Creating FINAL Reading List

For our in-person discussion on January 9th, we will work off a short list of suggested titles. The complete list of books already on our reading list can be found here. Are there other books which you would like to see included? Do you have any titles that have been missed?

If you would like to suggest a book for this final list, send me an email or leave a comment here.

Our deadline for the creation of the short list: Friday, December 4.

If you would like to register for the ACPL Mock Newbery, click here.

War Games by Audrey Couloumbis & Akila Couloumbis

"I can hit the next three birds we see," Zola said.

The summary is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.

Summary: What were once just boys' games become matters of life and death as Petros and his older brother Zola each wonder if, like their resistance fighter cousin, they too can make a difference in a Nazi-occupied Greece.

Publisher: Random House; 232 pages

Claudette Colvin : Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

"Claudette Colvin: I was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites."

The contents are hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.

Contents: First cry -- Jim Crow and the detested number ten -- Coot -- "We seemed to hate ourselves" -- "It's my constitutional right!" -- "There's the girl who got arrested" -- "Crazy" times -- "Another Negro woman has been arrested" -- Second front, second chance -- Playing for keeps -- Browder v. Gayle -- Rage in Montgomery -- History's door. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Publisher: Melanie Kroupa Books - Farrar Straus Giroux; 133 pages

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis by Barbara O'Connor

"Drip.

Drip.
Drip.
Popeye opened his eye and looked up
at the heart-shaped stain on the ceiling of his bedroom."

The summary is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.
Summary: With a healthy helping of humor and the signature Southern charm that has captivated children and critics alike, O'Connor's newest tale is a heartwarming look at the joy that can come out of being a Royal Rule Breaker, and learning to find one's own adventures.

Publisher: Frances Foster Books, 150 pages

CHILDREN'S Mock Newbery List

Here is the list for the 2010 Children's Mock Newbery Election program!

Kids in third grade through sixth grade are invited to attend. Read the books from the list, add comments to our blog, and join us for a discussion of which was the best children's book of the year! Advanced Registration required.

We will have refreshments, door prizes, and a lively discussion.

• Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
• The Great and Only Barnum: the Tremendous, Stupendous Life of P.T. Barnum by Candace Fleming
• The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
• Melonhead by Katy Kelly
• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Happy reading!

The Great and Only Barnum - The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum by Candace Fleming

"He was P.T. Barnum -- known far and wide for his bearded ladies and skeleton collections; his midgets and three-ring circuses; his wax museums, jumbo elephants, dancing bears, and mermaids."

The abstract is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.

Abstract: Biography of P.T. Barnum, showman and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Readers can visit Barnum's American Museum; meet Tom Thumb, the miniature man (only 39 in. tall) and his tinier bride (32 in.); experience the thrill Barnum must have felt when, at age 60, he joined the circus; and discover Barnum's legacy.

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade Books; 152 pages

Everything for a Dog by Ann M. Martin

"My tale begins with a tail."

The abstract is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.

Abstract: In parallel stories, Bone, an orphaned dog, finds and loses a series of homes, Molly, a family pet, helps Charlie through the grief and other after-effects of his brother's death, and lonely Henry pleads for a dog of his own.

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends; 211 pages

Road to Tater Hill by Edith M. Hemingway

"For months I had wished and wished the baby would be a girl, a little sister."

The abstract is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.

Abstract: At her grandparents' North Carolina mountain home during the summer of 1963, eleven-year-old Annie Winters, grief-stricken by the death of her newborn sister and isolated by her mother's deepening depression, finds comfort in holding an oblong stone "rock baby" and in the friendship of a neighbor boy and a reclusive mountain woman with a devastating secret.

Publisher: Random House; 213 pages

Printable Reading List

If you would like a compilation of all three 2010 reading lists -- ready to be printed out -- just click here! (We tried to leave enough room so you could make notes on each title as you read it.)

Here's List Number Three!

This is the third of four reading lists for this year's Mock Newbery at the Allen County Public Library:

• Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

• The Dream Stealer by Sid Flesichman

• Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French

• Crossing Stones by Helen Frost

• Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff

• Wings by Jason Lethcoe

• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
  

• The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon

• Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson

• Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

We'd love to hear what you think about these books. Just click on the titles above to leave comments about each book. If you would like to suggest a book for the next (and final!) list, send me an email or leave a comment here. Look for the other two lists here.