Gearing UP! - SJCPL Mock Newbery 2012

The SCJPL Mock Newbery 2012 is getting ready to rumble!  We are making our lists and checking them twice. There are already some books out there getting buzz.

I'm liking

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt

I've also heard good things about
Small Persons with Wings by Eileen Boraem
Camo Girl by Kekla Magoon
True...Sort of by Katherine Hannigan
Second Fiddle by Roseanne Parry

What books are you excited to read?

List 4--November 26, 2010

Forge, Anderson
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, and Science,  Aronson and Budhos
A Tale Dark & Grimm, Gidwitz   
Touch Blue, Lord
A Long Walk to Water, Park
The Kneebone Boy, Potter
Heart of a Samurai, Preus
Mindblind, Roy
Saving Sky, Stanley
A Conspiracy of Kings, Turner
Moon Over Manifest, Vanderpool

A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Clarion Books
2010
121 p.


Summary:  When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, and Science, by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, and Science,  by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Clarion Books
2010
                         166 p.


Summary:  This meticulously researched, brutally honest, compelling book offers readers a different way to look at many events over the past 200 years or so. The title says it all. From the slave trade through abolition; from revolutions (American, French, and Haitian) to the Louisiana Purchase; from the decline of honey to the rise of saccharine, these events and many more are directly traced to the cultivation and production of sugar cane around the world. With a focus on slavery, Aronson and Budhos demonstrate how this one crop, with its unique harvesting needs, helped to bring about a particularly brutal incarnation of slavery. What makes this such a captivating read is that the book has a jigsaw-puzzle feel as the authors connect seemingly disparate threads and bring readers to the larger picture by highlighting the smaller details hidden within.  (School Library Journal)

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gitwitz

A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Dutton Children's Books
2010
256 p.


Summary:  Follows Hansel and Gretel as they walk out of their own story and into eight more tales, encountering such wicked creatures as witches, along with kindly strangers and other helpful folk. Based in part on the Grimms' fairy tales Faithful Johannes, Hansel and Gretel, The seven ravens, Brother and sister, The robber bridegroom, and The devil and his three golden hairs.

Saving Sky by Diane Stanley

Saving Sky by Diane Stanley

Harper
2010
199 p.

Summary:  In an America that has suffered continual terrorist attacks since 9/11, seventh-grader Sky stands up for what is right and helps a classmate of Middle    Eastern descent, although doing so places her and her family at great risk.

SJCPL Mock Newbery Club Meeting - November 11, 2010

Skyping with Laura from Laura's Life

Great meeting with 22 students in attendance.  We talked books, Skyped with Laura, and then discussed the books they thought were the "most distinguished".

Top Vote Getters

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

The Cardturner, Mockingbird, Out of My Mind, and The Red Pyramid have gotten top votes two meetings in a row!

Skyping with Laura from Laura's Life

Laura was nice enough to Skype with us and opened by telling us a little about herself.  She was an honored guest at the 2010 ALA Newbery Award ceremony.  She's met both Jerry Pinkney and Rebecca Stead.  

A Q & A with Laura

Q:          How many books do you read a day?

Laura:   I don't know.  I'm usually reading 5 at a time. 

Q:          Do you have a favorite book or series?

Laura:   Caddy Woodlawn

Q:         Picks for the 2011 Newbery?

Laura:   One Crazy Summer, Out of My Mind, Mockingbird, The Dreamer and Keeper.

Q:         Did you read Holes?  It's by the same person who wrote the Cardturner.
Laura:  Yes, but I didn't love it.  (Our group really LOVES Cardturner and they wanted to know why it wasn't a top choice of hers.)

Q:         What are your top 5 books of all time?
Laura:   When You Reach Me, Caddie Woodlawn, The Giver and Hitty: Her First 100 Years.  (Couldn't think of a 5th one.)

Q:        What are you reading right now?

Laura:  Encyclopedia Brown, Hugo Cabret, The Outsiders, and Savvy. (There was a fifth but I missed it!)

Students really enjoyed meeting with Laura.  I'm hoping that a couple of the students, who will be too old for the club, will think of assisting Kris next year.

Mindblind by Jennifer Roy

Mindblind by Jennifer Roy

Marshall Cavendish
2010
248 p.

Summary:  Fourteen-year-old Nathaniel Clark, who has Asperger's Syndrome, tries to prove that he is a genius by writing songs for his rock band, so that he can become a member of the prestigious Aldus Institute, the premier organization for the profoundly gifted.

Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpool

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

Delacorte Press
2010
351 p.

Summary:  Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

Lost Hero, The by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Disney Hyperion Books
2010
557 p.


Summary:  Jason, Piper, and Leo, three students from a school for "bad kids," find themselves at Camp Half-Blood, where they learn that they are demigods and begin a quest to free Hera, who has been imprisoned by Mother Earth herself.

Plain Kate by Erin Bow

Plain Kate by Erin Bow (will soon be ordered by SJCPL)

Arthur A. Levine Books
2010
314 p.

Summary:  Plain Kate's odd appearance and expertise as a woodcarver cause some to think her a witch, but friendship with a talking cat and, later, with humans help her to survive and even thrive in a world of magic, charms, and fear.

Zora and Me by Victoria Bond

Zora and Me by Victoria Bond (will soon be ordered by SJCPL)

Candlewick Press
2010
170 p.


Summary:  A fictionalized account of Zora Neale Hurston's childhood with her best friend Carrie, in Eatonville, Florida, as they learn about life, death, and the differences between truth, lies, and pretending. Includes an annotated bibliography of the works of Zora Neale Hurston, a short biography of the author, and information about Eatonville, Florida.

SJCPL Mock Newbery Club Meeting - October 14, 2010

Rushing to get the last books!

Today we had our first meeting to discuss books!  22 students showed up and they were ready to rumble!

First they nominated books that they wanted to discuss and the books with the most votes were "brought to the table".  They were:

• The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
• The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan
• Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
• Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Some other books that received high votes were:

• Finally by Wendy Mass
• The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz
• Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
• Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holms

Next meeting, Thursday, November 11, 2010.  We will Skype with Laura from Laura's Life.

The Year of Goodbyes by Debbie Levy

The Year of Goodbyes by Debbie Levy

Disney-Hyperion
2010
136 pgs.

Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord

Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord

Scholastic Press
2010
186 pgs.

Summary

When the state of Maine threatens to shut down their island's one-room schoolhouse because of dwindling enrollment, eleven-year-old Tess, a strong believer in luck, and her family take in a trumpet-playing foster child, to increase the school's population.

The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester by Barbara O'Connor

The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester by Barbara O'Connor

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2010
168 pgs.

Summary

After Owen captures an enormous bullfrog, names it Tooley Graham, then has to release it, he and two friends try to use a small submarine that fell from a passing train to search for Tooley in the Carter, Georgia, pond it came from, while avoiding nosy neighbor Viola.

Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins

Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins

Charlesbridge
2010
272 pgs.

Summary

Two Burmese boys, one a Karenni refugee and the other the son of an imprisoned Burmese doctor, meet in the jungle and in order to survive they must learn to trust each other.

Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus

Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus

Amulet
2010
301 pgs.

Summary

In 1841, rescued by an American whaler after a terrible shipwreck leaves him and his four companions castaways on a remote island, fourteen-year-old Manjiro, who dreams of becoming a samurai, learns new laws and customs as he becomes the first Japanese person to set foot in the United States.

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Little, Brown
2010
217 pgs.

Summary

In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.

Dark Emperor by Joyce Sidman

Dark Emperor by Joyce Sidman

Houghton Mifflin
2010
29 pgs.

Summary

A collection of poems that celebrate the wonder, mystery, and danger of the night and describes the many things that hide in the dark.