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The Jazz Man
by Mary Hays WeikWhen the Jazz Man played, Zeke thought about nothing else but the wonderful music that drifted from the bright yellow room across the courtyard. He did not think about how his mother crept up and down five long flights of stairs every day to go to work. He did not think about the jobs he knew his father must work. He thought about just of the dreamy blues adding color to his drab world. How long will Zeke's dreams last when the Jazz Man leaves?
Newbery Medal Honor Book
The Corn Grows Ripe
by Dorothy RhoadsWhen his father is badly injured in an accident, a young Mayan boy called Tigre wonders who will plant and harvest the corn that they need to survive--and to please the Mayan gods. Twelve-year-old Tigre has never done a man's work before. Now he will have to take his father's place.
Newbery Medal Honor book
The Upstairs Room
by Johanna ReissA Life in Hiding
When the German army occupied Holland, Annie de Leeuw was eight years old. Because she was Jewish, the occupation put her in grave danger-she knew that to stay alive she would have to hide. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered to help. For two years they hid Annie and her sister, Sini, in the cramped upstairs room of their farmhouse.
Most people thought the war wouldn't last long. But for Annie and Sini -- separated from their family and confined to one tiny room -- the war seemed to go on forever.
In the part of the marketplace where flowers had been sold twice a week-tulips in the spring, roses in the summer-stood German tanks and German soldiers. Annie de Leeuw was eight years old in 1940 when the Germans attacked Holland and marched into the town of Winterswijk where she lived. Annie was ten when, because she was Jewish and in great danger of being captured by the invaders, she and her sister Sini had to leave their father, mother, and older sister Rachel to go into hiding in the upstairs room of a remote farmhouse.
Johanna de Leeuw Reiss has written a remarkably fresh and moving account of her own experiences as a young girl during World War II. Like many adults she was innocent of the German plans for Jews, and she might have gone to a labor camp as scores of families did. "It won't be for long and the Germans have told us we'll be treated well," those families said. "What can happen?" They did not know, and they could not imagine.... But millions of Jews found out.
Mrs. Reiss's picture of the Oosterveld family with whom she lived, and of Annie and Sini, reflects a deep spirit of optimism, a faith in the ingenuity, backbone, and even humor with which ordinary human beings meet extraordinary challenges. In the steady, matter-of-fact, day-by-day courage they all showed lies a profound strength that transcends the horrors of the long and frightening war. Here is a memorable book, one that will be read and reread for years to come.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Jane Addams Children’s Book Honor Book
Eleanor Roosevelt
by Russell FreedmanAlmost anything scares young Eleanor: mice, the dark, and a host of imaginary dangers. But she learns to hide her feelings - her father disapproves of fear, and she longs only to please him. She knows she will always disappoint her beautiful, socialite mother, because Eleanor is painfully shy and plain.
As a young debutante in Manhattan, she spends her days teaching needy children and touring crowded tenements. There, she makes a life-changing discovery that later enables her to redefine the role of America's first lady - being shy doesn't matter as long as she's helping others.
Newbery Medal Honor book
A Fine White Dust
by Cynthia RylantHow much do you have to give up to find yourself?
When Pete first sets eyes the Man, he's convinced he's an ax murderer. But at the revival meeting, Pete discovers that the Man is actually a savior of souls, and Pete has been waiting all his life to be saved.
It's not something Pete's parents can understand. Certainly his best friend, Rufus, an avowed atheist, doesn't understand. But Pete knows he can't imagine life without the Man. So when the Man invites Pete to join him on his mission, how can Pete say no -- even if it means leaving behind everything he's ever loved?
Newbery Honor book
Blue Willow
by Doris GatesJaney Larkin can't remember when she's lived in the same place for more than a year. Her family has to keep moving so that her father can find work. But Janey longs for a real home and the chance to make friends. When Mom gets sick and the Larkins don't have rent money. Janey offers to pay the rent with her beloved treasure - the beautiful blue willow plate that once belonged to her great-great-grandmother. Losing the plate seems like the end of the world to Janey, but it's really the beginning of something wonderful.
Newbery Honor book
One Crazy Summer
by Rita Williams-GarciaIn this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them.
Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. When they arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with her, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.
This moving, funny novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist.Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham will find much to love in One Crazy Summer. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern's story continues in P.S. Be Eleven.
Carver
by Marilyn NelsonGeorge Washington Carver was born a slave in Missouri about 1864 and was raised by the childless white couple who had owned his mother. In 1877 he left home in search of an education, eventually earning a master's degree. In 1896, Booker T. Washington invited Carver to start the agricultural department at the all-black-staffed Tuskegee Institute, where he spent the rest of his life seeking solutions to the poverty among landless black farmers by developing new uses for soil-replenishing crops such as peanuts, cowpeas, and sweet potatoes. Carver's achievements as a botanist and inventor were balanced by his gifts as a painter, musician, and teacher. This Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book by Marilyn Nelson provides a compelling and revealing portrait of Carver's complex, richly interior, profoundly devout life.
Newbery Medal Honor book
The Sign of the Beaver
by Elizabeth George SpeareAlthough he faces responsibility bravely, thirteen-year-old Matt is more than a little apprehensive when his father leaves him alone to guard their new cabin in the wilderness. When a renegade white stranger steals his gun, Matt realizes he has no way to shoot game or to protect himself. When Matt meets Attean, a boy in the Beaver clan, he begins to better understand their way of life and their growing problem in adapting to the white man and the changing frontier.
Newbery Honor Book
Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
Savvy
by Ingrid LawA vibrant new voice... a modern classic.
For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a “savvy”—a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity... and now it’s the eve of Mibs’s big day.
As if waiting weren’t hard enough, the family gets scary news two days before Mibs’s birthday: Poppa has been in a terrible accident. Mibs develops the singular mission to get to the hospital and prove that her new power can save her dad. So she sneaks onto a salesman’s bus... only to find the bus heading in the opposite direction. Suddenly Mibs finds herself on an unforgettable odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up—and of other people, who might also have a few secrets hidden just beneath the skin.
Newbery Medal Honor book
The House of the Scorpion
by Nancy FarmerDiscover this internationally bestselling, National Book Award–winning young adult classic about what it means to be human with an updated, reimagined cover!Matt Alacrán wasn&’t born. He was harvested. His DNA came from El Patrón, the drug-lord ruler of the country of Opium. Most people hate and fear clones like Matt—except for El Patrón. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself. As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, and realizes escape is his only chance to survive. But escape from the Alacrán Estate is no guarantee of freedom.
An American Plague
by Jim MurphyNational Book Award Finalist: An account of the disease that ravaged eighteenth-century Philadelphia, written and illustrated for young readers. 1793, Philadelphia: The nation&’s capital and the largest city in North America is devastated by an apparently incurable disease, cause unknown… This dramatic narrative describes the illness known as yellow fever and the toll it took on the city&’s residents, relating the epidemic to the social and political events of the day and eighteenth-century medical beliefs and practices. Drawing on first-hand accounts, Jim Murphy spotlights the heroic role of Philadelphia&’s free blacks in combating the disease, and the Constitutional crisis President Washington faced when he was forced to leave the city—and all his papers—to escape the deadly contagion. The search for the fever's causes and cure provides a suspenseful counterpoint to this riveting true story of a city under siege. Winner of multiple awards, this thoroughly researched book offers a look at the conditions of cities at the time of our nation&’s birth, and draws timely parallels to modern-day epidemics. &“A lavishly illustrated book, containing maps, newspaper columns and period illustrations…unflinchingly presents the horrors of the event as well as its heroes.&”—The New York Times &“Pair this work with Laurie Halse Anderson&’s wonderful novel Fever 1793 and you&’ll have students hooked on history.&”—School Library Journal &“History, science, politics, and public health come together in this dramatic account of the disastrous yellow fever epidemic that hit the nation&’s capital more than 200 years ago.&”—Booklist
My Side of the Mountain
by Jean Craighead GeorgeTerribly unhappy in his family's crowded New York City apartment, Sam Gribley runs away to the solitude--and danger--of the mountains, where he finds a side of himself he never knew.
Newbery Medal Honors book.
Mr. Popper's Penguins
by Richard Atwater and Florence AtwaterMr. Popper and his family have penguins in the fridge and an ice rink in the basement in this hilarious Newbery Honor book that inspired the hit movie! How many penguins in the house is too many? Mr. Popper is a humble house painter living in Stillwater who dreams of faraway places like the South Pole. When an explorer responds to his letter by sending him a penguin named Captain Cook, Mr. Popper and his family&’s lives change forever. Soon one penguin becomes twelve, and the Poppers must set out on their own adventure to preserve their home. First published in 1938, Mr. Popper&’s Penguins is a classic tale that has enchanted young readers for generations. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Richard and Florence Atwater including rare photos from the authors&’ estate.
To Be A Slave
by Julius LesterA compilation of reminiscences of slaves and ex-slaves about their lives, from those leaving Africa through the Civil War into the 20th century.
Newbery Medal Honor Book.
These Happy Golden Years
by Laura Ingalls WilderFifteen-year-old Laura lives apart from her family for the first time, teaching school in a claim shanty twelve miles from home. She is very homesick, but keeps at it so that she can help pay for her sister Mary's tuition at the college for the blind. During school vacations Laura has fun with her singing lessons, going on sleigh rides, and best of all, helping Almanzo Wilder drive his new buggy. Friendship soon turns to love for Laura and Almanzo in the romantic conclusion of this Little House book.
Winner of the Newbery Honor
Feathers
by Jacqueline Woodson“Hope is the thing with feathers” starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more “holy.” There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’s not white. Who is he?
During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for “the thing with feathers.”
Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’s heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.
Newbery Honor book
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
by Alice Dalgliesh and Helen Sewell"There are no bears on Hemlock Mountain, No bears, no bears at all..."
Or so young Jonathan is told by the grown-ups as he sets out alone over Hemlock Mountain. But as Jonathan discovers on that cold winter night, grown-ups don't always know...
And there are bears on Hemlock Mountain
Newbery Medal Honor Book
The Cricket in Times Square
by George SeldenAfter Chester, a cricket, arrives in the Times Square subway station, he takes up residence in a newsstand. Between escapades in New York City, Chester and four new friends manage to bring success to the almost bankrupt newsstand.
Newbery Medal honors book
Bright Island
by Lynd Ward and Mabel L. RobinsonBorn and raised on Bright Island off the Maine coast, Thankful Curtis is more like her sea captain grandfather than any of her older brothers are. Nothing suits her better than sailing and helping her father with the farm. But when her dreaded sisters-in-law suggest that Thankful get some proper schooling on the mainland, the wind is knocked from her sails.Thankful finds the uncharted waters of school difficult to navigate: there's a rocky reception from her rich roommate, Selina; the breezy behavior of the charming Robert; and stormy Mr. Fletcher, the handsome Latin teacher whose caustic tongue masks a tender heart. And while Thankful works hard to make the best of her new life, Bright Island continues to flash in her thoughts, like the sparkle of the sun on the water.
Newbery Honor book
Afternoon of the Elves
by Janet Taylor LisleIn &“this enchanting story about friendship,&” two fourth grade girls discover a magical world hidden in one&’s backyard (Publishers Weekly). No fourth grader trusts Sara-Kate Connolly. Her boots are dirty, her clothes are weird, and she&’s so maladjusted that the school had to hold her back a grade. But Hillary is her next-door neighbor, and can&’t say no when the unusual loner invites her over to play. In Sara-Kate&’s overgrown backyard, Hillary will find proof of a world of magic—the kind that can only blossom between true friends. Among the rusted car parts and wild plants, a miniature village has sprung up. It has tiny houses made from string, sticks, and maple leaves; a well with a bottlecap for a bucket; and even a little playground with a Popsicle-stick Ferris wheel. But there&’s absolutely no sign of who built this miniature world. To Sara-Kate, the answer is clear—only elves could be responsible for something so enchanted. As she and Hillary watch for their elusive new friends, they learn that friendship, like magic, springs up where you least expect it. This ebook features a personal history by Janet Taylor Lisle including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s own collection.
Downright Dencey
by Caroline Dale SnedekerThis treasure of a novel is set on the island of Nantucket just before the War of 1812. Much more than a tale of whaling ships and gentle Quaker eccentricities, it is a tale of friendship-the kind most truly espoused by these 'plain' folk, with all the struggle and complexity one should expect. Dionis (Dencey) Coffyn is a mystery to her mother, Lydia, whose stern exterior hides a heart that breaks every time her husband Captain Tom goes to sea. Within a context of outward simplicity of living and inward intricacy of relationship, Dencey matures from the little girl who, in unquakerly violence of temper, throws a rock that wounds the town outcast. She becomes a young woman ready to bear her part in life with grace and courage. "Downright Dencey" is a probing portrayal of the power of love to overcome social barriers and religious strictures.
Newbery Medal Honors book
Volcano
by Patricia LauberMay 18, 1980, 8:32 A. M. : An earthquake suddenly triggered an avalanche on Mount St. Helens, a volcano in southern Washington State. Minutes later, Mount St. Helens blew the top off its peak and exploded into the most devastating volcanic eruption in U. S. history.
What caused the eruption? What was left when it ended? What did scientists learn in its aftermath? In this extraordinary photographic essay, Patricia Lauber details the Mount St. Helens eruption and the years following. Through this clear accurate account, readers of all ages will share the awe of the scientists who witnessed both the power of the volcano and the resiliency of life.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe.
by Bette GreeneBeth Lambert has a crush on Philip Hall, who is better than she is at just about everything--or is he? Philip Hall is the handsomest, smartest, fastest boy in Miss Johnson's class. He beats Beth Lambert in math, spelling, reading, sports... and she adores him.
Beth suspects Philip likes her too, only she can't quite get him to admit it. In fact, he won't even invite her to his birthday party because he's afraid the other boys will call him a sissy. But then Beth begins to wonder: Maybe Philip only wins because she's letting him. Maybe she could beat him at everything. That would show Philip Hall! Because if being friends with a girl is bad... getting beaten by a girl is much, much worse.
Newbery Medal Honor book
All Alone
by Claire Huchet BishopOloo!-Oo-oo-oop!-ooooo! All alone, high on the slope of the Little Giant in the French Alps of Saucie, ten-year-old Marcel yodeled to keep himself company. Like other boys in his village, Marcel would have to look over the family's cows during the summer; and the flexible, age-old rule was, "Don't visit, keep to yourself, mind your own business, attend to your own cows and nothing else." If it were not for the Oloooo! of another boy yodeling in the distance, this might have been a quiet summer for Marcel. Instead, it was the beginning of an incredible adventure.
Newbery Medal Honor Book