MARK TWAIN AWARD NOMINEES 2011-2012. Potato Chip Puzzles The whiz kid from The Puzzling World of...
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MARK TWAIN AWARD NOMINEES 2011-2012. Potato Chip Puzzles The whiz kid from The Puzzling World of Winston Breen (Putnam, 2007) returns to reason through
Potato Chip Puzzles The whiz kid from The Puzzling World of
Winston Breen (Putnam, 2007) returns to reason through his second
mystery. Winston and his two friends, Mal and Jake, are sent to
represent Walter Fredericks Junior High in a daylong puzzle
competition sponsored by the eccentric owner of Simon's Snack
Foods. Their teacher, Mr. Garvey, is determined to win the $50,000
prize for their school and constantly chides the boys to take the
day seriously. As Winston's group scrambles around town tracking
clues and solving riddles, they are waylaid by a saboteur they
suspect is connected to one of the competing schools.
Slide 3
Heart of a Shepherd 11-year-old Brother (his given name is
Ignatius: "Guess they ran out of all the good saints by the time
they got to me") helps manage his family's Oregon ranch. With his
father in Iraq, his four older brothers at school or in the
military, and his mother painting abroad, caring for family's
livestock falls to Brother, his grandparents and some hired help.
Though he is eager to prove to his siblings, grandparents and most
importantly, his father, that he can handle it, Brother nonetheless
struggles with the rigors of the job, his father's and brothers'
absence and the stress of war
Slide 4
Secret of Zoom Christina lives in a big, old stone mansion on
the edge of a dark forest surrounded by barbed wire. Deep within
the forest is the laboratory where her father worksand where her
mother was blown to bits years ago. Christinas father knows just
how dangerous the world can be, so he keeps her safe at home,
forbidding her from talking to the very interesting orphans down
the road. But when an orphan boy named Taft talks to her, shes
thrilled to help him search for a secret tunnel. But soon she
discovers theres more to the orphanage, the lab, and the mystery of
her mothers accident than she ever suspected. Sinister things are
in the worksand the secret of zoom is the most dangerous secret of
all!
Slide 5
Runaway Twin Sunny Skyland has missed her twin sister ever
since they were separated at age three after their mother and
grandmother were killed in an automobile accident. Sunny has kept
her memories of Starr alive over the past decade and in seven
foster homes. Then, the discovery of a canvas bag containing $800,
with no claimant, spurs Sunny to travel from Nebraska to her old
neighborhood in Enumclaw, WA. Sunny is an experienced runaway who
plans carefully and tells no one. She boards a bus for the first
leg of her journey but then complicates her life by adopting a
stray dog. Her trip is thwarted by a group of teenage boys, and she
survives a tornado. She does reach her destination, but not with
the expected ending.
Slide 6
Love Aubrey How does a child recover from unspeakable loss? For
Aubrey, 11, it takes time, love, stability, and the emotional
release that comes from writing letters. After her father and
younger sister die in a car accident, Aubrey's mother becomes
psychologically unstable and abandons her. Uprooted from her home
in Virginia, Aubrey goes to live with her grandmother in Vermont.
Along with Gram's love, she finds solace in spending time with the
family next door and acquires a best friend in the process. When
her mother materializes and begins her emotional recovery, Aubrey
must decide whether to return home or to remain with her
grandmother. The child's progress is reflected in her letters,
which are at first directed to her sister's imaginary friend, then
to her dead father and sister, and finally to the mother who hurt
her so deeply
Slide 7
Million Dollar Throw Thirteen-year-old Nate Brodie's life would
seem to be the stuff of adolescent boys' dreams: he is the star
quarterback of his school football team and has a great
relationship with his best friend and soulmate, Abby McCall.
However, all is not smooth sailing. The Brodies are in danger of
losing their home in the economic downturn, and Abby's eyesight is
failing due to a rare congenital disease. Nate thinks he may have
the opportunity to solve all of his problems when he wins the
chance to make a million dollars by throwing a football through a
small target during halftime at a pro football game. Unfortunately,
his quarterbacking skills suddenly and mysteriously desert him just
as he is preparing for his big moment.
Slide 8
11 Birthdays It's Amanda's 11th birthday and she is super
excited--- after all, 11 is so different from 10. But from the
start, everything goes wrong. The worst part of it all is that she
and her best friend, Leo, with whom she's shared every birthday,
are on the outs and this will be the first birthday they haven't
shared together. When Amanda turns in for the night, glad to have
her birthday behind her, she wakes up happy for a new day. Or is
it? Her birthday seems to be repeating iself. What is going on?!
And how can she fix it? Only time, friendship, and a little luck
will tell...
Slide 9
Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. Gianna Z. has less than one week to
collect twenty-five leaves for a science project, or else she might
lose her spot at cross-country sectionals. Finishing her project
will be enough of a hurdle, but with a grandmother who keeps losing
her teeth, a father who drives her to school in the family hearse,
and an arch-nemesis intent on stealing her spot on the team, Gianna
will need a stroke of brilliance to make everything fall into
place. She is not so crazy about research projects or anything
involving time-management skills, and has somehow gotten to within
a week of the due date of a huge science assignment with no work to
show. But how hard can it be to find and catalog 25 different
varieties of leaves
Slide 10
Faith, Hope, and Ivy June The living situations of the seventh
graders are at two extremes and yet both girls have the humanity
and distinctness that allow them to escape the confines of
representing their classes. Make no mistake, this is Ivy June's
story, and her hardships and family challenges are front and center
in a way that Catherine's own family woes are not. The exchange
program set up by the schools is a perfect showcase for looking at
the role of wealth and poverty in our assumptions about one
another. Ivy June's discomfort at having the wrong shoes is
comparable to Catherine's squirming at being unable to wash her
hair daily
Slide 11
Captain Nobody Ten-year-old Newt Newman is used to fading into
the background: his parents are workaholics; his brother, Chris, is
a high school football star; and he and his best buddies, JJ and
Cecil, are ignored at school. Determined to get noticed this
Halloween, the three friends vow to come up with original costumes.
But then Chris takes a hit and is knocked into a coma during the
Big Game. Worried about his brother, and with his parent camped out
at the hospital, Newt has no interest in creating a costume. When
JJ and Cecil arrive at his house for trick-or-treating, they help
him transform an assortment of Chris's outgrown clothes into a
get-up for a new superhero: Captain Nobody! Enjoying the newfound
confidence he experiences behind his mask, Newt continues to wear
the costume, and opportunities start cropping up for him to save
the daywhether helping a confused old man find his way home or
stopping a jewelry store robbery, Captain Nobody gets the job done.
But when it comes to his brother's coma, even Captain Nobody is
powerlessor is he?
Slide 12
Storm Chaser Jessica Warner, 13, plans to spend the summer
helping out on her family's Nevada ranch, riding her faithful old
horse, Rusty, and spending time with her friend Marybeth. When a
fierce storm hits, the old barn catches fire. Rusty survives, but
he can no longer be ridden. Jessica disobeys her father and begins
working with a wild paint filly she has dubbed Storm Chaser. After
the fire, the Warners decide to transform the working ranch into a
vacation spot. When the first group of "dudes" arrives for a week
of riding, weenie roasts, and swims at the lake, culminating with a
cattle drive, things become complicated for Jess. One of the
vacationers has her eye on Storm Chaser and makes a big show of
wanting to buy her
Slide 13
Mudville It centers on 12-year-old Roy McGuire, whose dreams of
being a major leaguer are literally dampened by the fact that it
has been raining in his hometown for 22 years. The rain began
during a contest with neighboring Sinister Bend, and it ends right
after Roy returns from baseball camp to find a new foster brother,
Sturgis, living at his house. Their relationship is rocky, but no
one can deny Sturgis throwing power, and soon both boys are ramping
up for an epic rematch between the two towns.