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Maine Student Book Award

2001-2002 READING LIST (© 2000 titles)

 

Adoff, Arnold.  The Basket Counts.  Simon & Schuster.  Illus. by Michael Weaver.  Poetry.  Gr. 4-8. 46 p. Twenty-eight poems about basketball capture the feel of the game, its sounds, images, movement -- even the texture of the ball and the sweet anticipation of play.  Excellent read-aloud.

 

Almond, David.  Kit's Wilderness.  Delacorte.  Contemporary fiction.  Gr. 6-8. 240 p. Thirteen-year-old Kit Watson moves to a coal mining region of Wales and experiences the power of an initiation game, "Death."  Through writing and his grandfather's wisdom, he finds deep meanings in life.

 

Avi. Ereth's Birthday. HarperCollins. Fantasy. Gr. 4-6. 180 p. Ereth, a grouchy porcupine who simply wants a little salt and some peace and quiet, finds himself baby-sitting three lively young fox kits whose mother has died in a trap. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Bauer, Joan. Hope Was Here. Putnam. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 6-8. 186 p. Sixteen-year-old Hope and her aunt move from restaurant to restaurant, waitressing and cooking, until they find the Welcome Stairways Diner, where Hope finds a home and reason to remain hopeful.

 

Bishop, Nic. Digging for Bird-Dinosaurs: An Expedition to Madagascar. Houghton Mifflin. Nonfiction. Gr. 4-8. 48p. Cathy Forster, a paleontologist on a dig on the island of Madagascar, searches for the connection between birds and "agile meat-eating dinosaurs" such as Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

 

Burgess, Melvin. The Copper Treasure. Henry Holt. Historical fiction. Gr. 4-6. 104 p. Set in Victorian England, a young boy and his friends scavenge bits of coal and rope to make small amounts of money along the River Thames until they discover a risky way to make their fortune.

 

Cerullo, Mary M. The Truth About Great White Sharks. Chronicle Books. Nonfiction. Gr. 4-8. 48 p. Informative text and action-packed photographs unveil the mystery surrounding one of the fiercest predators in the sea.

 

Coburn, Jewell Reinhart. Domitila. Shen's Books. Illus. by Connie McLennan. Folklore. Gr. 4-6 Unpaged. In this adaption of a Cinderella tale from Mexico, love and cooking skills serve as magic, and happiness is the result of human goodness and delicious nopales. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Creech, Sharon. The Wanderer. HarperCollins. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 4-8. 305 p. Thirteen-year-old Sophie and her cousin Cody recount, through two alternating voices, their journey across the Atlantic in a forty-five-foot sailboat. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Cushman, Karen. Matilda Bone. Clarion. Historical fiction. Gr. 4-8. 167 p. Set in medieval England, fourteen-year-old Matilda finds herself apprenticed to a bonesetter and yearns for her former spiritual life before accepting a more practical one. Excellent read-aloud.

 

DeFelice, Cynthia. Death at Devil's Bridge. Farrar Straus & Giroux, Mystery. Gr. 6-8. 181 p. Ben works on a charter fishing boat, but summer's calm is disrupted by a car sinking into the ocean, a missing person, and rumors of drug deals.

 

Deuker, Carl. Night Hoops. Houghton Mifflin, Contemporary fiction. Gr. 7-8. 256 p. Nick discovers basketball as a means to win his father's approval and in the process helps his troubled neighbor, Trent, work toward a more hopeful future.

 

DiCamillo, Kate. Because of Winn-Dixie. Candlewick. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 4-6. 182 p. Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni makes friends in her new home in Florida and learns how to getalong in life with the help of a stray dog she meets in the Winn-Dixie grocery store. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Etchemendy, Nancy. The Power of UN. Front Street. Fantasy. Gr. 4-8. 148 p. Gib Finney has a chance to save his little sister's life if he can discover the best way to use the hidden power in a handmade tool which has the power to "undo" events. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Fradin, Dennis Brindell & Judith Bloom. Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Houghton Mifflin. Biography. Gr. 6-8. 178 p. Born in 1862, Ida Barnett Wells became a journalist, lecturer, and civil rights activist, who among other achievements helped bring an end to lynchings.

 

Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Loses Control. Farrar Straus & Giroux. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 4-8. 196 p. When Joey, with his medicine patches for ADHD and his dog, spends the summer with the Dad whom he barely remembers he finds that his father is as hyper as he is. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Giff, Patricia Reilly. Nory Ryan's Song. Random House. Historical fiction. Gr. 4-8. 148 p. Set in the midst of the Irish Potato Famine in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory Ryan helps her family and neighbors deal with hunger, loss and separation. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Greenberg, Jan. Frank O. Gehry: Outside In. DK Publishing. Biography. Gr. 4-8. 48 p. Gehry is a famous architect who creates very unusual buildings. Readers will want to enter the debate about whether they're fantastic or just weird.

 

Harrison, Michael. Facing the Dark. Holiday House. Mystery thriller. Gr. 5-8. 128 p. When Charley's dad is found dead in his cab and Simon's father, owner of a rival company, is arrested for murder, the two teenagers join forces to discover the truth about the violent crime.

 

Hill, Kirkpatrick. The Year of Miss Agnes. Simon and Schuster. Historical fiction. Gr. 4-6. 113 p. Ten-year-old Fred tells the story of a one-room  schoolhouse in a small Athabascan Indian village and the difference that a remarkable teacher made in students' lives. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Honey, Elizabeth. Don't Pat the Wombat! Knopf. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 5-8. 143 p. With the help of drawings and photos, Nicko tells about his school's camping trip in Australia with a mean teacher as one of the chaperones. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Horowitz, Anthony. The Devil and His Boy. Putnam. Historical fiction. Gr. 4-8. 182 p. Thirteen-year-old Tom Falconer is rescued from servitude only to find himself lost in Elizabethan London where he encounters close calls laced with adventure, mystery and good wit.

 

Ibbotson, Eva. Island of the Aunts. Dutton. Fantasy. Gr. 4-6. 281 p. Three aunts plan to save their island's mermaids and ghosts by kidnapping three unwanted children whom they plan to teach to take over the island. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Janeczko, Paul, ed. Stone Bench in an Empty Park. Orchard. Photography by Henri Silberman. Poetry. Gr. 4-8. Unpaged. Blending the spirit of haiku poetry with black and white photography, this anthology brings a sense of nature's elements to urban living and serves as a link to literature, art or sociology.  Excellent read-aloud.

 

Konigsburg, E. L. Silent to the Bone.  Atheneum. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 6-8. 261 p. Thirteen-year-old Conor discovers a way to break the silence of his best friend, Branwell Zamborska, and help him discover the truth about what happened between his baby sister and the au pair.

 

Lalicki, Tom.  Spellbinder: The Life of Harry Houdini. Holiday House.  Biography. Gr. 4-8. 88 p. Houdini, an immigrant child who worked hard to help support his family, later became a sensation as the world's greatest magician and escape artist.

 

Levine, Ellen. Darkness Over Denmark. Holiday House. Nonfiction. Gr. 5-8. 164 p. Remarkable stories of Resistance fighters and rescuers, these tales chronicle how Danish Jews were saved following Germany's Invasion of Denmark early in World War II.

 

Lowry, Lois. Gathering Blue. Houghton Mifflin. Fantasy. Gr. 5-8. 215 p. In a future world where technology has collapsed and village elders rule, Kira's life is in jeopardy because of her physical disability. Spared because she possesses talents important to the community, she must come to terms with how she is being used.

 

Murphy, Jim. Blizzard! Scholastic. Nonfiction. Gr. 5-8. 136 p. In 1888, before weather satellites and 24-hour news services, people in New York had no idea that a huge blizzard, bringing life or death situations, was on its way. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Myers, Walter Dean. 145th Street. Delacorte. Short Stories. Gr. 6-8. 151 p. Ten short stories introduce unforgettable people as they go about their lives on a Harlem city block, creating a vivid portrait of a neighborhood. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed. Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets. Greenwillow. Poetry. Gr. 5-8. 112 p. Written by Nye's students, this is a selection of poems about our private selves, the places we live, our families and our imaginations. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder. Dial Books. Historical fiction. Gr. 5-8. 130 p. Grandma Dowdel is back and larger-than-life as her granddaughter, Mary Alice, returns to live with her for a year during the Depression in 1937.  Excellent read-aloud.

 

Philbrick, Rodman. The Last Book in the Universe. Scholastic. Science fiction. Gr. 5-8. 223 p. Set in the perilous gang territories of a future world where mind probing has taken the place of books, teenager Spaz meets an old gummy, Ryter, and travels to save the life of his sister.

 

Pullman, Philip. I Was A Rat! Knopf. Fantasy. Gr. 4-6. 167 p. In a twist on a familiar fairy tale, a boy named Roger, who was a rat before being transformed by a beautiful lady on the night of a ball, tells his adventures.  Excellent read-aloud.

 

Rubin, Susan Goldman. Fireflies in the Dark. Holiday House. Biography. Gr. 4-8. 48 p. Art and narrative tell the Holocaust story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the children of Terezin.

 

Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Esperanza Rising. Scholastic. Historical fiction. Gr. 4-8. 262 p. Esperanza, the child of wealthy Mexican parents, is forced to leave Mexico with her mother and take up a life in California migrant worker camps, where she grows to understand an old Mexican proverb about what it means to be rich.  Excellent read-aloud.

 

Schwartz, Virginia Frances. Send One Angel Down. Holiday House. Historical fiction. Gr. 6-8. 163 p. Eliza, who is born of a black mother and a white father on a plantation, is tormented by the master's children because she has blue eyes.  She must face many challenges on her way to freedom.

 

Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Knopf. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 5-8. 186 p. In a story about popularity and school, eleventh-grader Stargirl, a unique, magical student, is first celebrated then shunned by her classmates. Excellent read-aloud.

 

Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 5-8. 114 p. Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel's total recall sustains him through life since his cerebral palsy has left his body non-functional.  Panic ensues when he knows his dad is thinking of killing him out of love.

 

Whelan, Gloria. Homeless Bird. HarperCollins. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 6-8. 216 p. Set in India, a young girl, Koly, is "married off" to a sickly boy who dies shortly after the marriage. Ill-treated by her in-laws, Koly finds that forbearance, luck and her ability with a needle save her.

 

White, Ruth. Memories of Summer. Farrar Straus & Giroux. Historical fiction. Gr. 5-8. 135 p. In 1955, thirteen-year-old Lyric moves with her dad and older sister, Summer, from rural Virginia to industrial Flint, Michigan where the sisters' close, loving relationship strains as Summer falls victim to mental illness.

 

Woodson, Jacqueline. Miracle's Boys. Putnam. Contemporary fiction. Gr. 6-8. 131 p. Living in a poor urban area, three orphaned brothers struggle independently--and finally collectively--to survive and move forward.

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