7-26-18

• Save Me A Seat - Joe's lived in the same town all his life. Ravi's family just moved to America from India. Both boys have a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and a common mission: to take control of their lives over the course of a single crazy week. 

• The thing about Jellyfish - After her best friend drowns, Suzy is convinced that the cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone.  

• Posted - When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends start leaving sticky notes for each other. Soon all the kids in school are leaving notes. For every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well. 

• Best Man - Archer Magill has spent grade school in search of grown-up role models. Two are his uncle and Mr. McLeod, a teacher. When Archer is in sixth grade, his beloved uncle Paul marries another man—Archer’s teacher.

• Goodbye Stranger - Bridge is an accident survivor, wondering why she's still alive. Emily has new curves and an almost-boyfriend, wanting a certain kind of picture. Tabitha sees through everybody's games. The 3 girls are best friends, wondering if they survive middle school.

• The Seventh Most Important Thing - The judge is ready to send Arthur to juvie for throwing a brick a Junk Man picking trash. Amazingly, it’s the Junk Man himself who offers an alternative: 120 hours of community service . . . working for him. 

• Hello Universe - Misfits embark on a quest when a bully's prank traps a boy and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms. 

• Lost in the Sun - When Trent was in fifth grade, a freak accident left one kid dead, and Trent with terrible thoughts he can't get rid of. Trent thinks the disaster was his fault, so middle school feels like a fresh start, a chance to prove he's not a horrible screw-up.

• Fish in a Tree - Every time Ally lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels  teaches Ally not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. 

• Slob - Owen is the fattest kid in school. But he's also a genius who invents contraptions.  Genius or not, there is much Owen can't outthink. Like his gym coach, who's on a mission to humiliate him. No matter how large he is on the outside, he doesn't have to feel small on the inside. 

• Wonder - August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face 

• When Friendship followed me Home - Ben Coffin, a former foster kid, avoids bullies and spends his afternoons reading sci-fi books at the library. But that all changes when he finds a scruffy abandoned dog named Flip and befriends the librarian’s daughter, Halley. 

7-26-18

7-26-18

• The Crossover - 12-year old, deadlocked,  Josh Bell and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood. Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family. 

• Inside Out & Back Again - For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, and the warmth of her friends close by. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food . . . and the strength of her very own family.

• House Arrest - Timothy is on probation.  He is under house arrest for the next year. He must check in weekly with a probation officer and a therapist, and keep a journal for an entire year. And mostly, he has to stay out of trouble. But when he must take drastic measures to help his struggling family, staying out of trouble proves more difficult than Timothy ever thought it would be.

• The Red Pencil - Finally, Amira is twelve. Old enough to wear a toob, old enough for new responsibilities. And maybe old enough to go to school in Nyala--Amira's one true dream. But life in her peaceful Sudanese village is shattered when the Janjaweed arrive. The terrifying attackers ravage the town and unleash unspeakable horrors. After she loses nearly everything, Amira needs to dig deep within herself to find the strength to make the long journey--on foot--to safety at a refugee camp. Her days are tough at the camp, until the gift of a simple red pencil opens her mind--and all kinds of possibilities 

• Shark Girl - On a sunny day in June, at the beach with her mom and brother, fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything -- absolutely everything -- changed. Now she's counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where she knows kids will whisper, "That's her -- that's Shark Girl," as she passes. In the meantime there are only questions: Why did this happen? Why her? What about her art? What about her life? In this striking first novel, Kelly Bingham uses poems, letters, telephone conversations, and newspaper clippings to look unflinchingly at what it's like to lose part of yourself - and to summon the courage it takes to find yourself again. 

• Planet Middle School - For twelve years, Joylin Johnson's life has been just fine, thank you very much. A game of basketball with the boys-especially her friend Jake-was all it took to put a smile on her face. Baggy jeans, T-shirt, and hair in a ponytail were easy choices. Then suddenly the world seemed to turn upside down, and everything changed at once. Her best girl friend is now flirting with her best guy friend. Her clothes seem all wrong. Jake is acting weird, and basketball isn't the same. And worst of all, there is this guy, Santiago, who appears from . . . where? What lengths will Joy go to-and whom will she become-to attract his attention?

• Shakespeare Bats Cleanup - When MVP Kevin Boland gets the news that he has mono and won't be seeing a baseball field for a while, he suddenly finds himself scrawling a poem down the middle of a page in his journal. To get some help, he cops a poetry book from his dad's den - and before Kevin knows it, he's writing in verse about stuff like, Will his jock friends give up on him? What's the deal with girlfriends? Surprisingly enough, after his health improves, he keeps on writing, about the smart-talking Latina girl who thinks poets are cool, and even about his mother, whose death is a still-tender loss. 

• Booked - Soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.   

• Beanball - It's the last inning of a high school baseball game between arch-rivals Oak Grove and Compton. Center fielder Luke "Wizard" Wallace steps up to the plate--and is hit by a beanball, a wild pitch that shatters his skull, destroys the vision in his left eye, and changes his life forever. In this riveting novel, the events surrounding this pivotal moment are recounted through free-verse monologues by 28 different voices, including those of Luke and his Oak Grove teammates; the pitcher, Kyle Dawkins, and other Compton players; the two coaches; Luke's family members and teachers; and Sarah Edgerton, a new classmate who seems more affected by Luke's injury than his girlfriend is. 

• Locomotion - When Lonnie was seven years old, his parents died in a fire. Now he's eleven, and he still misses them terribly. And he misses his little sister, Lili, who was put into a different foster home because "not a lot of people want boys-not foster boys that ain't babies." But Lonnie hasn't given up. His foster mother, Miss Edna, is growing on him. She's already raised two sons and she seems to know what makes them tick. And his teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper.  

• Love that Dog - Jack hates poetry. Only girls write it and every time he tries to, his brain feels empty. But his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry, won't stop giving her class poetry assignments -- and Jack can't avoid them. But then something amazing happens. The more he writes, the more he learns he does have something to say. 

• Yellow Star - The niece of Syvia Perlmutter, one of only twelve child survivors of the Lodz ghetto in Poland, shares her aunt's experiences of the Holocaust in free verse that relates the courage and heartbreak she lived during a time of terrible circumstances. 

6-5-18

6-3-18

• Fantasy Sports -  A young explorer and his musclebound friend go treasure hunting in a mummy's tomb—but they have to best the mummy in a game of hoops! Can they trust their bandaged adversary to play by the rules? Or will they be stuck in the tomb . . . forever? 

• El Deafo - At her old school, everyone in Cece's class was deaf. Here she is different. She is sure the kids are staring at the Phonic Ear, the powerful aid that will help her hear her teacher. Too bad it also seems certain to repel potential friends. Then Cece makes a startling discovery. With the Phonic Ear she can hear her teacher anywhere in school--in the hallway...in the teacher's lounge...in the bathroom! Is this a superpower?

• The Lunch Witch -  Grunhilda inherited her famous ancestors’ recipes and cauldron, but no one believes in magic anymore.  She finds a job listing that might suit her: lunch lady. She delights in scaring the kids until she meets a timid little girl named Madison. Madison needs help at school and at home, but helping people goes against everything Grunhilda believes in as a witch!

• Sunny Side Up - Sunny Lewin has been sent to Florida to live with her grandfather at his retirement community for the summer. Luckily, Sunny isn't the only kid around. She meets Buzz, a boy who is completely obsessed with comic books, and soon they're having adventures of their own. But she worries about her brother, the reason she's been exiled to Florida.

• Awkward - On her first day at her new school, Penelope--Peppi--Torres trips into a quiet boy in the hall, Jaime Thompson. So she shoves the 'nerd' and runs away! Surrounding herself with new friends in the art club, Peppi feels bad about the way she treated Jaime. But when their two clubs go to war, things become even more awkward. 

• In Real Life - Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role-playing game. Anda befriends a gold farmer--a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This is against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon realizes things are less straightforward when a real person's real livelihood is at stake. 

• Baba Yaga's Assistant - Masha's beloved grandma taught her many things about Baba Yaga. The fearsome witch of folklore needs an assistant, and Masha needs an adventure. To earn her place, Masha must pass a series of twisted tests.

• The Lumberjanes - Five best friends spending the summer at Lumberjane scout camp...defeating yetis, three-eyed wolves, and giant falcons, plus solving a mystery with the whole world at stake. The girls are determined to have an awesome summer together...and they’re not gonna let any insane quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way!  

• The Nameless City - Kaidu is Dao born and bred--a son of the latest nation to occupy the Nameless City. Cynical, street-smart Rat is a native, and at first she hates Kai for everything he stands for. But Kai's love of his new home may be the one thing that can unite these two unlikely friends... because the fate of the Nameless City rests in their hands. 

• Roller Girl - Twelve-year-old Astrid has always done everything with her best friend Nicole. So when Astrid signs up for roller derby camp, she assumes Nicole will too. But Nicole signs up for dance camp with a new friend instead, and so begins the toughest summer of Astrid's life. 

• Smile - One night after Girl Scouts Raina trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth, and what follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there’s still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly. 

• Through the Woods - Five mysterious, spine-tingling stories follow journeys in and out of the woods.

• Nimona - As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are. But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. 

• American Born Chinese - Unrelated tales come together with an unexpected twist, in a modern fable that is hilarious, poignant and action-packed.

• Mouse Guard - Three of the Guard's finest have been dispatched. The mission seems simple: They are to find a missing mouse, a grain merchant who never arrived at his destination. But when they find him, they make a shocking discovery—one that involves a treacherous betrayal, a stolen secret, and a rising power that has only one goal: to bring down the Guard... 

5-27-18

5-27-18

5-21-18

Runner-Up Princess Books:

5-16-18