2014-2015 Reading Competition Books

 

A Mango-Shaped Space             By Wendy Maas            (FIC MAA)

Afraid that she is crazy, thirteen-year-old Mia, who sees a special color with every letter, number, and sound, keeps this a secret until she becomes overwhelmed by school, changing relationships, and the death of her beloved cat, Mango.

 

An American Plague                   By Jim Murphy              (614.5 MUR)

Provides an account of the yellow fever epidemic that swept through Philadelphia in 1793, discussing the chaos that erupted when people began evacuating in droves, leaving the city without government, goods, or services, and examining efforts by physicians, the Free African Society, and others to cure and care for the sick

 

The Crossover                            By Kwame Alexander     (FIC ALE)

Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.

 

El Deafo                                     By Cece Bell                  (305.908 BELL)

In this funny, poignant graphic novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful--and very awkward--hearing aid. The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear--sometimes things she shouldn't--but also isolates her from her classmates. She really just wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become "El Deafo, Listener for All." And more importantly, declare a place for herself in the world and find the friend she's longed for.

 

 

The Forbidden Schoolhouse            By Suzanne Jurmain         (370 JUR)

Chronicles the life and struggles of Prudence Crandall who, in the 1830s closed her all-white boarding school for girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, and began admitting African-American students; and describes the intense opposition from the townspeople.

 

The Game of Silence                       By Louise Erdrich             (FIC ERD)

Nine-year-old Omakayas and her family, members of the Ojibwa tribe, are forced to leave their island on Lake Superior in 1850 when white settlers move into the territory, and comes to realize that the things most important to her are her home and way of life.

 

Greenglass House                           By Kate Milford                (FIC MIL)

At Greenglass House, a smuggler's inn, twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his winterholidays relaxing, but soon guests are arriving with strangestories about the house that send Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, on an adventure.

 

Half a World Away                          By Cynthia Kadohata         (FIC KAD)

Twelve-year-old Jaden, an emotionally damaged adopted boy fascinated by electricity, feels a connection to a small, weak toddler with special needs in Kazakhstan, where Jaden's family is trying to adopt a "normal" baby.

 

 

I Lived on Butterfly Hill                   By Marjorie Agosin             (FIC AGO)

When her beloved country, Chile, is taken over by a militaristic, sadistic government, Celeste is sent to America for her safety and her parents must go into hiding before they "disappear."

 

Interstellar Pig                               By William Sleator              (FIC SLE)

Barney's boring seaside vacation suddenly becomes more interesting when the cottage next door is occupied by three exotic neighbors who are addicted to a game they call "Interstellar Pig.

 

MrsFrisby and the rats of  NIMH       By Robert C. O’Brien           (FIC OBR)

With nowhere else to turn, a field mouse asks the clever escaped lab rats living under the rosebush to help save her son, who lies in the path of the farmer's tractor, too ill to be moved.

 

The Night Gardener                         By Jonathan Auxier             (FIC AUX)

Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house.

 

The Other Half of My Heart                By Sundee Frazier              (FIC FRA)

Twin daughters of interracial parents, eleven-year-olds Keira and Minna have very different skin tones and personalities, but it is not until their African American grandmother enters them in the Miss Black Pearl Pre-Teen competition in North Carolina that red-haired and pale-skinned Minna realizes what life in their small town in the Pacific Northwest has been like for her more outgoing, darker-skinned sister.

 

The Riverman                                   By Aaron Stamer                (FIC STA)

The first book in a trilogy about a girl who claims she is visiting a parallel universe where a nefarious being called The Riverman is stealing the souls of children and the boy she asks to write her biography because she fears her soul may be next.

 

Rodzina                                           By Karen Cushman              (FIC CUS)

A twelve-year-old Polish American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in Chicago with fears about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery.

 

Shelter Dogs                                    By Peg Kehret                      (636.7 KEH)

Tells the stories of eight stray dogs that were adopted from animal shelters and went on to become service dogs, actors, and heroes.

 

 

Shutting Out the Sky                        By Deborah Hopkinson            (307.76 HOP)

In a stunning nonfiction debut, award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson focuses on five immigrants' stories to reveal the triumphs and hardships of early 1900s immigrant life in New York.

 

The Thief Lord                                  By Cornelia Funk                     (FIC FUN)

Orphaned brothers Prosper and Bo, having run away from their cruel aunt and uncle, decide to hide out in Venice where they fall in with the Thief Lord, a thirteen-year-old boy who leads a crime ring of street children.

 

Weedflower                                      By Cynthia Kadohata                (FIC KAD)

After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop.

 

With Courage and Cloth                     By Ann Bausum                       (324.6 BAU)

Chronicles the long history of the fight for women's voting rights, beginning in 1848, with a focus on the years between 1913 and 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, and includes profiles of notable women in the struggle.