Georgia Children’s Book Award
07-08 Novel Nominees

Links researched by Ellen Gadberry, MLM

	Clements, Andrew (2004). THE REPORT CARD. Scholastic. Fifth-grader Nora Rowley has always hidden the fact that she is a genius from everyone because all she wants is to be normal, but when she comes up with a plan to prove that grades are not important, things begin to get out of control.	Author Interview Author Website Teaching Guide
	Hobbs, Valerie (2006).  SHEEP. Frances Foster After a fire destroys the farm where he was born, a young border collie acquires a series of owners and learns about life as he seeks a home and longs to fulfill his life's purpose of shepherding sheep.	Author Website Publisher Website All About Border Collies
	Mead, Alice (2006).  ISABELLA’S ABOVE-GROUND POOL.  Farrar Books.    Nine-year-old Isabella's motto is "I won't share 'cuz it's not fair," until a tornado destroys a neighbor's house and she realizes that the money she has earned to buy a swimming pool might be put to a better use.	Booktalk Author info Illustrator Website
	Ullman, Barb Bentler (2006).  THE FAIRIES OF NUTFOLK WOOD.  KatherinTegan Books. After her parents divorce and she moves to the country with her mother, fourth-grader Willa Jane, anxious and unhappy with the changes in her life, discovers a world of little people called Nutfolk living in the woods around her new home.	Author Website Publisher Website Discussion Guide

Especially for the Upper Grades (7-8)

	Grimes, Nikki (2003).  BRONX MASQUERADE. Penguin. While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.	Booktalk Author Website Teacher’s Guide
	Hobbs, Will (2006).   CROSSING THE WIRE.  HarperCollins. Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support his family in central Mexico.	Booktalk Author Website Teacher’s Guide
	Howe, James (2003).  THE MISFITS. Simon & Schuster. Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.	Booktalk Author Interview Teacher’s Guide
	Klise, Kate (2005). DELIVER US FROM NORMAL. Scholastic. With a mother who buys Christmas cards in August and a younger brother who describes the Trinity as a toasted marshmallow on a graham cracker, life for eleven-year-old Charles Harrisong is anything but normal in Normal, Illinois.	Booktalk Publisher Website Author Website
	Woodworth, Chris (2006).  GEORGIE’S MOON. Farrar. With a chip on her shoulder and a talent for disruption, seventh-grader Georgie Collins moves with her mom to a small Indiana town, where they await the return of Georgie's father from Vietnam.	Booktalk Author Website Publisher Website

Possibly for All Grades (4-8)

	Ayers, Katherine (2003). MACARONI BOY. Delacorte. In Pittsburgh in 1933, sixth-grader Mike Costa notices a connection between several strange occurrences, but the only way he can find out the truth about what's happening is to be nice to the class bully. Includes historical facts	Booktalk Author Website Discussion Guide
	Boniface, William (2006). HERO REVEALED. HarperCollins. Ordinary Boy, the only resident of Superopolis without a superpower, uncovers and foils a sinister plot to destroy the town.	Review Publisher Website Author Interview
	Couloumbis, Audrey (2005).  THE MISADVENTURES OF MAUDE MARCH. Random House. After the death of the stern aunt who raised them since they were orphaned, eleven-year-old Sallie and her fifteen-year-old sister escape their self-serving guardians and begin an adventure resembling those in the dime novels Sallie loves to read.	Booktalk Author Website Companion Website Teacher’s Guide
	Duprau, Jeanne. (2003). THE CITY OF EMBER. Random House. In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions	Booktalk Author Website Teacher’s Guide
	Hiaasen, Carl (2005). FLUSH. Knopf. With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.	Booktalk Author Website Teacher’s Guide
	Jones, Kimberly K. (2006). SAND DOLLAR SUMMER. Margaret K. McElderry Books. When twelve-year-old Lise spends the summer on an island in Maine with her self-reliant mother and bright--but oddly mute--younger brother, her formerly safe world is complicated by an aged Indian neighbor, her mother's childhood friend, and a hurricane.	Booktalk Author Website Publisher Website
	Kladstrup, Kristin (2006). THE BOOK OF STORY BEGINNINGS. Candlewick. After moving with her parents to Iowa, twelve-year-old Lucy discovers a mysterious notebook that can bring stories to life and which has a link to the 1914 disappearance of her great uncle.	Booktalk Discussion Guide Teacher’s Guide Publisher Website
	Lowry, Lois (2006). GOSSAMER. HarperCollins. While learning to bestow dreams, a young dream giver tries to save an eight-year-old boy from the effects of both his abusive past and the nightmares inflicted on him by the frightening Sinisteeds.	Booktalk Review Author Website Author Bio
	Ruby, Laura (2006).  THE WALL AND THE WING. HarperCollins. In a future New York where most people can fly and cats are a rarity, a nondescript resident of Hope House for the Homeless and Hopeless discovers that although she is shunned as a "leadfoot," she has the surprising ability to become invisible.	Author Interview Author Website Publisher Site Readers Guide
	Stanley, Diane (2006). BELLA AT MIDNIGHT. HarperCollins. Raised by peasants, Bella discovers that she is actually the daughter of a knight and finds herself caught up in a terrible plot that will change her life and the kingdom forever.	Booktalk Author Website Teaching Guide
	Yep, Laurence (2006). THE EARTH DRAGON AWAKES. HarperCollins. Eight-year-old Henry and nine-year-old Chin love to read about heroes in popular "penny dreadful" novels, until they both witness real courage while trying to survive the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.	Booktalk Publisher Website Teacher Resource Page

Alternates

	Hale, Sharon (2005). PRINCESS ACADEMY. Bloomsbury. While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland.	Booktalk Author Website Discussion Guide
	Peck, Richard (2006). HERE LIES THE LIBRARIAN. Dial. Fourteen-year-old Eleanor "Peewee" McGrath, a tomboy and automobile enthusiast, discovers new possibilities for her future after the 1914 arrival in her small Indiana town of four young librarians.	Booktalk Reader Review Author Biography
	Thurlo, David (2004). THE SPIRIT LINE. Viking. When the special rug fifteen-year-old Crystal Manyfeathers is weaving for her kinaalda, the traditional Navajo womanhood ceremony, is stolen from her loom, there are any number of suspects.	Booktalk Author Website Teaching Guide