Liberated for a year from her parents’ restrictions, ten-year-old Lucinda discovers true freedom in the care of her temporary guardians as she roller skates around the streets of turn-of-the-century New York.
Roller Skates
Newbery
The View From Saturday (Newbery Medal Book)
HOW HAD MRS. OLINSKI CHOSEN her sixth-grade Academic Bowl team? She had a number of answers. But were any of them true? How had she really chosen Noah and Nadia and Ethan and Julian? And why did they make such a good team?
It was a surprise to a lot of people when Mrs. Olinski’s team won the sixth-grade Academic Bowl contest at Epiphany Middle School. It was an even bigger surprise when they beat the seventh grade and the eighth grade, too. And when they went on to even greater victories, everyone began to ask: How did it happen?
It happened at least partly because Noah had been the best man (quite by accident) at the wedding of Ethan’s grandmother and Nadia’s grandfather. It happened because Nadia discovered that she could not let a lot of baby turtles die. It happened when Ethan could not let Julian face disaster alone. And it happened because Julian valued something important in himself and saw in the other three something he also valued.
Mrs. Olinski, returning to teaching after having been injured in an automobile accident, found that her Academic Bowl team became her answer to finding confidence and success. What she did not know, at least at first, was that her team knew more than she did the answer to why they had been chosen.
This is a tale about a team, a class, a school, a series of contests and, set in the midst of this, four jewel-like short stories — one for each of the team members — that ask questions and demonstrate surprising answers.
Maniac Magee
When Jeffrey Lionel Magee, a twelve-year-old kid, wanders into Two Mills, Pennsylvania, a legend is in the making. Before too long, the stories begin to circulate about how fast and how far he can run, about how he knocks the world’s first ever “frogball” for an inside-the-park-home run bunt, and more stories that earn him the nickname “Maniac”.
Sarah, Plain and Tall
When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie Kansas home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay.
Shadow of a Bull
As he prepares for his first bullfight at the age of twelve, Manolo Olivar struggles with doubts about being able to fulfill his late father’s bullfighting legacy.
A Year Down Yonder (Newbery Medal Book)
It was within the pages of Richard Peck’s Newbery Honor-winning A Long Way from Chicago that Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel first made their captivating debut. Now they’re back for more astonishing, laugh-out-loud adventures when fifteen-year-old Mary Alice moves in with her spicy grandmother for the year. Expect moonlit schemes, romances both foiled and founded, and a whole parade of fools made to suffer in unusual (and always hilarious) ways.
Wise, exuberant, and slyly heartwarming, Mary Alice’s story is a fully satisfying companion to the celebrated A Long Way from Chicago, which, in addition to receiving the Newbery Honor, was a National Book Award finalist, an ALA Notable Book, and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.
Shiloh
When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog’s real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.
ses
Walk Two Moons
Winner of the 1995 John Newbery Medal. Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hill, known as Sal, is traveling from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents, in search of her mother. Along the way, she tells them the story of Phoebe Winterbottom, who received mysterious messages, met a “potential lunatic,” and whose mother disappeared. Beneath Phoebe’s story is Sal’s story and that of her mother, who left one day for Idaho and has not returned. Sal has less than a week to get to Idaho in time for her mother’s birthday and bring her back. Despite her father’s warning that she is fishing in the air, Sal knows this journey is the only chance she has for reuniting her family.
They Were Strong And Good
Awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1941, They Were Strong and Good is a classic book that follows the path of one family’s journey through American history. Robert Lawson introduces us to his forefathers and with them we brave Caribbean storms, travel to the wharf markets of New York, and fight in the Civil War. Amidst these adventures Lawson’s grandparents meet, marry, and raise a family, and later his parents follow the same cycle of life. But this book is more than just the story of one family, it’s a social history of our country.
Smoky the Cowhorse
Describes the experiences of Smoky, the mouse-colored horse, from his birth on the range, his capture by humans, through his work in the rodeo and on the ranch, and his eventual old age.