The Aviary by Kathleen O'Dell

"As a child, Clara Dooley had felt that the Glendoveer mansion contained the whole world."

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In late nineteenth-century Maine, isolated, eleven-year-old Clara Dooley gains a friend and uncovers a magical secret that changes her life when she learns to care for the once-feared birds in the aviary attached to the Glendoveer mansion where she lives.

Alfred A. Knopf; 339 pages

Desert Angel by Charlie Price

"The fight started after midnight, Scotty drunk, Angel's mother shrill on crystal."

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Fourteen-year-old Angel wakes up one morning at her desert trailer home to discover her mother has been murdered by a lowlife named Scotty, who has vanished. Angel has no water, no weapon, but she knows that Scotty, an expert tracker and hunter, will surface soon in order to eliminate her as a witness. She has to run, to disappear, if she is to survive and tell the world what happened. Her flight takes her through a harsh landscape to places she never expected to be, forcing her to trust others for the first time and strengthening her in ways she doesn't even anticipate . . . until it's time to take a stand.

Farrar Straus Giroux; 236 pages

True (...sort of) by Katherine Hannigan

"Delly Pattison was tiny."

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For most of her eleven years, Delly has been in trouble without knowing why, until her little brother, R.B., and a strange, silent new friend, Ferris, help her find a way to be good--and happy--again.

Greenwillow Books; 360 pages

The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson

"The old doll-maker Tatsuhiko poured boiling water into the teapot with trembling hands and inhaled deeply."

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Throughout the twentieth century, Miss Kanagawa, one of fifty-eight dolls made to serve as ambassadors from Japan to the United States, travels the country learning to love while changing the lives of those who need her.

Delacorte Press; 201 pages

Second Reading List for 2012 Mock Newbery

It’s finally here! The second reading list for this year's ACPL Mock Newbery! This program will be held at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana on January 14, 2012. 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 list and on our first list are destined to be 'brought to the table' to be discussed in more depth at our “in person” Mock Newbery Discussion and Election. Our third and final list will be posted in mid-November.

So… without further ado… here are the ten titles on our second short list:

• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
• Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal
• Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos 
• Junonia by Kevin Henkes
• Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan
• Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richards Jacobson
• Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt
• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
• Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

We welcome continued online discussion through this blog and invite you to join us for our "in person" discussion to be held at our Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Stick by Andrew Smith

"They call me Stick."

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Thirteen-year-old Stark "Stick" McClellan's brother has always defended him against those who tease him for his thinness and facial deformity, so when Bosten, having admitted he is gay, must leave home and their abusive parents, Stick sets out to find him.

Feiwel and Friends; 292 pages

Spunky Tells All by Ann Cameron

"I could tell you everything about the Bates faimly--things you'll never hear from anybody else."

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Called a troublemaker by his human family, a reflective dog defends himself and then relates the family's adoption of an aristocratic but incompetent cat, who gives him a life purpose and and new way of looking at his world.

Farrar Straus Giroux; 105 pages

A Month of Sundays by Ruth White

"Before I was born fourteen years ago, my dad, August Rose, left my mom, Betty Rose, for a carnival singer."

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In the summer of 1956 while her mother is in Florida searching for a job, fourteen-year-old April Garnet Rose, who has never met her father, stays with her terminally ill aunt in Virginia and accompanies her as she visits different churches, looking for God.

Farrar Straus Giroux; 168 pages

Pie by Sarah Weeks

"Thank you very much."

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After the death of Polly Portman, whose award-winning pies put the town of Ipswitch, Pennsylvania, on the map in the 1950s, her devoted niece Alice and Alice's friend Charlie investigate who is going to extremes to find Aunt Polly's secret pie crust recipe. Includes fourteen pie recipes.

Scholastic Press; 183 pages

Akata Witch by Nnedi OkorAfor

"I've always been fascinated by candles."

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Twelve-year-old Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back to Nigeria, where she learns that she has latent magical powers which she and three similarly gifted friends use to catch a serial killer.

Viking; 349 pages

The Flint Heart by Katherine Paterson

"Many years ago, oh, let's say five thousand, more or less, there lived in the south of England, in what is called Darmoor, tribes of people who had never thought to make anything out of metal, much less plastic."

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A magical amulet brings power and despair to those who touch it. A robust and wildly entertaining fairy tale, freely abridged from Eden Phillpotts's 1910 fantasy.

Candlewick Press; 288 pages

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

"They took me in my nightgown."

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In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.

Philomel Books; 344 pages

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

"The monster showed up just after midnight."

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Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.

Candlewick Press; 204 pages

Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

"I traced the letters in the dust with my finger, spelling out my name: Zulaikha."

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Zulaikha, a thirteen-year-old girl in Afghanistan, faces a series of frightening but exhilirating changes in her life as she defies her father and secretly meets with an old woman who teaches her to read, her older sister gets married, and American troops offer her surgery to fix her disfiguring cleft lip.

Arthur A. Levine; 266 pages

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

"Something hit Ben Wilson and he opened his eyes."

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Having lost his mother and his hearing in a short time, twelve-year-old Ben leaves his Minnesota home in 1977 to seek the father he never knew in New York City, and meets there Rose, who is also longing for something missing from her life. Ben's story is told in words; Rose's in pictures.

Scholastic; 637 pages

True Blue by Jane Smiley

"I had gone into the house to change my jeans, and I was only about halfway out of my boots--which were very muddy--when the phone started ringing."

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In 1960s California, eighth-grader Abby Lovitt has trouble with True Blue, the newest horse on her family's ranch, a beautiful dappled gray who is so often spooked, Abby wonders if he is haunted by the ghost of his deceased former owner.

Alfred A. Knopf; 297 pages

With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo

"It was the eighth of July, 1957, when Ollie's daddy slowed their rusted-out Chevy pickup near the junction of Highway 29 and Carter Road."

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Thirteen-year-old Olivene Love gets tangled up in a murder mystery when her itinerant preaching family arrives in the small town of Binder, Arkansas in 1957.

Farrar Straus Giroux; 249 pages

Ten Rules for Living with My Sister by Ann M. Martin

"Half an hour ago my sister locked me out of her room."

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Nine-year-old Pearl and her popular, thirteen-year-old sister, Lexie, do not get along very well, but when their grandfather moves in and the girls have to share a room, they must find common ground.

Feiwel and Friends; 228 pages

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

"It snowed right before Jack stopped talking to Hazel, fluffy white flakes big enough to show their crystal architecture, like perfect geometric poems."

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Hazel and Jack are best friends until an accident with a magical mirror and a run-in with a villainous queen find Hazel on her own, entering an enchanted wood in the hopes of saving Jack's life. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen".

Walden Pond Press; 312 pages

Time Flies!

About one month ago, we posted our first reading list for the 2012 ACPL Mock Newbery program with a promise that the second list would be posted by the end of September. Looking at the calendar, it appears we've missed our self-imposed deadline.

Oops!

We will get the second reading list posted within the week -- REALLY! -- but we'd love your help. There has been a great variety of excellent material for children published this year. Which titles do you think should be on this second list? Keep in mind that we will have a total of three booklists this year;  the third & final list will be posted in mid-November.

Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri

"We drivin' into the sunset, the car burning up from the heat."

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Summary: Twelve-year-old Cole's behavior causes his mother to drive him from Detroit to Philadelphia to live with a father he has never known, but who soon has Cole involved with a group of African-American "cowboys" who rescue horses and use them to steer youths away from drugs and gangs.

Publisher: Candlewick Press; 218 pages

Toys Come Home: Being the Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-New Someone Called Plastic by Emily Jenkins

"Stingray has missed the birthday party."

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When a little girl gets a plush stingray for her birthday, it makes friends with some of her other toys as they all try to navigate in the world of real people.

Schwartz & Wade Books; 132 pages

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

"My dad is a hero and a Communist and, more than anything, I want to be like him."

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In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, ten-year-old Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leave Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values, and beliefs.

Henry Holt and Company; 140 pages

Mock Newbery for Kids -- Title #2

The next title on our Mock Newbery for Kids reading list is......


.....drumroll....

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
by Candace Fleming.




Children in grades 3 to 6 are invited to read this title, along with  Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, and 3 other titles that will be posted in the next few months.  On December 3, from 2:00 to 3:30, come to Children's Services at the downtown library to talk about the books, to learn a little about the Newbery Award, and to vote for your favorite book.  The winning title will be honored with the ACPL Kids' Mock Newbery Award!  Click here to register to attend on December 3.  Questions?  Send me an email, or call Children's Services at 260-421-1220.

Watch for the next Mock Newbery for Kids nominee to be posted on this blog in a few weeks.  In the meantime, happy reading! 

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Dead Bodies, Funerals, and Other Fatal Circumstances by Lenore Look

"Call me Alvin Ho."

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A fearful second grader in Concord, Massachusetts, learns about death when his grandfather's best friend passes away and he offers to accompany his grandfather to the funeral.

Schwartz & Wade; 197 pages