The 2010-2011 Gateway Readers books are in high demand at the library this year.

Every year, Missouri high school students vote for their favorite book out of a list of 15 nominated books.

The winning book receives an award from the Missouri Association of School Librarians. This year’s books range from a novel taking place in eighteenth-century Vienna to a book about a futuristic North America.

“I try to read one Gateway book a week,” Janet Houseman, language arts teacher, said.

Houseman has read three of this year’s nominees so far, “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, “The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks” by E. Lockhart and “Sweethearts” by Sarah Zarr.

“The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks” is a book for girls that want to pull one over on the guys,” Houseman said. “My favorite so far is “Hunger Games” because it’s a mix of mutli-genres.”

“Hunger Games” is a book about a 16 year-old girl who enters into an annual survival-based television contest. It’s the first installment of a series.

Denise Eschenbrenner, language arts teacher, said she agrees with Houseman about “Hunger Games.”

“I see a lot of literary value in it and it will appeal to the more mature teenage reader,” Eschenbrenner said.

Several sophomore language classes are required to read Gateway Reader nominees.

“Sophomore Honors Language Arts students are reading two of these nominated novels: one first quarter and one second quarter,” Eschenbrenner said.

The students will then write a research paper during third quarter comparing and contrasting the two books.

“Gateway books are very usable to teach literary analysis,” Eschenbrenner said.

Past winners include “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, “Just Listen” by Sarah Dessen and “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyer.

“I read “Paper Towns” and it was really interesting and it kept me on my toes,” Rachel O’Dell, junior, said.

“Paper Towns” is about a mysterious girl that leaves clues for her neighbor to find.

The 2010-2011 Gateway Readers books are available at the MHS library and the St. Louis Public Library.