Middle School Nominees

Out of My Mind

By Sharon Draper

     Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind.

Everybody uses words to express themselves. Except me. And I bet most people don’t realize the real power of words. But I do. Thoughts need words. Words need a voice.

     Eleven-year-old Melody Brooks has synesthesia--she has an eidetic memory, remembering everything she sees and hears. She also has cerebral palsy, a condition that affects her body but not her mind. Although she is unable to walk, talk, or feed or care for herself, she can read, think, and feel. In fact, Melody is the most brilliant kid in fifth grade, if not the whole school, but almost nobody knows because she has never spoken or written a word.

Sharon Draper

Wild Things

By Clay Carmichael

     After her mentally-ill and neglectful mother commits suicide, headstrong eleven-year-old Zoe is adopted by her equally stubborn half-uncle, widower Henry Royster. She joins the former heart surgeon and current renown artist to live in the small-town of Sugar Hill, North Carolina, where he welds outlandish structures that Zoe euphemistically calls “wild things.”

Clay Carmichael

Invisible Lines

By Mary Amato

     Seventh grader Trevor Musgrove’s family has moved again, into a shabby, rundown apartment in Hedly Gardens, locally known as Deadly Gardens. Trevor’s mom works two jobs, but barely makes enough money to pay the rent, let alone clothe and feed her three kids. With Trevor’s dad out of the picture—he’s in jail — Trevor’s in charge of his younger step-siblings while his mom works. He’d rather hang out with friends and play soccer but in his not-so free time, Trevor draws. It is his art and his sense of humor that carries Trevor through his more difficult times in life.

Mary Amato

Young Adult Nominees

Things a Brother Knows

     By Dana Reinhardt

     When Levi Katznelson’s older brother, Boaz, returns from Iraq, he’s different. Much different than the carefree Boaz that Levi remembers: he is no longer the extremely popular and very talented athlete he had been in high school. Everything has shifted and Levi is the only one that can admit, to himself at least, that Boaz is not the same boy that left. It’s as if the whole family has been holding their collective breath- everything in their lives has been on hold while he’s been gone and even more since his return. Levi has struggled to keep his head above water through high school, and has trouble understanding his brother’s pain.

Dana Reinhardt

Beautiful Creatures

By Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

     Start with Ethan Wate, a perfectly normal boy living in a small town that he can’t wait to leave. Add in the haunting and confusing dreams of a girl he’s never met that he cannot escape. Introduce Lena Duchannes, who moves into his small southern town of Gatlin; she is strangely and uniquely unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal a power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations.

Beautiful Creatures Authors

Matched

By Ally Condie

     Cassia is just turning seventeen. In the Society, seventeen is an important time because it is the matching age. The Society matches people best suited to them in order to optimize society’s potential. On the night of Cassia’s seventeenth birthday, she is matched with Xander Carrow, her best friend whom she’s known all her life. Girls rarely know their matches previously, and so Cassia is considered very lucky. She feels as if everything is perfect. But, is it?

Ally Condie

Picture Books for Older Readers

The Junkyard Wonders

By Patricia Polacco

     Trisha moved from her old town so she wouldn’t be in a special class anymore! When she finds out her class at the new school is known as “The Junkyard” she is devastated. But then she meets her teacher, the quirky and invincible Mrs. Peterson, and her classmates, she learns the true meaning of genius. She discovers how this group of students has his or her own unique talent that makes them each “wonders”.

Patricia Polacco

Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds, A Civil War Hero

By Marissa Moss

     Read about the true story of a young Canadian girl named Sarah Emma Edmonds, who disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the Civil War. She took the name Frank Thompson and joined a Michigan army regiment to battle the Confederacy. Sarah proved to be an excellent soldier and nurse on the battlefield. Her life became even more exciting when she was then asked to become a spy!

Marissa Moss

 

Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine, and a Miracle

by Brian Dennis

     Nubs, an Iraqi dog of war, never had a home or a person of his own. He was the leader of a pack of wild dogs living off the land and barely surviving. When Nubs met Marine Major Brian Dennis, the two formed a fast friendship. Nubs had no way of knowing that Marines were not allowed to have pets. Nubs became part of Dennis's human "pack" until duty required the Marines to relocate- without him. So began an incredible journey that would take Nubs through a freezing desert, filled with danger to find his friend and would lead Dennis on a mission that would touch the hearts of people all over the world.

Brian Dennis and Nubs

Intermediate Nominees

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

By Grace Lin

     Far away from here, following the Jade River, there was once a black mountain called Fruitless Mountain. It was called Fruitless Mountain because nothing would grow on it and no bird or animal lived there. Next to this mountain was a small brown, dull, muddy village where a young girl named Minli lived with her mother and father. Minli, whose name means quick thinking, was not brown and dull like the rest of her village. She had pink cheeks, glossy black hair, a flashing smile, and shining eyes that were always looking for an adventure.  Hoping to find the answer to how she might bring good fortune to her family, Minli sets out to find the Never-Ending Mountain and the Old Man in the Moon. Along the way she meets a talking goldfish, visits cities of wonder, gets help from a powerful King, and meets magical friends …including a dragon!

Grace Lin

The Giant Slayer

By Iain Lawrence

     One morning in 1950, when she was six years old, Laurie Valentine got out her crayons and drew the future in the form of a map. She told her Nanna, “It shows all the things I’m going to find when I go exploring.” Her map had an island with mountains, green forests, a scarlet lake, yellow meadows, a castle, and even a lion with wings. But for the next five years Laurie grew up without any chance to explore at all. Laurie was not allowed to go to playgrounds, the movies, swimming pools or any other places where kids gathered, especially in summer. These were the places her father and Nanna warned her about, the places where you might catch polio. Polio could make it so you’d have to walk with braces or crutches or never walk again.

Iain Lawrence

Eleven

By Patricia Reilly Giff

   
Searching the attic for presents on the night before his 11th birthday, Sam finds a locked metal box. Sticking out of the box is a newspaper clipping with a picture of a young boy, a picture of a much younger Sam. Sam, who has trouble reading, can’t read most of the words in the article, but he can make out the word in large black letters at the very top: Missing. This had to be a mistake. Wouldn’t Sam have known he’d been missing, even as a little kid? Besides, the article even had the wrong name. His name is Sam, but not Sam Bell.

Patricia Reilly Giff