Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

"It was fun at first, playing house."

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Abstract: While living with her Gram in Vermont, eleven-year-old Aubrey writes letters as a way of dealing with losing her father and sister in a car accident, and then being abandoned by her grief-stricken mother.

Publisher: Wendy Lamb; 262 pages

Brooklyn Nine - A Novel in Nine Innings by Alan Gratz

"Nine months ago, Felix Schneider was the fastest boy in Bremen, Germany."

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Abstract: Follows the fortunes of a German immigrant family through nine generations, beginning in 1845, as they experience American life and play baseball.

Publisher: Dial Books; 299 pages

Lost by Jacqueline Davies

"Mama is on the bed grunting like a pig, and Ida Pelz from next door is telling her to push."

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Summary: In 1911 New York, sixteen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld must stop taking care of her irrepressible six-year-old sister when she goes to work at the Triangle Waist Company, where she befriends a missing heiress who is in hiding from her family and who seems to understand the feelings of heartache and grief that Essie is trying desperately to escape.

Marshall Cavendish; 242 pages

The Dunderheads by Paul Fleischman

"Never," shrieked Miss Breakbone, "have I been asked to teach such a scraping-together of fiddling, twiddling, time-squandering, mand-wandering, doodling, dozing, don't-knowing dunderheads!"

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Abstract: When Miss Breakbone confiscates Junkyard's crucial find, Wheels, Pencil, Spider, and the rest of the Dunderheads plot to teach her a lesson.

Publisher: Candlewick Press; 56 pages

Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal

"Winnie Rae Early followed ten steps behind me the entire way home from school."

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Abstract: Writing poetry helps fifth-grader Harper Lee Morgan cope with her father's absence, being evicted, and having to skip school to care for her brother while their mother works, and things look even brighter after she befriends a mute girl and a kindly disabled woman.

Publisher: Henry Holt; 243 pages

A Voice of Her Own - Becoming Emily Dickinson by Barbara Dana

"It was too dreary, the last of our family's possessions piled by the side of the road as if Gypsies had relinquished squatter's rights and were moving on to points unknown."

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Abstract: A fictionalized first-person account of revered American poet Emily Dickinson's girlhood in mid-nineteenth-century Amherst, Massachusetts. Award-winning author Barbara Dana brilliantly imagines the girlhood of this extraordinary young woman, capturing the cadences of her unique voice and bringing her to radiant life.

Publisher: HarperTeen; 346 pages

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon

"I tried to pretend I was somewhere else."

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Abstract: In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.

Publisher: Aladdin; 290 pages

Mock Newbery 2010 - List One

This is the first of four "short lists" we will prepare for this year's Mock Newbery Program at the Allen County Public Library. Basically, this means that while we will continue to highlight and discuss a wide variety of children's books on our blog -- and we encourage comments on all of them -- the books on this first list are destined to be 'brought to the table' to be discussed in more depth at our Mock Newbery Discussion and Election on January 9, 2010. We welcome both online discussion through this blog and invite you to register for our "in person" discussion to be held on January 9th at our Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

ACPL Mock Newbery List # 1:

1. Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin


2. All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg


3. Wild Things by Clay Carmichael


4. Happenstance Found by P.W. Catanese


5. Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane


6. The Problem with the Puddles by Kate Feiffer


7. The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice


8. Emmaline and the Bunny by Katherine Hannigan
   
   
9. Scat by Carl Hiaasen


10. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
    


11. Traveling the Freedom Road by Linda Barrett Osborne


12. Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
    


13. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead


14. Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson

I can't wait to read what YOU think about these great books! And to hear which other 2009 titles you believe are "must reads" this year.