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Claudette Colvin
by Phillip M. Hoose"When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'" - Claudette Colvin
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South. Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.
Claudette Colvin is the 2009 National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature, a 2010 Newbery Honor Book, a Sibert Honor book, and a Jane Addams Honor book.
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
by Rhoda BlumbergIn 1853, few Japanese people knew that a country called America even existed.
For centuries, Japan had isolated itself from the outside world by refusing to trade with other countries and even refusing to help shipwrecked sailors, foreign or Japanese. The country's people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore Perry and his troops sailed to the Land of the Rising Sun, bringing with them new science and technology, and a new way of life.
Newbery Medal Honor book
A Corner of the Universe (Scholastic Gold)
by Ann M. MartinAnn Martin's phenomenal Newbery Honor book, now in paperback The summer Hattie turns 12, her predictable smalltown life is turned on end when her uncle Adam returns home for the first time in over ten years. Hattie has never met him, never known about him. He's been institutionalized; his condition invovles schizophrenia and autism. Hattie, a shy girl who prefers the company of adults, takes immediately to her excitable uncle, even when the rest of the family -- her parents and grandparents -- have trouble dealing with his intense way of seeing the world. And Adam, too, sees that Hattie is special, that her quiet, shy ways are not a disability,
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 Courage of Sarah Noble
by Alice Dalgliesh and Leonard WeisgardIn 1707, young Sarah Noble and her father traveled through the wilderness to build a new home for their family. "Keep up your courage, Sarah Noble," her mother had said, but Sarah found that it was not always easy to feel brave inside. The dark woods were full of animals and Indians, too, and Sarah was only eight!
The true story of Sarah's journey is inspiring. And as she cares for her father and befriends her Indian neighbors, she learns that to be afraid and to be brave is the greatest courage of all.
Newbery Medal Honor Book
The Cow-tail Switch and Other West African Stories
by Harold Courlander and George HerzogThe Cow-tail Switch, based on a parable found by George Herzog in Liberia, is a type of story which has a special attraction for the West African audience, in that the audience itself participates in the working out of the solution.
Newbery Honor Book
Crazy Lady
by Jane Leslie ConlyReceiving less and less attention from his widowed father, Vernon joins with his friends as they ridicule the neighborhood outcasts--Maxine, an alcoholic prone to public displays of crazy behavior, and Ronald, her retarded son. Then the social service decides to put Ronald into a special home, and Vernon finds himself fighting the agency. 1994 Newbery Honor Book
Notable Children's Books of 1994 (ALA)
1994 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
1994 Young Adult Editors' Choices (BL)
1994 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
Young Adult Choices for 1995 (IRA)
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
Crispin
by Avi"Asta's Son" is all he's ever been called. The lack of a name is appropriate, because he and his mother are but poor peasants in 14th century medieval England. But this thirteen-year-old boy who thought he had little to lose soon finds himself with even less - no home, no family, or possessions. Accused of a crime he did not commit, he may be killed on sight, by anyone. If he wishes to remain alive, he must flee his tiny village. All the boy takes with him is a newly revealed name - Crispin - and his mother's cross of lead.
A Newbery Award Winner.
Criss Cross
by Lynne Rae PerkinsDebbie is wishing something would happen. Something good. To her. Soon.
In the meantime, Debbie loses a necklace and finds a necklace (and boy does the necklace have a story to tell), she goes jeans shopping with her mother (an accomplishment in diplomacy), she learns to drive shift in a truck (illegally), she saves a life (directly connected to being able to drive, thus proving something), she takes a bus ride to another town (in order to understand what it feels like to be from "elsewhere"), she meets a boy (who truly is from "elsewhere"), but mostly she hangs out with her friends: Patty, Hector, Lenny, and Phil. Their paths cross. Their stories crisscross. And in Lynne Rae Perkins's remarkable book, a girl and her wish grow up.
Newbery Medal Winner
The Crossover
by Kwame Alexander2015 Newbery Medal Winner
2015 Coretta Scott King Honor Award Winner
"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell.
He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood from Kwame Alexander.
Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.
A New York Times Bestseller
Daniel Boone
by James DaughertyDaniel Boone was a farmer who couldn't stay put. Something was always pulling him westward into new and mysterious lands, and when this pull got so strong that he could no longer ignore it, and his wife and children could not persuade him to stay, he just went, with his toes pointing into the West and his eyes glued to the hills.
Newbery Medal Winner
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night
by Joyce SidmanCome feel the cool and shadowed breeze, come smell your way among the trees, come touch rough bark and leathered leaves: Welcome to the night. Welcome to the night, where mice stir and furry moths flutter. Where snails spiral into shells as orb spiders circle in silk. Where the roots of oak trees recover and repair from their time in the light. Where the porcupette eats delicacies-raspberry leaves!-and coos and sings. Come out to the cool, night wood, and buzz and hoot and howl-but do beware of the great horned owl-for it's wild and it's windy way out in the woods!
Newbery Medal Honor book
The Dark Frigate
by Charles Boardman HawesIn seventeenth century England, a terrible accident forces orphaned Philip Marsham to flee London in fear for his life. Bred to the sea, he signs on with the "Rose of Devon," a dark frigate bound for the quiet shores of Newfoundland.
Philip's bold spirit and knowledge of the sea soon win him his captain's regard. But when the "Rose of Devon" is seized in midocean by a devious group of men plucked from a floating wreck, Philip is forced to accompany these "gentlemen of fortune" on their murderous expeditions. Like it or not, Philip Marsham is now a pirate--with only the hangman awaiting his return to England.
With its bloody battles, brutal buccaneers, and bold, spirited hero, this rousing tale will enthrall young readers in search of seafaring adventure.
Newbery Medal Winner
The Dark Is Rising
by Susan CooperOn the Midwinter Day that is his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers a special gift-- that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to keeping the world from domination by the forces of evil, the Dark. At once, he is plunged into a quest for the six magical Signs that will one day aid the Old Ones in the final battle between the Dark and the Light. And for the twelve days of Christmas, while the Dark is rising, life for Will is full of wonder, terror, and delight.
The Dark-Thirty
by Brian Pinkney and Patricia C. MckissackIn that special half-hour of twilight--the dark-thirty--there are stories to be told. Mesmerizing, suspenseful, and breathtakingly original, these tales make up a heart-stopping collection of lasting value, a book not quickly forgotten.
Newbery Honor Book
Winner of the Coretta Scott King Medal
Daughter of the Mountains
by Louise RankinMomo has always wanted a Lhasa terrier--a dog like the ones the Buddhist priests hold sacred in their temples. And her dream is realized when a trader brings Pempa to her parents' tea house. But after a band of robbers steals the valuable dog and quickly escapes with him into the mountains, Momo is determined to catch them and recover her beloved Pempa. To do so, she must follow the Great Trade Route across the mountains--a path that most people avoid, and which will surely put her life at risk. Momo undertakes a dangerous journey from the mountains of Tibet to the city of Calcutta, in search of her stolen dog Pempa.
A Newbery Honor Book
Davy Crockett
by Constance RourkeBlending myth and reality, Constance Rourke aimed to get at the heart of Davy Crockett, whose hold on the American imagination was firm even before he died at the Alamo. Davy Crockett, published in 1934, pioneered in showing the backwoodsman’s transformation into a folk hero. It remains a basic in the Crockett literature.
A Newbery Honor Book.
Dead End in Norvelt
by Jack GantosDead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore - typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launched on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels. . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Dear Mr. Henshaw
by Beverly ClearyBeverly Cleary's Newbery Medal-winning book explores the thoughts and emotions of a sixth-grade boy, Leigh Botts, in letter form as he writes to his favorite author, Boyd Henshaw.
After his parents separate, Leigh Botts moves to a new town with his mother. Struggling to make friends and deal with his anger toward his absent father, Leigh loses himself in a class assignment in which he must write to his favorite author. When Mr. Henshaw responds, the two form an unexpected friendship that will change Leigh's life forever.
The Defender
by Nicholas KalashnikoffTurgen, a shepherd in northeastern Siberia, defends the wild mountain rams and befriends a widow and her children.
A Newbery Honor Book.
Dicey's Song
by Cynthia VoigtThe Newbery-winning novel in Cynthia Voigt’s timeless Tillerman cycle.When Momma abandoned Dicey Tillerman and her three siblings in a mall parking lot and was later traced to an asylum where she lay unrecognizing, unknowing, she left her four children no choice but to get on by themselves. They set off alone on foot over hundreds of miles until they finally found someone to take them in. Gram’s rundown farm isn’t perfect, but they can stay together as a family—which is all Dicey really wanted.But after watching over the others for so long, it’s hard for Dicey to know what to do now. Her own identity has been so wrapped up in being the caretaker, navigator, penny counter, and decision maker that she’s not sure how to let go of some responsibilities while still keeping a sense of herself. But when the past comes back with devastating force, Dicey sees just how necessary—and painful—letting go can be.
Dobry
by Monica ShannonThere is always something to look forward to in Dobry's small Bulgarian village. From the delicious peppers and tomatoes he helps his mother and grandfather grow, to the visiting Gypsy Bear, to the Snow-Melting games that are the highlight of winter, Dobry lives within the circle of the year--and uses it in the art he shares with his friend Neda.
A Newberry Medal winner.
Doctor De Soto
by William Steig"Doctor De Soto, the dentist, did very good work." With the aid of his able assistant, Mrs. De Soto, he copes with the toothaches of animals large and small. His expertise is so great that his fortunate patients never feel any pain.
Since he's a mouse, Doctor De Soto refuses to treat "dangerous" animals--that is, animals who have a taste for mice. But one day a fox shows up and begs for relief from the tooth that's killing him. How can the kindhearted De Sotos turn him away? But how can they make sure that the fox doesn't give in to his baser instincts once his tooth is fixed? Those clever De Sotos will find a way.
Doctor De Soto is a 1982 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, a 1983 Boston Globe - Horn Book Awards Honor Book for Picture Books, and a 1983 Newbery Honor Book.
Dogsong
by Gary PaulsenIn the old days there were songs...Something is bothering Russel Susskit. He hates waking up to the sound of his father's coughing, the smell of diesel oil, the noise of snow machines starting up. Only Oogruk, the shaman who owns the last team of dogs in the village, understands Russel's longing for the old ways and the songs that celebrated them. But Oogruk cannot give Russel the answers he seeks; the old man can only prepare him for what he must do alone. Driven by a strange, powerful dream of a long-ago self and by a burning desire to find his own song, Russel takes Oogruk's dogs on an epic journey of self-discovery that will change his life forever.