This years selected books are:
Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher
On a school trip to the Natural History Museum in London, a 12-year-old loner named George is banished for something he didn't do. Angry, he lashes out and breaks off a dragon's head carved onto the wall of the museum. Next thing he knows, a pterodactyl carving comes to life and begins to chase him. From Gunner, a walking, talking statue, George learns that he has entered another layer of reality, and that his arrival has started a new war between good spits (statues that are imbued with a soul-like essence by their inspired makers) and evil taints (soulless carvings).
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
In Caitlin's world, everything is black or white. Things are good or bad. Anything in between is confusing. That's the stuff Caitlin's older brother, Devon, has always explained. But now Devon's dead and Dad is no help at all. Caitlin wants to get over it, but as an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger's, she doesn't know how. When she reads the definition of closure, she realizes that is what she needs. In her search for it, Caitlin discovers that not everything is black and white—the world is full of colors—messy and beautiful.
Serendipity Market by Penny Blubaugh
When Toby breathes on Mama Inez's bird-shaped invitations, giving them the power to fly, plans for the Serendipity Market begin. Soon, eleven honored guests travel from afar and make their way to the storytellers' tent to share their stories. Each tale proves what Mama Inez knows — that magic is everywhere. Sometimes it shows itself subtly — a ray of sun glinting on a gold coin, or a girl picking a rose without getting pricked by the thorn — and sometimes it makes itself known with trumpets and fireworks. But when real magic is combined with the magic of storytelling, it can change the world.
Chasing Lincoln’s Killers by James Swanson
When actor John Wilkes Booth raced from Ford's Theatre after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, he began a mad flight that lasted 12 days. James Swanson's Chasing Lincoln's Killer recapitulates the exciting chase through small towns and swamps by drawing on letters, manuscripts, trial transcripts, government reports, and contemporary newspaper interviews.
Trash by Andy Mulligan
One unlucky-lucky day, Raphael finds something very special and very mysterious. So mysterious that he decides to keep it, even when the city police offer a handsome reward for its return. That decision brings with it terrifying consequences, and soon the dumpsite boys must use all of their cunning and courage to stay ahead of their pursuers.
Once upon a time there was a boy, and they called him Mouse . . . ' That is how the story began when I told it to myself in the long darkness. Of course, it wasn't the whole story, but back then I knew nothing, almost nothing at all . . .
Thinking about stuff was all well and good, but Sheldon would have liked a bit less thinking and a lot more action. Couldn't Theo tell that things were getting weirder by the minute? Switzerland is not famous for being a silly country. But why are so many silly things happening? Holes are disappearing from cheese. Doppelgngers, cuckoo clocks and angry geese are running amok in the Alps. Not to mention flying cows!
A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata
Y'Tin is brave.
No one in his village denies that—his mother may wish that he’d spend more time on school work than on elephant training, but still she knows that it takes a great deal of courage and calm to deal with elephants the way that Y'Tin does. He is almost the best trainer in the village—and, at twelve-years old, he’s certainly the youngest. Maybe he’ll even open up his own school some day to teach other Montagnards how to train wild elephants? That was the plan anyway—back before American troops pulled out of the Vietnam War, back before his village became occupied by Viet Cong forces seeking revenge, back before Y'Tin watched his life change in a million terrible ways.
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