Maud Hart Lovelace

2009-2010 Book Award Nominees

Halverson Hawthorne Lakeview Sibley

Who is Maud Hart Lovelace?• by Marian Anderson• Shown here with the artist's permission.• The picture hangs in the Minnesota Valley Regional

Library, in Mankato, Minnesota.

• Maud Hart Lovelace was a Minnesota author who grew up in Mankato, Minnesota. Her Betsy-Tacy books tell of her childhood in the town she calls "Deep Valley." Each year since 1980, the year of her death, there has been a Minnesota reading contest for third through eighth graders. A committee comprised of teachers and librarians selects the titles for the contest each spring, and students read the books on the list during the following school year. In March the students vote on their favorite book from the list, and on April 25, the anniversary of Maud's birthday, the winner is announced.

• The list is divided into two divisions: titles for grades three through five, and titles for grades six through eight. Some titles are appropriate for both age levels.

• http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/oldmankato/1900-1950/maudhartlovelace/maudhartlovelace.html

The Betsy-Tacy Society Home Page Web Link

“It was difficult, later, to think of a time when Betsy and Tacy had not been

friends.” ~Betsy-Tacy~

Maud Hart Lovelace

Division I Only Books

Grades 4 and 5

Champby Marcia Thornton Jones

AR BL 4.3 PTS 5 187 pages

Riley is awful at sports. He wants to quitthe baseball team, but his dad won’t lethim give up. So when one bad swingbrings a 3-legged dog into Riley’s life, hefeels like he’s been thrown a curve-ball.How can he take care of a dog and make his dad proud?

Champ is a former champion show dog.Can he show Riley that winning doesn’talways mean coming in first?

Clementineby Sara Pennypacker

AR BL 4.5 PTS 2.0 136 pages

Clementine is not having so good of a week.

•On Monday she’s sent to the principal’s office for cutting off Margaret’s hair.

•Tuesday, Margaret's mother is mad at her.

•Wednesday, she’s sent to the principal…again.

•Thursday, Margaret stops speaking to her.

•Friday starts with yucky eggs and gets worse.

•And by Saturday, even her mother is mad at her.

Okay, fine. Clementine is having a

DISASTEROUS week!

The Homework Machineby Dan Gutman

Meet the D Squad, a foursome of 5th graders at the Grand Canyon School made up of a geek, a class clown, a teacher’s pet, and a slacker. They are bound together by one very big secret: the homework machine. Because the machine, code-named Belch, is doing their homework for them, they start spending a lot of time together, attracting a lot of attention.

Before long, things start to get out of control, and Belch becomes much more powerful than they ever imagined.

AR BL 4.8 PTS 4.0 146 pages

The Liberation of Gabriel Kingby K. L. Going

AR BL 4.5 PTS 5.0 151 pages

He’s afraid of spiders, corpses, loose cows, and just about everything related to

the 5th grade.

Gabe’s best friend, Frita Wilson, thinks Gabe needs some liberating from his fears, and she has a plan. They are going to spend the summer of 1976 facing each and every one of the fears on Gabe’s list. While Gabe can’t quite figure out how tackling his fears will make him brave (seems more like a recipe for certain death, if you ask him), maybe Frita knows what she’s doing. But it turns out that Frita has her own list, and while she’s helping Gabe confront his fears, she’s avoiding the thing that scares her the most….

Star Jumper: Journal of a Cardboard Genius

by Frank Asch

AR BL 4.2 PTS 2.0 128 pages

I’d like to say I’m on a secret mission to save the world or something noble

like that. But I’m not.

I just want to put a few light-years between me

and my little brother. His name is Jonathan and he’s

evil. Seriously.

The Thing About Georgieby Lisa Graff

AR BL 4.3 PTS 5.0 220 pages

As far as Georgie is concerned, everyone has a

“thing.”

The thing about poodles is that Georgie Bishop hates to walk them.

The thing about Jeanie the Meanie is that she would rather write on her shoe than help Georgie with their project.

The thing about Georgie’s mom is that she’s having a baby—a baby who will probably be taller than Georgie very, very soon.

The thing about Georgie…well, what is the thing about Georgie?

The Year of the Dogby Grace Lin

AR BL 4.2 PTS 3.0 134 pages

It’s the Chinese Year of the Dog!

When Pacy’s mom tells her that

this is a good year for friends,

family, and “finding herself,”

Pacy begins searching right

away. As the year goes on, she

struggles to find her talent, deals

with disappointment, makes a

new best friend, and discovers

just why the Year of the Dog is a

lucky one for her after all.

Division I and II Books

Grades 4, 5, and 6

Home of the Braveby Katherine Applegate

AR BL 3.5 PTS 3.0 253 pages

A man I helped to settle here taught me a saying from Africa. I’ll bet you

would like it: A cow is God with a wet nose.

Kek comes from Africa where he lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived. Now she’s missing, and Kek has been sent to a new home. In America, he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter—cold and unkind. But slowly he makes friends: a girl in foster care, an old woman with a rundown farm, and a sweet, sad cow that reminds Kek of home. As he waits for word of his mother’s fate, Kek weathers the tough Minnesota winter by finding warmth in his new friendships, strength in his memories, and belief in his new country.

Leepike Ridgeby N. D. Wilson

AR BL 4.8 PTS 7.0 224 pages

11-year-old Thomas Hammond has always live next to Leepike Ridge. He never imagined he might end up lost beneath it! But that’s exactly what happens the night Tom rides a floating slab of refrigerator packing foam downstream and is dragged underground.

What Tom finds under Leepike Ridge—a corpse, a dog, a flashlight, a castaway, crawdads, four graves, a tomb, and buried treasure—will answer questions he hasn’t known to ask and change his life forever. Now if only he can find his way home again….

Princess Academyby Shannon Hale

AR BL 6.0 PTS 10.0 314 pages

It was a lovely idea and Miri wished she could believe it, but she knew Lowlanders would never allow a crown to sit on a mountain girl’s head.

High on the slopes of rocky Mount Eskel, Miri’s family pounds a living from the stone of the mountain itself. But Miri’s life will change forever when word comes that her small village is the home of the future princess. All eligible girls must attend a makeshift academy to prepare for royal life. At the school, Miri finds herself confronting bitter competition among the girls. Yet when danger comes to the academy, it is Miri, named for a tiny mountain flower, who must find a way to save her classmates—and the future of their beloved village.

Rulesby Cynthia Lord

AR BL 3.9 PTS 4.0 200 pages

12-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She’s spent years trying to teach David the rules from “a peach is not a funny-looking apple” to “keep your pants on in public”—in order to head off David’s embarrassing behaviors.

But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the potential next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

Books, Bookmarks & Voting

• Books will be available (3 copies of each) on a shelf marked Maud Hart Lovelace.

• Bookmarks for each student to check off books as they read them.

• Balloting completed and mailed in by April 1, 2010.

• Winners announced around April 25, 2010.

Division II Only

Grade 6

Emmy & The Incredible Shrinking Ratby Lynne Jonell

AR BL 4.7 PTS 9.0 352 pages

Emmy was a good girl. At least she tried very hard to be good. She did her homework without being told. She ate all her vegetables, even the slimy ones. And she never talked back to her nanny, Miss Barmy, although it was almost impossible to keep quiet—some days. Honestly, Emmy really was a little too good. Which is why she liked to sit by the Rat. The Rat was not good at all….

Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam

by Cynthia Kadohata

AR BL 4.9 PTS 9.0 308 pages

Cracker is one of the United States Army’s most valuable weapons. She’s a German Shepherd trained to sniff out bombs, traps, and enemy soldiers. The safety of everyone around Cracker depends on her intelligence and keen sense of smell.

Soldier Rick Hanski is headed to war. He wants to show the world, especially his father and his sergeant, that he has what it takes to be a great soldier. But sometimes Rick wonders if he really is capable of facing the challenges of battle.

When Cracker is paired with Rick, it isn’t easy for either of them. They need to be friends before they can be a team, and they must be a team if they want to get home alive.

Fire From the Rock by Sharon Draper

AR BL 5.0 PTS 9.0 229 pages

Sylvia Patterson looks forward to high school for all the normal reasons—being more grown-up, joining clubs, and enjoying football games and dances. But in Little Rock during 1957, things are anything but normal. To comply with federal law, the school board has to integrate Central High School, whether anyone likes it or not. Sylvia is shocked when her teacher asks her to consider being one of the first black students to attend Central. It is an honor reserved for very few, but it is also a heavy burden that Sylvia may not be able to carry. She would be separated from her friends, excluded from social activities, and worse, subjected to threats and, possibly violence. Before she makes her decision, smoldering racial tension in the town ignites into flame….

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill

Youby Ally CarterCammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher

Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school—typical, that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses, but it’s really a school for spies.

Even though Cammie is fluent in 14 languages and capable of killing a man 7 different ways with her bare hands, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she’s an ordinary girl. Can she maneuver a relationship with someone who can never know the truth about her? AR BL 5.9 PTS 10.0 284 pages

La Lineaby Ann Jaramillo

AR BL 4.3 PTS 5.0 129 pages

Miguel has dreamed of joining his parents in California since the day they left him behind in Mexico 6 years, 11 months, and 12 days ago. On the morning of his 15th birthday, Miguel’s wait is over.

Or so he thinks. The trip North to the border—la linea—is fraught with dangers. Thieves. Border guards. And a grueling, 2-day trek across the desert. It would be hard enough to survive alone. But it’s almost impossible with his tagalong sister in tow.

Their money gone and their hopes nearly dashed, Miguel and his sister have no choice but to hop the infamous “people killer”as it races toward the border. As they cling to the roof of the speeding train, they hold on to each other, and their dreams.

Peakby Roland Smith

AR BL 5.0 PTS 9.0 246 pages

When 14-year-old Peak Marcello’s long-lost father presents the opportunity for them to summit Everest together, Peak doesn’t even consider saying no—even though he suspects there are a few strings attached. And if he makes it to the top before his birthday, he’ll be the youngest person ever to stand above 29,000 feet. It’s not a bad turn of events for a guy who’s been stuck in New York City with only skyscrapers to (illegally) scale.

Here in Peak’s own words, is the exhilarating, gut-wrenching story of what happened on that climb to the top of the world—a climb that changed everything. Welcome to Mount Everest.

Schooledby Gordon Korman

AR BL 4.9 PTS 6.0 208 pages

Capricorn (Cap) Anderson has never watched T.V. He’s never tasted pizza. Never even heard of a wedgie. Since he was little, his only experience has been living on a farm commune and being homeschooled by his hippie grandmother, Rain.

But when Rain falls out of a tree and has to stay in the hospital, Cap is forced to move in with a guidance counselor and her cranky teen daughter and attend the local middle school . While Cap knows a lot about tie-dyeing and Zen Buddhism, no education could prepare him for the politics of public school.

Right from the beginning, Cap’s weirdness makes him a moving target at Claverage Middle School (dubbed C Average by the students).

Books, Bookmarks & Voting

• Books will be available (3 copies of each) on a shelf marked Maud Hart Lovelace.

• Bookmarks for each student to check off books as they read them.

• Balloting completed and mailed in by April 1, 2010.

• Winners announced in around April 25, 2010.

Life As We Knew Itby Susan Beth Pfeffer

When a meteor hits the moon and knocks it closer in orbit to the earth, nothing will ever be the same….

• Worldwide tidal waves• Earthquakes• Volcanic eruptions

And that’s just the beginning.

“In rural Pennsylvania…Miranda struggles to find a way to survive both mentally and physically, discovering strength in her family members and herself…”

Booklist

AR BL 4.7 PTS 14.0 347 pages