2006-2007 Book Nominees

	Avi & Rachel Vail (2004) NEVER MIND!: A TWIN NOVEL. New York: HarperCollins. Twelve-year-old New York City twins Meg and Edward have nothing in common, so they are just as shocked as everyone else when Meg's hopes for popularity and Edward's mischievous schemes coincidentally collide in a hilarious showdown.	Booktalk Study Guide Literature Circle Guide Author Website (Avi) Author Website (Rachel Vail)
	Balliett, Blue (2005) CHASING VERMEER. Illustrated by Brett Helquist. New York: Scholastic, Inc. When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.	Booktalk Interactive Website Research Links Info about the Author
	Bartek, Mary (2004) FUNERALS & FLY FISHING. New York: Henry Holt & Co. The summer after sixth grade, Brad Stanislawski travels to Pennsylvania by himself to visit the grandfather he has never met before, and overcomes some of the preconceived ideas he has gotten from his mother.	Book Reviews Author Website Beginning Fly tying
	Bell, Hilari (2005) THE WIZARD TEST. New York: Eos (HarperCollins). Fourteen year-old Dayven is devastated when he learns he has wizard powers, since wizards are considered to be disloyal deceivers who believe in nothing, until he undergoes wizard training and discovers a new way of looking at the world that will change his values, friendships, and future.	Booktalk Reading Guide Author Website
	Brown, Jackie (2004) LITTLE CRICKET. New York: Hyperion. After the upheaval of the Vietnam War reaches them, twelve-year-old Kia and her Hmong family flee from the mountains of Laos to a refugee camp in Thailand and eventually to the alien world of Saint Paul, Minnesota.	Publisher’s Website and Chapter Excerpt Summary and Analysis
	Creech, Sharon (2002) RUBY HOLLER. New York: HarperCollins. Thirteen-year-old fraternal twins Dallas and Florida have grown up in a terrible orphanage but their lives change forever when an eccentric but sweet older couple invites them each on an adventure, beginning in an almost magical place called Ruby Holler.	Booktalk Lit Circle Guide Author Website
	Fleischman, Sid (2005) THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA OR PIRATES GALORE. New York: Greenwillow (HarperCollins). A cabin boy on a pirate ship finds himself in San Diego in 1846 as war breaks out between the United States and Mexico.	Booktalk Study Guide Author Website
	Gutman, Dan (2005) ABNER AND ME. New York: HarperCollins. With his ability to travel through time using baseball cards and photographs, thirteen-year-old Joe and his mother go back to 1863 to ask Abner Doubleday whether he invented baseball, but instead find themselves in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg.	Reviews Abner Doubleday Resources Author Website
	Hale, Marian (2004) THE TRUTH ABOUT SPARROWS. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Twelve-year-old Sadie promises that she will always be Wilma's best friend when their families leaves drought-stricken Missouri in 1933, but once in Texas, Sadie learns that she must try to make a new home--and new friends, too.	Reviews Teachers’ Guide About the Author
	Hobbs, Will (2004) LEAVING PROTECTION. New York: HarperCollins. Sixteen-year-old Robbie Daniels, happy to get a job aboard a troller fishing for king salmon off southeastern Alaska, finds himself in danger when he discovers that his mysterious captain is searching for long-buried Russian plaques that lay claim to Alaska and the Northwest.	Booktalk Reviews Author Website
	Hughes, Pat. (2004) THE BREAKER BOYS. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. In 1897, Nate Tanner, the hot-tempered twelve-year-old son of wealthy Pennsylvania mine owners, goes against his father's wishes by befriending some of the boys who work in the mines and gets caught up in a disasterous clash between mine workers and the law.	Booktalk Teachers’ Guide Additional Links on Mining Author Website
	Ives, David (2005) SCRIB. New York: HarperCollins. In 1863, a boy nicknamed Scrib travels around the West making his living writing and delivering letters, an occupation that leads to him nearly getting killed, being jailed as a criminal, joining up with the notorious Crazy James Kincaid, and delivering a letter from President Abraham Lincoln to a Paiute Indian.	Reviews Author Interview Other books about letter-writing
	Johnson, Angela (2004) BIRD. New York: Dial (Penguin Group). Devastated by the loss of a second father, thirteen-year-old Bird follows her stepfather from Cleveland to Alabama in hopes of convincing him to come home, and along the way helps two boys cope with their difficulties.	Reviews Teachers’ Guide Author Info
	Martin, Ann M. (2004) HERE TODAY. New York: Scholastic Press. In 1963, when her flamboyant mother abandons the family to pursue her dream of becoming an actress, eleven-year-old Ellie Dingman takes charge of her younger siblings, while also trying to deal with her outcast status in school and frightening acts of prejudice toward the "misfits" that live on her street.	Booktalk Reviews Teachers’ Guide Author Website
	Ogilvy, Ian (2004) MEASLE AND THE WRATHMONK. New York: HarperCollins. Twelve-year-old orphan Measle Stubbs is shrunk down to half an inch tall and placed in a toy train set by his evil guardian, the Wrathmonk.	Reviews Author Website Publishers Website
	Pinkwater, Daniel (2004) LOOKING FOR BOBOWICZ. Illustrated by Jill Pinkwater. New York: HarperCollins Upon moving to Hoboken, New Jersey, a boy convinces his two new friends to help him track down the mysterious phantom who stole his bicycle, as well as Arthur Bobowicz, owner of a giant chicken that once terrorized local citizens.	Reviews Teachers Guide (scroll in page) Author Interview (audio) Author Website
	Sheth, Kashmira (2004) BLUE JASMINE. New York: Hyperion. Twelve-year-old Seema moves from India to Iowa City and struggles to learn a new culture. When her grandmother falls ill and she visits India again, circumstances help her understand the meaning of "home" and how it is possible to have more than one.	Readers Theatre (scroll down) Teachers’ Guide Author Website
	Spradlin, Michael P. (2005) SPY GODDESS, BOOK ONE: LIVE AND LET SHOP. New York: HarperCollins. Beverly Hills teenager Rachel Buchanan gets in trouble with the law and winds up at mysterious Blackthorn Academy in Pennsylvania, where she uncovers secrets about the school and becomes entangled in a case of international espionage.	Chapter Excerpt Publisher’s Info Author Info
	Stahler, David, Jr. (2004) TRUESIGHT. New York: HarperCollins. In a distant frontier world, thirteen-year-old Jacob is uncertain of his future in a community that considers blindness a virtue and "Seers" as aberrations.	Booktalk Reviews Author Info
	Woodworth, Chris (2005) WHEN RATBOY LIVED NEXT DOOR. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. When his strange family moves into her quiet southern Indiana town, sixth-grader Lydia Carson initially despises her new neighbor and classmate, who seems as wild as the raccoon that is his closest companion.	Reviews Teacher’s Worksheets Author Website