Volunteer State Book Awards 2004-2005


Primary
Grades K-3
 Intermediate
Grades 4-6
 Young Adult
Grades 7 and up
How to Vote


Primary

Andrews-Goebel, Nancy.  The Pot that Juan Built.  Lee & Low, 2002. R.L. 6.2.
This cumulative rhyme summarizes the life's work of renowned Mexican potter, Juan Quezada. Additional information describes the process he uses to create his pots after the style of the Casas Grandes people.

Arnold, Marsha Diane.  The Bravest of Us All. Dial, 2000. R.L. 4.2
Ruby Jane thinks that her sister Velma Jean is the bravest person in her family, but when a tornado comes, Ruby Jane shows that she is very brave herself.

Bateman, Teresa. Farm Flu.  Albert Whitman, 2001. R.L. 3.1
When the farm animals seem to catch the flu one after another, a young boy does his best to take care of them.

Bercaw, Edna Coe.  Halmoni’s Day. Dial, 2000. R.L. 4.7
Jennifer, a Korean American, is worried that her grandmother, visiting from Korea, will embarrass her on her school's Grandparents' Day.

Brett, Jan.  Daisy Comes Home. Putnam, 2002. R.L. 3.8
Daisy, an unhappy hen in China, floats down the river in a basket and has an adventure.

Helakoski, Leslie.  The Smushy Bus. Millbrook, 2002. R.L. 3.3
When the regular schoolbus is in the shop, a clever driver must use all that he knows about addition and subtraction to ensure that seventy-six children get on -- and off -- of the four-seat substitute bus.

Hurst, Carol Otis.  Rocks in His Head. Greenwillow, 2001. R.L. 3.5
A young man has a lifelong love of rock collecting that eventually leads him to work at a science museum.

Lester, Helen.  Score One for the Sloths. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. R.L. 3.5
Sparky, a new student at a sloth school, saves her lazy classmates when a wild boar from a government agency tries to shut the school down.

Long, Melinda.  Hiccup Snickup. Simon & Schuster, 2001. R.L. 2.7.
Acting on the advice of various family members, a child tries different ways to get rid of the hiccups.

Munson, Derek.  Enemy Pie. Chronicle, 2000. R.L.  3.2
Hoping that the enemy pie which his father makes will help him get rid of his enemy, a little boy finds that it helps make a new friend.

Palatini, Margie. Earthquack! Simon & Schuster, 2002. R.L. 3.5
When Chucky Ducky feels the earth beneath him grumble and rumble, he runs to alert the other barnyard animals to the coming earthquake. Just as a wily weasel is about to take advantage of their fears, the true source of the rumbling is revealed.

Plourde, Lynn.  School Picture Day. Dutton, 2002. R.L. 3.8
It is school picture day, and everyone, except Josephina, starts out clean, shiny, and all dressed up. She creates dirt and confusion as she figures out how things work, but in the end is the only one who can fix the camera.

Pollock, Penny.  When the Moon is Full: A Lunar Year. Little, Brown, 2001.
A lunar guide describes the folkloric names of twelve moons according to Native American tradition and showcases their defining characteristics in short verse and beautifully detailed hand-colored woodcuts.

Salley, Coleen.  Epossumondas. Harcourt, 2002. R.L. 3.9
This is a retelling of a classic tale in which a well-intentioned young possum continually takes his mother's instructions much too literally.

San Souci, Robert D. Callie Ann and Mistah Bear. Dial, 2000. R.L. 3.8
A bear disguised as a fine, handsome man comes courting Callie Ann's mother, and Callie Ann must outwit the bear to prevent her mother from marrying it.

Shannon, David.  Duck on a Bike. Blue Sky Press, 2002. R.L. 2.0
When Duck gets the zany idea to ride a bike one day, each animal on the farm has a reaction.

Shulman, Lisa.  Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop. Putnam, 2002.
A female Old MacDonald builds a farm in her workshop, with the help of the other farm animals.

Teague, Mark.  Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School. Scholastic, 2002. R.L. 3.6
Gertrude LaRue receives funny typewritten and paw-written letters from her dog Ike entreating her to let him leave the Igor Brotweiler Canine Academy and come back home.

Wheeler, Lisa.  Sailor Moo: Cow at Sea. Atheneum, 2002. R.L. 3.2
When Moo sets off to become a sailor, she finds romance and settles down with a reformed pirate captain.

Wilson, Karma.  Bear Snores On. McElderry, 2002. R.L. 2.2
On a cold winter night many animals gather to party in the cave of a sleeping bear, who then awakes and protests that he has missed the food and the fun.

Intermediate

Avi. The Good Dog. Atheneum, 2000. R.L. 3.7
McKinley, a malamute, is torn between the domestic world of his human family and the wild world of Lupin, a wolf that is trying to recruit dogs to replenish the dwindling wolf pack.

Blumberg, Rhoda. Shipwrecked: the True Adventures of a Japanese Boy.   HarperCollins, 2001. R.L. 7.4
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 learns new laws and customs, as he becomes the first Japanese person to set foot in the U.S.

Clements, Andrew. A Week in the Woods. Simon & Schuster, 2002. R.L. 5.5
The fifth grade's annual camping trip in the woods tests Mark's survival skills and his ability to relate to a teacher who seems out to get him. 

Cooney, Doug. The Beloved Dearly. Simon & Schuster, 2002. R.L. 4.5
Although his father has forbidden it, Ernie, a twelve-year-old business tycoon, makes a tidy profit in the pet funeral business. When he refuses to give his star employee a raise, the business starts to fall apart. 

Creech, Sharon. Ruby Holler. HarperCollins, 2002. R.L. 4.3
Thirteen-year-old fraternal twins Dallas and Florida have grown up in a terrible orphanage, but their lives change forever when an eccentric but sweet older couple invites them each on an adventure, beginning in an almost magical place called Ruby Holler

Davis, C.L. The Christmas Barn.  Pleasant Company, 2001. R.L. 4.2
In 1930, when a snowstorm destroys their home in the Appalachian mountains, twelve-year-old Roxie and her family move into the barn and prepare for a very unusual Christmas celebration.

Ernst, Kathleen. Whistler in the Dark. Pleasant Company, 2002. R.L. 4.7
In 1886, twelve-year-old Emma and her widowed mother move to a tiny mining town in Colorado Territory to start a newspaper, but someone is determined to scare them away.

Giff, Patricia Reilly. Pictures of Hollis Woods. Random House, 2002. R.L. 4.4
A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.

Green, Michelle. A Strong Right Arm: the Story of  Mamie “Peanut” Johnson. Dial, 2002. R.L. 5.5
Fueled by her passion for the game and buoyed by the inspiration of Jackie Robinson, Mamie Johnson is determined to be a professional baseball pitcher.

Griffis, Molly Levite. The Feester Filibuster. Eakin Press, 2002. R.L. 5.0
The war declared by President Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, seems remote to fifth-grader John Allan until he finds out that his classmate Rachel thinks he is a spy for the Japanese and wants him deported to another country.

Hermes, Patricia. Sweet By and By. HarperCollins, 2002. R.L. 5.0
Set in Tennessee as World War II rages on, eleven-year-old Blessing is happy being raised by her grandmother in their mountain community, but when her grandmother gets ill, Blessing worries about what will happen to her and if she will be pulled away from her beloved home.

Hobbs, Will. Wild Man Island. HarperCollins, 2002. R.L. 5.1
After fourteen-year-old Andy slips away from his kayaking group to visit the wilderness site of his archaeologist father's death, a storm strands him on Admiralty Island, Alaska, where he manages to survive. 

Hornik, Laurie. Secrets of Ms. Sickles’s Class. Clarion, 2001. R.L. 4.0
Every school has its secrets, but in Ms. Snickle's classroom the secrets are extraordinary, and when Lacey sets out to learn and tell them all, she puts Ms. Snickle's job in jeopardy.

Martin, Ann. The Doll People. Hyperion, 2000. R.L. 4.0
This book is about a family of porcelain dolls that lived in the same house for one hundred years. They are taken aback when a new family of plastic dolls arrive and do not follow The Doll Code of Honor. 

Pfitsch, Patricia. Riding the Flume. Simon & Schuster, 2002. R.L. 4.9
 In 1894, fifteen-year-old Francie determines to fight the lumbermen and protect the largest sequoia tree ever seen, which had been given to her sister just before her death six years earlier. 

Quattlebaum, Mary. Grover G. Graham and Me.  Delacorte Press, 2001. R.L. 3.7
In his eighth foster home since the death of his great-grandmother, eleven-year-old Ben becomes very attached to a baby living with the same family and worries when the baby's biological mother takes him away. 

Siebold, Jan. Doing Time Online. Albert Whitman, 2002. R.L. 3.9
After he is involved in a prank that led to an elderly woman's injury, twelve-year-old Mitchell must make amends by participating in a police program in which he chats online with a nursing home resident.

Tolan, Stephanie S. Surviving the Applewhites, HarperCollins, 2002. R.L. 5.5
Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had. 

Wallace, Barbara. Secret in St. Something. Atheneum, 2001. R.L. 5.5
Fleeing from a cruel stepfather, Robin takes his baby brother and finds shelter with street boys living in a church in a tenement area of New York City.

Wiles, Deborah. Love, Ruby Lavender. Harcourt, 2001. R.L. 4.2
When her quirky grandmother goes to Hawaii for the summer, Ruby learns to survive on her own in Mississippi.

Young Adult

Please keep in mind that some of these titles on the Young Adult list may not be appropriate for many middle school readers. To assist librarians in making choices, I have hyperlinked the book titles to editorial reviews on Amazon.com.--Scot Smith 

Alvarez, Julia.  Before We Were Free.  A. Knopf, 2002. Historical Fiction
 In the early 1960s, in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.

Anderson, M.T.  Feed.  Candlewick Press, 2002. Science Fiction
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.

Auch, Mary Jane.  Ashes of Roses.  Henry Holt, 2002. Historical Fiction.
Sixteen-year-old Margaret Rose Nolan, newly arrived from Ireland, finds work at New York City's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory shortly before the 1911 fire in which 146 employees died.

Bardi, Abby.  The Book of Fred.  Washington Square Press,  2002. Modern Realism
A sheltered fifteen-year-old girl is removed from her home in a fundamentalist sect and placed in foster care in a Washington, D.C. suburb, where a violent act upon her new family has an indelible impact on her, making her reexamine her beliefs.

Clements, Andrew.  Things Not Seen.  Philomel Books, 2002. Science Fiction
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.

Farmer, Nancy.  The House of the Scorpion.  Atheneum Books for Young Readers,  2002. Science Fiction
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 140-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

Flinn, Alex.  Breathing Underwater.  HarperCollins, 2001. Modern Realism
Sent to counseling for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, and ordered to keep a journal, Nick recounts his relationship with Caitlin, examines his controlling behavior and anger, and describes living with his abusive father.

Gaiman, Neil.  Coraline.  HarperCollins,  2002. Dark Fantasy
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others

Gantos, Jack.  A Hole in My Life.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux,  2002. Memoir
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.

Hobbs, Valerie.  Sonny’s War.  Frances Foster Books,  2002. Historical Fiction
In the late 1960s, fourteen-year-old Cory's life is greatly changed by the sudden death of her father and her brother's tour of duty in Vietnam.

Kidd, Sue Monk.  The Secret Life of Bees.  Viking,  2002. Histrocial Realism/Magical Realism
Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared for Lily since her mother's death, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May, June and August.

Kindl, Patrice.  Goose Chase.  Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001. Fantasy
Rather than marry a cruel king or a seemingly dim-witted prince, an enchanted goose girl endures imprisonment, capture by several ogresses, and other dangers before learning exactly who she is.

Klass, David.  Home of the Braves.  Frances Foster Books,  2002. Modern Realism
Eighteen-year-old Joe, captain of the soccer team, is dismayed when a hotshot player shows up from Brazil and threatens to take over both the team and the girl whom Joe hopes to date.

Les Becquets, Diane.  The Stones of Mourning Creek.  Winslow,  2001. Historical Realism
In Alabama in the 1960s, fourteen-year-old Francie develops a controversial and dangerous friendship with a colored girl her own age.

Littke, Lael.  Lake of Secrets.  Henry Holt, May 2002. Mystery
Having arrived in her mother's hometown to try to find her long-missing brother, who disappeared three years before she was born, fifteen-year-old Carlene finds herself haunted by memories from a past life.

McCafferty, Megan.  Sloppy Firsts.  Crown Publishing, 2001. Modern Realism
When her best friend moves away, hyper-observant sixteen-year-old Jessica is devastated. A fish out of water at school and a stranger at home, Jessica feels more lost than ever now that the only person with whom she could really communicate has gone

Moore, Peter.  Blind Sighted.  Viking,  2002. Modern Realism
Kirk, a creative misfit who is in trouble at high school because he is bored with his classes, learns to deal with his alcoholic mother, new friends, and life with the help of a blind young woman who hires him to read to her.

Peters, Julie Anne.  Define “Normal.”  Little Brown and Company, 2000. Modern Realism
 When Antonia agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer counselor, she never dreams that this girl with the black lipstick and pierced eyebrow will become a good friend and will help her deal with the serious problems she faces at home.

Salisbury, Graham.  Island Boyz: Short Stories.  Delacorte,  2002.
This is a collection of short stories set in Hawaii.,--some historical fiction, some modern realism.

Plum-Ucci, Carol.  What Happened to Lani Garver?  Harcourt, 2002. Mystery
Sixteen-year-old Claire is unable to face her fears about a recurrence of her leukemia, her eating disorder, her need to fit in with the popular crowd on Hackett Island, and her mother's alcoholism until Lani Garver helps her get control of her life.

Sebold, Alice.  The Lovely Bones.  Little Brown and Company, 2002. Magical Realism
In the weeks following her death, Susie watches life continuing without her -- her school friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her family holding out hope that she'll be found, her killer trying to cover his tracks.

Sones, Sonya.  What My Mother Doesn’t Know.  Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers,  2001. Modern Realism
Written in verse, this humorous details Sophie' life as she searches for Mr. Right.

Van Draanen, Wendelin.  Flipped.  Henry Holt,  2001. Modern Realism
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe their changing feelings about themselves, each other, and their families.

Werlin, Nancy.  Black Mirror.  Dial Books for Young Readers, 2001. Mystery
After her brother Daniel's death, sixteen-year-old Frances uncovers surprising truths about their boarding school's charitable group, of which Daniel was a member.