List 2 - August 1, 2010

It's time for our second list.  These are the books that will be brought to the table at our adults Mock Newbery meeting and voting session on Saturday, January 8, 2011. This will be an all-day session, from 9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. in the Main Library Children's Services Storytime Room. Registration for this program will begin May 1, 2010, from this link. 

They Called Themselves the KKK by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Crunch by Leslie Connor
Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell
Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards
Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve
Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Please click on any title and leave your comments.  Also, check out our first list from July 1, 2010.  We will also keep links at the top right of the page.

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Countdown by Deborah Wiles
Scholastic Press
May 2010
377 pgs.

Summary

"Franny Chapman just wants some peace. But that's hard to get when her best friend is feuding with her, her sister has disappeared, and her uncle is fighting an old war in his head. Her saintly younger brother is no help, and the cute boy across the street only complicates things. Worst of all, everyone is walking around just waiting for a bomb to fall. It's 1962, and it seems the whole country is living in fear..."--Dust jacket flap.

The Boneshaker by Kate Milford

The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
Clarion Books
May 2010
372 pgs.

Summary

When Jake Limberleg brings his traveling medicine show to a small Missouri town in 1913, thirteen-year-old Natalie senses that something is wrong and, after investigating, learns that her love of automata and other machines make her the only one who can set things right.

Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell
Atheneum Books For Young Readers
March 2010
245 pgs.

Summary

Middle-schooler Isabelle Bean follows a mouse's squeak into a closet and falls into a parallel universe where the children believe she is the witch they have feared for years, finally come to devour them.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
March 2010
295 pgs.

Summary

Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.

Crunch by Leslie Connor

Crunch by Leslie Connor
Katherine Tegen Books
March 2010
330 pgs.

Summary
The oldest Mariss brother, fourteen-year-old Dewey, attempts to be the "embodiment of responsibility" as he juggles the management of the family's bicycle repair business while sharing the household and farm duties with his siblings after a sudden energy crisis strands their parents far from home.

Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve

Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve
Dial Books for Young Readers
March 2010
358 pgs.

Summary

When a drought threatens her family's magical rhubarb farm, eleven-year-old Polly tries to find a way to make it rain again.

Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards

Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards

Alfred A Knopf
April 2010
293 pgs

Summary

Sixteen-year-old Celestia is a wealthy member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, where she meets and falls in love with Peter, a hired hand who lives in the valley below, and by the time of the torrential rains that lead to the disastrous Johnstown flood of 1889, she has been disowned by her family and is staying with him in Johnstown. Includes an author's note and historical timeline.

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

Philomel
April 2010
235 pgs.

Summary

Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a project with her father.

The Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle

The Firefly Letters

Henry Holt and Company, LLC

March 2010

151 pgs.

Summary

This novel is written in verse. It is based on the diaries and letters of Swedish suffragist Fredrika Bremer. She spent three months in Cuba in 1851. The story is told in three alternating free-verse narratives. Fredrika remembers her oppressed childhood in Sweden. Cecilia, a teenage slave, recounts being captured in the Congo at age eight. Elena belongs to a slave-owning family.