And the Winner Is...

Young adults from across Rhode Island chose Michael Scott’s The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel as their favorite book for the past year in a statewide election. As a result, Scott’s book was awarded the 2009 Rhode Island Teen Book Award. The award is sponsored by the Rhode Island Educational Media Association and the Rhode Island Library Association. Runners up for the award include Devilish by Maureen Johnson and Just Listen by Sarah Dessen.

The Alchemyst kick’s off a series, which is scheduled to have six volumes, filled with magic, mythology, and vampires, readers are introduced to Sophie and Josh Newman, the 15-year-old twin children of archeologists. They have taken summer jobs across the street from one another, Josh in a bookstore and Sophie in a coffee shop. When a sinister man in a sleek, dark car arrives to change their lives, he turns the bookstore to rubble using powerful magic. The bookstore owner turns out to be Nicholas Flamel, a 14th century alchemist, who, with his wife Perenelle, guards the secret to immortal life ... and the sinister man is Dr. John Dee, a magician/astrologer from the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who has been chasing the Flamels across time and space, determined to steal the book that gives them their powers. Josh and Sophie are immediately caught up in an epic battle between these powerful magicians and the ancient beings of myth and legend that they call upon. With Perenelle held captive and Flamel’s powers waning, the safety of the entire human race may depend on Josh and Sophie learning to use their own latent powers, but can they survive their “awakening?”