Sunshine State Young Readers Award Program

The Sunshine State Young Readers Award (SSYRA) Program is a statewide reading motivational program for students in grades K through 8, sponsored by the Florida Department of Education (DOE) and Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME).

The purpose of the SSYRA Program is to encourage students to read independently for pleasure and to read books that are on, above, and below their reading level in order to improve their reading fluency. Sunshine State books are selected for their wide appeal, literary value, varied genres, curriculum connections, and/or multicultural representation. The SSYRA committee is comprised of 20 qualified school librarians located throughout the state of Florida.

For more information on the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards, click here. View the booklist in our catalog.

SSYRA Junior 2024-2025

Rick the Rock of Room 214 by Julie Falatko

Don't Eat bees : Life lessons from Chip the Dog by Dev Petty

The Greatest in the World by Ben Clanton

Out of the Blue by Robert Tregoning

The Duck Never Blinks by Alex Latimer

Mr. S by Monica Arnaldo

Awesome Orange Birthday by Mitali Banerjee Ruths

Worm and Caterpillar are Friends by Kaz Windness

Evergreen by Matthew Cordell

My Pet Feet by Josh Funk

We are Going to be Pals! by Mark Teague

Got Your Nose! by Alan Katz

Carina Felina by Carmen Agra Deedy

Our Incredible Library Book : and the wonderful journeys it took by Caroline Crowe

SSYRA 2024-2025 Grades 3-5

The Aquanaut: a graphic novel by Dan Santat

The Big Sting by Rachelle Delaney

Bound for Home by Meika Hashimoto

The Cursed Moon by Angela Cervantes

Finally Seen by Kelly Yang

The Girl Who Built a Spider by George Brewington

The Grip by Marcus Stroman

Manatee Summer by Evan Griffith

Home Away From Home by Cynthia Lord

Race to Fire Mountain by Remi Blackwood

Penny Draws a Best Friend by Sara Shepard

The Shelterlings by Sarah Beth Durst

Treasure in the Lake by Jason Pamment

The Ultimate Goal by Tommy Greenwald

When Sea Becomes Sky by Gillian Mc Dunn

SSYRA 2024-2025 Grades 6-8

Adrift by Tanya Guerrero

Fake by Ele Fountain

Falling Short by Ernesto Cisneros

The Girl in White by Lindsay Currie

Hear Me by Kerry O'Malley

How to Stay Invisible by Maggie Rudd

Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts by Erika Lewis

The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle by Taryn Souders

New Dragon City by Mari Mancusi

Over and Out by Jenni L. Walsh

Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks

Roll for Initiative by Jaime Formato

The Ruby Code by Jessica Khoury

The Superteacher Project by Gordon Kormon

A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner

Florida Teens Read 2024-2025 Grades 9-12

The Florida Teens Read (FTR) program is a student- choice reading award program to determine which YA book wins the annual award as the favorite of teens in Florida. The reading list is comprised of fifteen titles that have been chosen by a committee of fourteen school librarians specifically to engage high school students (grades 9 through 12) in reading and reflect their interests as well as represent a variety of genres, formats, reading levels, viewpoints, and ethnic and cultural perspectives.

More information

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives it Changed by Dashka Slater

Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester

Chaos Theory by Nic Stone

Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole

The Do-Over by Lynn Painter

The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Four for the Road by K. J. Reilly

In Nightfall by Suzanne Young

Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S. Dawson

The Name She Gave Me by Betty Culley

Promise Boys by Nick Brooks