The consultants have completed the tough job of narrowing down the nominations for the 2011 Nerds Heart YA tournament. In alphabetical order here’s our Nerds Heart YA short-list for 2011:

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend – Emily Horner
Abe in Arms -  Pegi Dietz Shea
Bamboo People -  Mitali Perkins
Bleeding Violet – Dia Reeves
Dark Water -  Laura McNeal
Dirty Little Secrets – CJ Omololu
Efrain’s Secret – Sofia Quintero
Eighth Grade Superzero – Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Finding Family – Tonya Bolden
Five Flavors of Dumb – Antony John
How I Made it to Eighteen: A Mostly True Story – Tracy White
Invisible Girl – Mary Hanlon Stone
Jumpstart the World – Catherine Ryan Hyde
Last Summer of the Death Warriors – Francisco Stork
Mindblind – Jennifer Roy
Paper Daughter – Jeannette Ingold
Premiere – Melody Carlson
Pull – B. A. Binns
Stargazer – Von Allan
Stringz – Michael Wenberg
Summer Song – Louise Blaydon
Tall Story – Candy Gourlay
Teenie – Christopher Grant
Tell Us We’re Home – Marina Budhos
The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin – Josh Berk
The End: five Queer Kids Save the World – Nora Olsen
The Kid Table – Andrea Seigel
The Red Umbrella – Christina Gonzalez
Toads and Diamonds – Heather Tomlinson
What My Momma Left Me – Renee Watson
When The Stars Go Blue – Caridad Ferrer
Where the Truth Lies – Jessica Warman

So what do you think of the short-list? Are you excited about Nerds Heart YA 2011?

I’ll be back shortly to announce the judging schedule for the tournament and then this contest will get rolling as our judges hunker down with some quality YA to make a bunch of hard decisions. Until then please spread the word about our short-list :)