Teaching Links & Resources
Book Award Nominees (4-8)

	Crossing The Panther's Path Elizabeth Alder Farrar. 2002 Sixteen-year-old Billy Caldwell, son of a British soldier and a Mohawk woman, leaves school to join Tecumseh in his efforts to prevent the Americans from taking any more land from the Indians in the Northwest Territory.	Booktalk Lesson and Links on Chief Tecumseh Publisher's information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Ashes Of Roses Mary Jane Auch Holt. 2002. Sixteen-year-old Margaret Rose Nolan, newly arrived from Ireland, finds work at New York City's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory shortly before the 1911 fire in which 146 employees died.	Booktalk Author's Web Site Lesson and Links on Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	The Folk Keeper Franny Billingsley Aladdin. 1999. Orphan Corinna disguises herself as a boy to pose as a Folk Keeper, one who keeps the Evil Folk at bay, and discovers her heritage as a seal maiden when she is taken to live with a wealthy family in their manor by the sea.	Booktalk Author's Web Site Online excerpt Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Forbidden Forest Michael Cadnum Orchard. 2002. Profiles Little John, from his quiet life before joining Robin Hood through his adventures protecting a beautiful lady when she is wrongfully accused of murdering her husband.	Online excerpt Lesson and Links on Traditional Literature About the Author Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Wenny Has Wings Janet Lee Carey Atheneum. 2002. Having had a near-death experience in the accident that killed his younger sister, eleven-year-old Will tries to cope with the situation by writing her letters.	Booktalk Online excerpt Author's Web Site Links on afterlife and near-death experiences Publisher's information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Jericho Walls Kristi Collier Holt. 2002. In 1957, when her preacher father accepts a post in Jericho, Alabama, Jo wants to fit in but her growing friendship with a black boy forces her to confront the racism of the South and to reconsider her own values.	Submit a Booktalk Lesson and Links on U.S. Civil Rights Movement Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	The Ransom of Mercy Carter Caroline B. Cooney Delacorte. 2001. In 1704, in the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, eleven-year-old Mercy and her family and neighbors are captured by Mohawk Indians and their French allies, and forced to march through bitter cold to French Canada, where some adapt to new lives and some still hope to be ransomed.	Booktalk Online excerpt Teacher's Guide About the Author Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Coraline Neil Gaiman HarperCollins. 2002. Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.	Booktalk Reading Guide Online excerpt w/audio Author's Web Site Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	The Secret Within Theresa Golding Boyds Mills. 2002. A teenage girl, whose father is involved in criminal activity, fights to survive an abusive homelife and the loneliness that seems to have no end.	Submit a Booktalk About the Author Lesson and Links on Child Abuse Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Hannah Divided Adele Griffin Hyperion. 2002. In 1934, a thirteen-year-old with a gift for numbers is offered the chance to leave her family's dairy farm to spend one term at an exclusive Philadelphia girls' school preparing for a scholarship exam.	Submit a Booktalk Teacher's Guide About the Author Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Soldier Boys Dean Hughes Atheneum. 2001. Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II, and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.	Booktalk Online excerpt Lesson and Links on the  Battle of the Bulge Author's Web Site Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Torn Thread Anne Issacs Scholastic. 2000. In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Eva's father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia where she and her sister survive the war.	Booktalk Teacher's Guide Web Quest About the Author Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	The Boxer Kathleen Karr Farrar. 2000. Having learned how to box while in prison, fifteen-year-old Johnny sets out to discover if he can make a decent living as a fighter in late nineteenth-century New York City.	Submit a Booktalk Lesson and Links About the Author Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	An Ocean Apart, A World Away Lansey Namioka Delacorte. 2002. Despite the odds facing her decision to become a doctor in 1920's Nanking, China, teenaged Yanyan leaves her family to study at Cornell University where, along with hard work, she finds prejudice and loneliness as well as friendship and a new sense of accomplishment.	Submit a Booktalk Teacher's Guide Author's Web Site Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found Sara Nickerson HarperCollins. 2002. With a swimming medal, the key to a mansion, and a comic book about a half-man/half-rat as her only clues, a twelve-year-old girl seeks the true story of her father's mysterious death four years earlier near an island in the Pacific Northwest.	Booktalk Online excerpt About the Author Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Trouble Don't Last Shelley Pearsall Knopf. 2002. Samuel, an eleven-year-old Kentucky slave, and Harrison, the elderly slave who helped raise him, attempt to escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad.	Booktalk About the Author Lesson and Links on the Underground Railroad Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Rising Water P.J. Petersen Simon & Schuster. 2002. Tracy, her brother, and the new animal care volunteer at the Jefferson Science Center travel by boat to feed a dog stranded by flooding, and end up having a full day of dangerous adventures, which give them new perspectives about themselves and about each other.	Submit a Booktalk Author's Web Site Lesson and Links on Flood Safety Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Loser Jerry Spinelli HarperCollins. 2002. Even though his classmates from first grade on have considered him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff's optimism and exuberance and the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.	Booktalk Online excerpt Author's Web Site Teacher's Guide Reading Guide About the Author Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Surviving the Applewhites Stephanie S. Tolan HarperCollins. 2002. Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had.	Booktalk Teacher's Guide Author's Web Site Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas
	Goosed! Bill Wallace Holiday House. 2002. When Jeff's girlfriend leaves a Labrador retriever puppy with his family for a week, his dog T.P. and cat Cord hope the energetic puppy does not stay any longer.	Submit a Booktalk About the Author Publisher's Information Submit additional teaching ideas