2007  AML Award: Young Adult Literature

Presented to:
Ann Dee Ellis

For:
This Is What I Did:

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You know Logan Paloney. He’s the quiet kid, the introverted one, the one the bullies pick on first. But no life can be so easily reduced to a handful of casual assumptions, and behind the face of the kid who seems shy and a little slow is an individual whose world is no less complex for his inability to talk about it. In Ann Dee Ellis’s debut novel, Logan’s thoughts, shared only with the reader, tell the story of what really happened when he witnessed a horrible crime--a memory Logan fears to confront because of his own actions and what they mean. As Logan circles around this pain, he reveals more about himself: his inability to talk to his parents, who are busy with their own problems; his struggles with the bullies at Scouts; his growing friendship with a quirky, outgoing girl who seems not to care what people think of her. Logan’s references to the mysterious crime by turn implicate and exonerate him, keeping readers guessing until almost the last minute as to what actually happened that night. With a unique style that tightly links content with form, the story is as much told through images, word play, and free verse as through narrative. The result is a short but intense novel that ranges from the depths to which humans can fall to the heights of redemption and forgiveness--especially of oneself. The Association for Mormon Letters is proud to present the 2007 award for Young Adult Fiction to Ann Dee Ellis for This Is What I Did:.

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