has staged his snowmobile accident and purposely disappeared. She will search until she finds him. As Arden obsessively continues her detective hunt, she is forced to examine her feelings of loss and isolation, and to finally realize that these feelings existed long before Scott’s accident. Whether or not her brother reappears, where should Arden turn for the support that usually comes from family?

This page-turning mystery leads to a heart-tugging conclusion that is at once hopeful and sad, piercing and satisfying.

Yesterday's Child

Sonia Levitin

• 1998 Edgar-Young Adult nominee
• Score: 6.48

“Time will help. Time will heal.”

That’s what people promised. But for Laura, nothing is helping or healing. Her mother’s death has left a void in her. It’s made Laura realize she hardly knew her mother, and that can never be fixed. So Laura lies in her mother’s bed, puts on her lipstick, reads her letters—anything to answer Laura’s questions and end her unbearable loneliness.

Then Laura finds a letter that raises more questions than it answers. Written the day before her mother’s death, it’s addressed to someone named Megan and speakes vaguely of “forgiveness.” Laura’s never heard of Megan, but Megan and Laura’s mother appear to have been childhood friends who hadn’t spoken in twenty-five years. What would prompt her mother to write Megan now? And what did she mean by “forgiveness”? If Laura can unveil the mystery behind the letter, maybe she’ll also unveil the mystery that was—and still is—her mother.

But Laura’s search for answers becomes an obsession. Laura can’t stop, not until she knows the truth about everything—even if it kills her.