Timeline

Time stood still the other day.
There was before and then.

There was nothing beyond.

Everything
stood still
in that moment.

No plan
no map
no guide
no where to go
no getting away for a moment to think
and no way to go back.

tick
 tock
tick
 tock

the constant of a clock keeping pace
marking the moment
passing
time

yes
standing still and stopping time

illusions
delusions

time kept on the path.

This is happening.
I had just stopped noticing our forward movement

Time stood still the other day.
There was before and then.  

There is something beyond.

I run to catch up
I need to keep with the pace

I can do this.

I will do this.

Chart a course.
Pick the direction. 

In this change of direction place I've had practice.

Then it was difficult.
Now it seems impossible.
overwhelming
if I let it swallow me up

Then I had choices
even when it didn't seem like I did
mostly because I didn't like them
I wanted back and that was not an option

just like now
there is no going back option
this is happening

to me
to us
to all of us


Time stood still the other day.
There was before and then.

There was nothing beyond.
tick
 tock
tick
 tock

I can't see or guess
but I have hope and prayer

time does not stop
There is something beyond.

tick
 tock
tick
 tock

some moments
I can't hear it or I've just stopped noticing
the ticks and tocks
  even as they echo in my head louder than ever before

MRI   chop chop
CAT scan whoo whoo
and even in moments of silence
time marks itself with my own pulse

I do have choices
but at the edge if this chasm I am afraid
I have fear because every choice has the potential to be a fatal decision... ha. as if that mattered.

No room for do-overs 
it is now or never
time did not stop

tick
 tock
tick
 tock

it has been intensified

It is showing me the exit door
It is at the end of every hallway.


It always has been, but today, the hallways each seem so short.

my misery  attacks me in the hallway

tick
 tock
tick
 tock

my misery loathes company

tick
 tock
tick
 tock


it needs to be alone
to grow and breathe and take on a life of its one
it fills time

tick
 tock
tick
 tock

it ends time.

Time stood still the other day.
There was before and then.

There is something beyond.

Oh, thank goodness my hallways are crowded

I have serpas, so many, each with -ology as a last name.
I have friends and family all helping
to pull,
to push and prod me along.

They help to stretch the time

to fill moments with joy

they chase away misery and fear and helplessness.

I can do this
we will do this
it can be done

I can face those moments of hell in the hallway
because I know that the exit door is worse.

I'll stay for this party
we will slow that tick tock of time
I'll savor the moments and
we will make them stretch as far and as long as possible.

My timeline is elastic.

- BH 6/14/14

Summer Reading Task

Read at least one of each of the following...

1.   One of Shakespeare’s plays
2.   The biography of a historical figure 
3.   One book about a historical event or a period in history

• "Code Name Pauline" by Pearl Witherington Cornioley

4.   One “classic” novel (pre-1910)
5.   One “modern classic” (post-1910)
6.   One dystopian novel
7.   One young adult novel
8.   One nonfiction title re: science, medicine, or technology
9.   Something political
10. A graphic novel  

 as directed by this Article

The Leg Issue

In April I went on a long trip to New Orleans.  I have arthritis in my knee.  It slows me down to cautious and increases fatigue.  I had been working on increasing me walking stamina since the trip was planned in January.  I was ready for this. I asked for one concession from my mom, "A taxi from the station to the hotel, please."  She was in agreement. Phew.

The train, The City of New Orleans, was an adventure all by itself.  We had a wonderful sleeper room on the ground level and took our meals in the dining car. That car was 13 or so steps up a two turn steep stairway and a full car away. We made every meal and managed to NOT spill.  It did help that breakfast was during a stop in Memphis.  There was a beautiful sunrise. 

I was rested but had not slept much during the night.  Our car, perhaps the second back from the engine seemed to get knocked upon by a great variety of loud item as we cleared the track in the night.  I'm sure one was a skunk.  I remained in a state of wakefulness because I wanted to see as we crossed the Ohio River.  Leaving the curtain open,the bright lights from crossings; as well as every toot, toot, toooot for a crossing increased my chances.  It all worked.  I was able to watch the train cross.  The moonlight provided a shadow on the river.  It was incredible.

We arrived on Wednesday in time to explore a bit and have dinner.  Thursday was a rainy day so we headed out to nearby locations with our umbrellas.  It was easy to duck inside if the rain was too much.  Cafe and National Park locations were the highlights of the day.  At the Old Mint I took a fall at the entrance stairs, having slipped on the wet tile courtyard.

I laid in the puddle laughing about how wet and muddy I was.  A Segway tour was passing on the street.  I remained down having decided to NOT add my ass in the air to their tour.  Sore and wet I inched to a seat and remained seated for a log while.  My mom and nephew had plenty to observe.  Muddy and damp, I made it to the elevator and into the Jazz demo.  That night I began taking Aleve to help get me through the discomfort. My leg had developed a heaviness and felt to be asleep. We still had a lot of walking to do.  Friday was planned as ride the Streetcar so I could rest my sore knee better.

Friday was a wonderful day.  We rode to the end of the St. Charles line a couple of times. Lunched and enjoyed the part at Toulane. Two New Orleans blocks from the hotel my mom and nephew pulled way ahead of me.  I soldiered on and soon had to lean on the wall for support.  My leg was beginning to take on more sensation of being asleep. At the end of a wall, facing a long opening for a parking lot, I paused to make a plan.  I couldn't do it alone.  Then my leg began to dance.  Knee and thigh twitching, foot lifting. I held on to the corner of the building to save my life. I tried to hail a cab.  I was too far from the street.  I looked too much like a freak. All were full.  Nothing in New Orleans is out of place.

I was tired. Spent.  My leg was still dancing.  No one and nothing could help.  My mom and nephew were lost to me.  I was lost. My phone and 911 could help me.  Big things were wrong with a dancing leg.  I could not hold on much longer and if I fell it would really hurt.  Corner of the building parking lot and uneven tile sidewalk.  Nothing soft or safe about this place.  The operator answered and seemed to be trying to talk me out of the call.  Lady, I'm alone, unable to control my leg.  I need help.  I'm in this street. It is a one way street, coming from Conti.  I think they will see me I'm the one standing at the building with a growing look of panic.  But yes I will flag them down.

Seems like hours later I'm part of the wall that can't hold me and I can't lift my leg. I see my mom.  I see the ambulance.   I try calling and waving.  I want you both here.  My mom suddenly understands I need help.  She comes toward me and calls to the Ambulance.  My leg is no longer dancing but I can't lift it. I can cry. I've never seen my mom more worried than she is at the moment I tell her, "I can't lift my leg."

The decision is made to take me to the hospital.  All my vitals are good and there is a strong pulse in my foot.  Puzzled faces on everyone.  Four hours, blood clot ultrasound, and $125 co-pay later I am free to leave.  The only thing determined is that I don't have a blood clot.  I should follow up with my Doctor when I get home or come back if things get worse.  I can walk with a stiff leg using my hip to swing my leg.  Good to go!

Noises

Noises

my head is filled with noise
voices from now
memories from the past

reminders and recriminations
images and imagination filled visions

to sort the truth from fancy
the lies from fact

the solace that comes from finding a sound
the sound that matches my beat
the ebb and flow of this moment

my here and now

my hear and know

the simple change of a sound
a sight
a moment in time

creating new noise

memories

priceless
or painful
or both at the same time

my head is filled with noise

my mind struggles to make sense of the cacophony
the mess of who I am
what I've been and all I've experienced

real or imagined
I continue to become who I will be.

- BH 3/29/14

March 29, 2014 at 1:12pm from my facebook page.

Diagnosis and Prognosis

Diagnosis and Prognosis

These crappy words
Diagnosis and Prognosis 
fill my head with thoughts
I never want to think
but I do

"Don't freak out"  he said.
Easy to say
this new mantra
much, much, much
harder to believe

even now
weeks of healing later
"Don't freak out"  he said.
holding hands helps
sleeping helps

waiting is torture
I am poised
TO DO
it is who I am
I DO

now the doing
is JUST TO wait
how hard is that?
dream of vacation
or retirement

ha ha pun intended
along this dead end
will i see that
Diagnosis and Prognosis 
"Don't freak out"  he said.

So I don't freak out
entirely
I keep it at bay
but it leaks out
every so often

BHH 6/2/14

Ed's Trip to New Orleans

Ed went going on a trip.  He traveled on a train to New Orleans. Grandma took him on the adventure.  She has taken every grandchild on a trip during Spring Break of 8th Grade.  This year it is Ed's turn.  Aunt Bev  went with them.  Grandpa drove us to the train.


New Orleans is a city in Louisiana.  Louisiana is a state in the Southern region of the United States.  Ed lives near Chicago.  Chicago is in Illinois.  Illinois is a state in the Midwest region of the United States.

Tuesday
They took the train called the "City of New Orleans" from Chicago Union Station. http://www.amtrak.com/city-of-new-orleans-train/
They will sat in seats to enjoy the view out the window.  The train traveled over 900 miles. The trip took over 19 hours! Part of the time it was the dark of night. Ed went to the top bunk to sleep. Aunt Bev was reading.  Grandma was dreaming of all the good food. Here is a video of the train and a trip someone took in 2013. http://youtu.be/5bFVsUDuvh0

There were so many things to see.  Farm, cities, highways, rivers, woods, cars, people, and maybe animals.  Ed saw things change as they travel from North to South. Winter becomes spring. He saw similar scenery change when he went with Grandma, Grandpa, and George when they went to Florida to see Uncle Bud.


The train went the length of the state of Illinois.  It crossed the Ohio River and went across a short parts of Kentucky and Tennessee. Kentucky and Tennessee are states in the South.

Wednesday
Memphis is a city in Tennessee. We were in the dining car for breakfast in Memphis.  We saw the sun come up.  Elvis lived in Memphis in a large house he named Graceland.  http://www.elvis.com/  Ed looked for people that dress like Elvis.   Ed did laugh when his Grandma tried to sing like Elvis.  This boy is MUCH better than his Grandma. http://youtu.be/wYUeQ_k9exU

When the train got to the state of  Mississippi we were nearly there.  Louisiana, the next state the train will cross, is shaped like a shoe. New Orleans is near what looks like the toe. Here is a map of the trip. https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

When we got to the Train Station in New Orleans, Ed was looking for Grandpa and he really wanted to eat pizza. We took a cab to our hotel and then walked to dinner. Prince Conti Hotel – Standard room, 2 double bedshttp://www.princecontihotel.com/  We stayed in the French Quarter and walked nearly everywhere.


Thursday was a bit rainy. We took our umbrellas.
http://www.cafedumonde.com/  Eat a yummy treat called a Beignet?  A fried dough, called a fritter, and sometimes filled with fruit.  Grandma will not like going to this place.  She does not like the smell of coffee.

Friday
http://www.neworleansonline.com/tools/streets/
There are special streets in New Orleans.  Each has a unique look or focus.  We can walk and ride the streetcar to see several of them.  Life in New Orleans is VERY different from Chicago, Northbrook, and North Aurora!

Saturday

http://www.minitime.com/Preservation_Hall-New_Orleans-LA-attraction
New Orleans is all about jazz.  We have to go to hear some.


Sunday

• http://www.frenchquartereasterparade.com/ 
• 1PM : "The parade will begin at the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets, continue down Bourbon Street. to St. Phillip Street, roll up to Decatur Street and conclude on Canal Street at the Astor Crowne Hotel."This would be a fun parade to watch.  Perhaps we should have Easter finery, hats and ties, to join in the celebration.
• At 4PM there is another parade, also in the French Quarter.  This one is HUGE!

Monday
http://www.neworleanscitypark.com/in-the-park/carousel-gardens We saw the sculpture garden behind the art museum and a Pirate Ship in a lagoon.



Tuesday

http://www.neworleansonline.com/tools/transportation/gettingaround/ferry.html
New Orleans is a city built below sea level. It is also a city built with water all around.  Seeing the city from the water will be a treat.


Wednesday We packed had breakfast and took a cab to get on the Train.

Thursday We made it home.

 











---

Aunt Bev has made a place of interesting things to do during the trip:

http://www.meyerthehatter.com/default.aspx   Buy a Straw Hat?


http://www.minitime.com/New_Orleans_Historic_Voodoo_Museum-New_Orleans-LA-attraction   This place will be like halloween.  The history of New Orleans is very rich with people from other parts of the world.



http://nationalww2museum.org/  A museum about World War II was mentioned by a friend when I said we were vacationing here. The Museum began as a D-Day museum.  The landing on the beaches was done with equipment that was built in the New Orleans area.  This museum will remind Grandma of her trip to France with Grandpa and Christopher.




http://www.steamboatnatchez.com/
This is another way to enjoy the city from the water.  Paddleboats were the main way people once used to travel up and down the Mississippi River.  Aunt Bev LOVES the musical Show Boat. She thinks that this would be a great way to spend a couple of hours.When we read the book at the library you said you wanted to go on a boat ride.

http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/avenue-gallery.html  We will be in New Orleans after Mardi Gras, but everyone NEEDs to know about the connection.

http://www.auduboninstitute.org/visit/insectarium
Insects! how unusual. This is just for crazy fun.  Maybe if there is a rainy day.



http://www.neworleanswaxmuseum.com/index.html
The history of New Orleans all in one place; and all in wax.


----

I said Grandma would be dreaming of food. Here are some places we will go to eat.

http://johnnyspoboys.com/menus/po-boys/
We will have to have a sandwich, or two, at this place.  Don't they look yummy?

http://www.centralgroceryneworleans.com/
This another place to sample some special food. This website has photos:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/57/620391/restaurant/French-Quarter/Central-Grocery-New-Orleans


http://www.cookincajun.com/
Cajun cooking and candies are a tradition from Louisiana.  We need to get treats.  This might be a good place to buy things to bring home for the family.

http://www.auntsallys.com/
Grandma will drool over pralines.  This is another good treat place.

***

Kindle the app

I am enamored with the Kindle app on my phone. How handy to have my current read always. available. at my fingertips. day or night.

My public library Overdrive contract is a handy way to keep books coming.  The limit of only 5 books on hold is my only area of complaint. Much like my library catalog option I'd prefer to place a bunch of holds and then suspend several until my reading time is available.  Perhaps. one day.

Meanwhile, you'll find me off in a corner enjoying a book.... swiping pages right to left while tracking the %  read and minutes until the the end of the chapter. 

Reading Wish List

11 Young Adult Books Sure to Make You Cry 

from http://mashable.com/2013/10/16/young-adult-books-cry/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link 

1. Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

3. If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson 

4. The Hate List by Jennifer Brown

5. Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King

6. If I Lie by Corrine Jackson

7. Clean by Amy Reed

8. Gone, Gone Gone by Hannah Moskowitz

9. Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer

10. Blankets by Craig Thompson

11. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

from Elizabeth Drescher
1. Toni Morrison, Sula

2. Louisa May Alcott, Jo's Boys
3. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
4. Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice
5. Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle, Requa I, and Other Works
6. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
7. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
8. Yu Hua, To Live
9. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
10. Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
11. Richard Wright, Native Son 
12. James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
13. Cherrie Moraga, Loving in the War Years: Lo Que Nunca Paso por Sus Labios
14. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony

Sticking with a Good Thing

 The word for today is resilience. According to Merriam-Webster

Definition of RESILIENCE

1: the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress

2: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change 

I see it as "weebles wobble, but they don't fall down" attitude.  You roll with what comes along.  The ability to adjust does not exclude the determination or desire to resist, change or contain that which must be recovered from, it acknowledges merely that on the other side of the change you are still you.  You have recovered the blow that might have smashed or confounded another individual.  The "easily" part is where you show your stuff.  How do you work on this adjustment, what tools do you engage in working through the change, what new skills do you develop.  Easily to me implies a positive attitude.  I just do what I have to do to keep on keeping on, no matter HOW difficult the change may be.  I do this because the power driving me is intent on survival and doing the things that are important to me, to my family, to my community, to my country, to my belief system.

A big change can shake me to the core.  My ability to bounce back is that anchor, that weight to right me, and keep me centered.  It is the power of survival.  It is why I stick with a good thing.  My belief in the good of the world, my belief in the good within people.  My efforts to keep the world a place where good is expected, encouraged, and fostered.

I expect good from other people and I pray I always show them the good in me.

Selecting a book to read

I've set a guideline for my kids picking books at the library. The message is to pick at least four books. Beyond that the limit is what "YOU can carry." After all, I have my own books to carry!

The first, among the four books they need to bring home, is a non-fiction book. It pays to know more about the way of the world. To read a biography introduces one to the fact that your life has great potential or that your life is not that bad after all. A book about a different place in the world expands your horizons. A book about a country can show you how geography, culture, foods, family traditions make a place unique. Often, this kind of book can also show a young reader how much we have in common, no matter where we live in the world. A good read on invention, development, or technology helps a child at least appreciate, if not understand, how things function. This may foster a lifelong appreciation for how good we have it. After all, who among us, cares to lug water from the creek; dig a latrine; give up television?

Two of the books need to be books that I would approve of. This means books they can READ and books that also challenge them. If they read at a third grade level a first grade book will not do. I've shown them how to recognize an award nominated or award winning book. They have favorite authors. We talk about finding another author that writes like one they like. They work to find other books that have themes, or are in a genre, that they like. I love our grade school librarian, Mrs Slaker, for a variety of reasons. The top reason is that she made G- E- N- R -E a fun word, an everyday word, a word that means something to a reader.

The final book I have my kids select is one that they think we would enjoy reading together. In making this selection they have to think of others. Because we talk about genre and authors they have learned to listen. Everyone in the family has an appreciation of the likes, and dislikes, of the others. Think how valuable that was one day when I asked them to "get me a book, please." This selected book gives us reading time together. When they were young, we read this selection aloud, as a big huddle of listeners, on the couch. As the kids have grown older we've lost our reading together time. I miss it, and they miss it, too. Now we take turns reading a book and then discuss it. It works, but it is hollow. I relish the times when one of us will say, "You've got to hear this" and we pile on the couch. It it big, loud, and brash, but oh, so enjoyable.

Websites I've Mothered

The process of creating a website is well documented. How to videos, book, seminars, webinars and the like are out there in great number. I have had the great pleasure of working on several websites over the years. This process has always been a team effort. However, I have this mothering instinct and consider the sites, "my babies." After all, having a role in bringing something from nothing is quite a process. A process that bonds.

Working on the continued face of a site is enjoyable to me. I love adding content, searching out ways for improvement, and keeping it relevant to the users. Time constraints, finances, efforts of team members can be barriers to site success. This frustrates me. I can strive for greater control of the site. I can deliver new and exciting content. I can give it my all, but it still smacks against the barrier.

Sadder yet is the permanent separation from a site. I've discovered that the active, and interactive, aspects of my stamp on the site were so in the moment. As time passes I see that stamp is less, the site is less. It is hard to claim as my baby anymore. My insides own and love it, but my head says let it go. In this, I have a new-found appreciation for the thick skin I noticed among web developers. Wish there was a pill for it.

Frontier Stories

I've always liked pioneer stories, stories of girls on a wild frontier. Some books stay with you, no matter what. this is the tale of one such book.

This attraction is likely a result of my Great - Grandma Lucy. She was a young girl on the plains. She traveled the Oregon Trail. She made it to Chimney Rock, Nebraska. She had a book of autographs and quotes from the her school chums. We would sit and read from the book. The book was kept in her back bedroom closet on the high shelf. It was the one thing special I asked for from her house after her passing. I was heartbroken when my Grandfather said there was no book. I was given her framed Chimney Rock. It remains a treasure.

Years ago, with a young niece, I recalled reading a favorite story about a girl and her friend at a creek. The boy taught her to carve. No luck locating the book then, no matter who I asked. The search fell to the wayside. Again, I have young nieces and they enjoy reading frontier stories. The book is back on my radar, and I have made a break through in recalling a critical word, willow. I now know that the book was The Willow Whistle. Meigs.org, a family genealogy of the author states: "But her stories are always something more than historical fiction. Each one carries a theme idea for any generation. Indeed, Cornelia Meigs manages frequently, in [her] stories of the past, to illuminate certain problems of the present." I'd say so as the book has stuck with me for all these years.

Next step, using ILL to locate a copy to read.

Worth Repeating

Some books are so good they deserve to be read twice. Some books should be read because at different stages in your own life the book has a new message for a reader.

Today I completed a second reading of a book - because once begun I KNEW I had read the book, but for the life of me could not recall HOW it ended....

My conclusion...
Sometimes a book will find you, because you NEED the message it has to share.

Update:
Today I completed a second reading of a book because I wanted to experience the story, again.  The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a young adult novel set in a dreary future.  Everything has become the same in efforts of security and security.  This sameness has eliminated the need for memory and thought.  Everyone acts and reacts in expected ways.  Hills have been smoothed, color has been extracted, weather has been controlled.  Everyone is assigned to appropriate life tasks at the time of their twelfth year.  In this process, Jonas, is selected for a unique position.  He must accept a role outside the boundary of same.  In becoming The Receiver of Memory Jonas learns of pain, grief, hunger, and war.  He also learns of color, snow, rain, family and love.  In receiving these gifts, Jonas begins to question the ways of his community.  The value of sameness.

This book is part of a trilogy and now, a fourth title.  I plan to re-read the trilogy to be prepared for the title "Son," which was published this year.

I stand by my original conclusion. Sometimes a book is in your life just when you need the message it shares.  Jonas, as he learns the meaning of family and love, seeks his family as he now understands them.  Sadly, his family is not available to him, as they have no understanding of the emotions that bind us.

Newbery Award

From the ALA list:

2012 Medal Winner: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Farrar Straus Giroux)

Honor Books:
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (HarperCollins Children's Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers)
Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin (Henry Holt and Company, LLC)

2011 Medal Winner: Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books)

Honor Books:
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House Children's Books)
Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus (Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams)
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins)

2010 Medal Winner: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books)

Honor Books: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (Henry Holt)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers)
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick (The Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc.)

2009 Medal Winner: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illus. by Dave McKean (HarperCollins)

Honor Books:

• The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, illus. by David Small (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
• The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt)
• Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group in partnership with Walden Media)
• After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (G.P. Putnam's Sons, a division of Penguin Books for Young Readers)

2008 Medal Winner: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)

Honor Books:

• Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic)
• The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion)
• Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)

2007 Medal Winner: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)

Honor Books:

• Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm, (Random House)
• Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Delacorte Press)
• Rules by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic)

2006 Medal Winner: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)

Honor Books:

• Whittington by Alan Armstrong, illustrated by S.D. Schindler (Random House)
  
• Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Scholastic)
  
• Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
  
• Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbott (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
  

2005 Medal Winner: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)

Honor Books:

• Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (G.P. Putnam's Sons/a division of Penguin Young Readers Group)
  
• The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights" by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
  
• Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
  

2004 Medal Winner: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, (Candlewick Press)

Honor Books:

• Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books)
  
• An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy (Clarion Books)
  

2003 Medal Winner: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)

Honor Books:

• The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (Atheneum)
  
• Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff (Random House/Wendy Lamb Books)
  
• Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)
  
• A Corner of The Universe by Ann M. Martin (Scholastic)
  
• Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan (HarperCollins)
  

2002 Medal Winner: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)

Honor Books:

• Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath (Farrar Straus Giroux)
  
• Carver: A Life In Poems by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street)
  

2001 Medal Winner: A Year Down Yonder by by Richard Peck (Dial)

Honor Books:

• Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
  
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
  
• Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
  
• The Wanderer by Sharon Creech (Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins)
  

2000 Medal Winner: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)

Honor Books:

• Getting Near to Baby by by Audrey Couloumbis (Putnam)
  
• Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm (HarperCollins)
  
• 26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola (Putnam)
  

1999 Medal Winner: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster)

Honor Book:

• A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck (Dial)
  

1998 Medal Winner: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)

Honor Books:

• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins)
  
• Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff (Delacorte)
  
• Wringer by Jerry Spinelli (HarperCollins)
  

1997 Medal Winner: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)

Honor Books:

• A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (Richard Jackson/Orchard Books)
  
• Moorchild by Eloise McGraw (Margaret McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
  
• The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow/Morrow)
  
• Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White (Farrar Straus Giroux)
  

1996 Medal Winner: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)

Honor Books:

• What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman (Front Street)
  
• The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
  
• Yolonda's Genius by Carol Fenner (Margaret K. McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
  
• The Great Fire by Jim Murphy (Scholastic)
  

1995 Medal Winner: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)

Honor Books:

• Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
  
• The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer (Jackson/Orchard)
  

1994 Medal Winner: The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton)

Honor Books:

• Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly (HarperCollins)
  
• Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep (HarperCollins)
  
• Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books)
  

1993 Medal Winner: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)

Honor Books:

• What Hearts by Bruce Brooks (A Laura Geringer Book, a HarperCollins imprint)
  
• The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack (Knopf)
  
• Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic Hardcover)
  

1992 Medal Winner: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)

Honor Books:

• Nothing But The Truth: a Documentary Novel by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)
  
• The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)
  

1991 Medal Winner: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)

Honor Book:

• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)
  

1990 Medal Winner: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)

Honor Books:

• Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle (Jackson/Orchard)
  
• Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples (Knopf)
  
• The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen (Jackson/Orchard)
  

1989 Medal Winner: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)

Honor Books:

• In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton (Harcourt)
  
• Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers (Harper)
  

1988 Medal Winner: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)

Honor Books:

• After The Rain by Norma Fox Mazer (Morrow)
  
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (Bradbury)
  

1987 Medal Winner: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)

Honor Books:

• A Fine White Dust by Cynthia Rylant (Bradbury)
  
• On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer (Clarion)
  
• Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber (Bradbury)
  

1986 Medal Winner: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)

Honor Books:

• Commodore Perry In the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg (Lothrop)
  
• Dogsong by Gary Paulsen (Bradbury)
  

1985 Medal Winner: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)

Honor Books:

• Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes (Knopf)
  
• The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks (Harper)
  
• One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
  

1984 Medal Winner: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)

Honor Books:

• The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
  
• A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
  
• Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky (Macmillan)
  
• The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree by Bill Brittain (Harper)
  

1983 Medal Winner: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)

Honor Books:

• The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
  
• Doctor DeSoto by William Steig (Farrar)
  
• Graven Images by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
  
• Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz (Putnam)
  
• Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton (Philomel)
  

1982 Medal Winner: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)

Honor Books:

• Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
  
• Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal (Farrar)
  

1981 Medal Winner: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)

Honor Books:

• The Fledgling by Jane Langton (Harper)
  
• A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
  

1980 Medal Winner: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)

Honor Book:

• The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl by David Kherdian (Greenwillow)
  

• 1979 Medal Winner: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
  Honor Book:
  
  • The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
    
  
  
  
• 1978 Medal Winner: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
    
  • Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey by Jamake Highwater (Lippincott)
    
  
  
  
• 1977 Medal Winner: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Abel's Island by William Steig (Farrar)
    
  • A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond (Atheneum)
    
  
  
  
• 1976 Medal Winner: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis (Viking)
    
  • Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (Harper)
    
  
  
  
• 1975 Medal Winner: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Figgs & Phantoms by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
    
  • My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier (Four Winds)
    
  • The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (Houghton)
    
  • Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe by Bette Greene (Dial)
    
  
  
  
• 1974 Medal Winner: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
  Honor Book:
  
  • The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)
    
  
  
  
• 1973 Medal Winner: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel (Harper)
    
  • The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss (Crowell)
    
  • The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)
    
  
  
  
• 1972 Medal Winner: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Incident At Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert (Little, Brown)
    
  • The Planet of Junior Brown by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
    
  • The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin (Atheneum)
    
  • Annie and the Old One by Miska Miles (Little, Brown)
    
  • The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)
    
  
  
  
• 1971 Medal Winner: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Knee Knock Rise by Natalie Babbitt (Farrar)
    
  • Enchantress From the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl (Atheneum)
    
  • Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
    
  
  
  
• 1970 Medal Winner: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Our Eddie by Sulamith Ish-Kishor (Pantheon)
    
  • The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art by Janet Gaylord Moore (World)
    
  • Journey Outside by Mary Q. Steele (Viking)
    
• 1969 Medal Winner: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
  Honor Books:
  
  • To Be a Slave by Julius Lester (Dial)
    
  • When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Farrar)
    
  
  
  
• 1968 Medal Winner: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
    
  • The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
    
  • The Fearsome Inn by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Scribner)
    
  • The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)
    
  
  
  
• 1967 Medal Winner: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
    
  • Zlateh The Goat and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Harper)
    
  • The Jazz Man by Mary Hays Weik (Atheneum)
    
  
  
  
• 1966 Medal Winner: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
    
  • The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell (Pantheon)
    
  • The Noonday Friends by Mary Stolz (Harper)
    
  
  
  
• 1965 Medal Winner: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
  Honor Book:
  
  • Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Follett)
    
  
  
  
• 1964 Medal Winner: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era by Sterling North (Dutton)
    
  • The Loner by Ester Wier (McKay)
    
  
  
  
• 1963 Medal Winner: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland by Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. (Leclaire Alger) (Holt)
    
  • Men of Athens by Olivia Coolidge (Houghton)
    
  
  
  
• 1962 Medal Winner: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Frontier Living by Edwin Tunis (World)
    
  • The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Coward)
    
  • Belling The Tiger by Mary Stolz (Harper)
    
  
  
  
• 1961 Medal Winner: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
  Honor Books:
  
  • America Moves Forward: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson (Morrow)
    
  • Old Ramon by Jack Schaefer (Houghton)
    
  • The Cricket In Times Square by George Selden, pseud. (George Thompson) (Farrar)
    
  
  
  
• 1960 Medal Winner: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
  Honor Books:
  
  • My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Dutton)
    
  • America Is Born: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson (Morrow)
    
  • The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall (Harcourt)
    
  
  
  Top of list
  
• 1959 Medal Winner: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Family Under The Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson (Harper)
    
  • Along Came A Dog by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
    
  • Chucaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa by Francis Kalnay (Harcourt)
    
  • The Perilous Road by William O. Steele (Harcourt)
    
  
  
  
• 1958 Medal Winner: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Horsecatcher by Mari Sandoz (Westminster)
    
  • Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (Harcourt)
    
  • The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson (Viking)
    
  • Tom Paine, Freedom's Apostle by Leo Gurko (Crowell)
    
• 1957 Medal Winner: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Old Yeller by Fred Gipson (Harper)
    
  • The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
    
  • Mr. Justice Holmes by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
    
  • The Corn Grows Ripe by Dorothy Rhoads (Viking)
    
  • Black Fox of Lorne by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
    
  
  
  
• 1956 Medal Winner: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner)
    
  • The Golden Name Day by Jennie Lindquist (Harper)
    
  • Men, Microscopes, and Living Things by Katherine Shippen (Viking)
    
  
  
  
• 1955 Medal Winner: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
    
  • Banner In The Sky by James Ullman (Lippincott)
    
  
  
  
• 1954 Medal Winner: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
  Honor Books:
  
  • All Alone by Claire Huchet Bishop (Viking)
    
  • Shadrach by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
    
  • Hurry Home, Candy by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
    
  • Theodore Roosevelt, Fighting Patriot by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
    
  • Magic Maize by Mary & Conrad Buff (Houghton)
    
  
  
  
• 1953 Medal Winner: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Charlotte's Web by E. B. White (Harper)
    
  • Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Coward)
    
  • Red Sails to Capri by Ann Weil (Viking)
    
  • The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
    
  • Birthdays of Freedom, Vol. 1 by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
    
  
  
  
• 1952 Medal Winner: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Americans Before Columbus by Elizabeth Baity (Viking)
    
  • Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling (Houghton)
    
  • The Defender by Nicholas Kalashnikoff (Scribner)
    
  • The Light at Tern Rock by Julia Sauer (Viking)
    
  • The Apple and the Arrow by Mary & Conrad Buff (Houghton)
    
  
  
  
• 1951 Medal Winner: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Better Known as Johnny Appleseed by Mabel Leigh Hunt (Lippincott)
    
  • Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword by Jeanette Eaton (Morrow)
    
  • Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the People by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
    
  • The Story of Appleby Capple by Anne Parrish (Harper)
    
  
  
  
• 1950 Medal Winner: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Tree of Freedom by Rebecca Caudill (Viking)
    
  • The Blue Cat of Castle Town by Catherine Coblentz (Longmans)
    
  • Kildee House by Rutherford Montgomery (Doubleday)
    
  • George Washington by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
    
  • Song of The Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin by Walter & Marion Havighurst (Winston)
    
• 1949 Medal Winner: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Seabird by Holling C. Holling (Houghton)
    
  • Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin (Viking)
    
  • My Father's Dragon by Ruth S. Gannett (Random House)
    
  • Story of the Negro by Arna Bontemps (Knopf)
    
  
  
  
• 1948 Medal Winner: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Pancakes-Paris by Claire Huchet Bishop (Viking)
    
  • Li Lun, Lad of Courage by Carolyn Treffinger (Abingdon)
    
  • The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot by Catherine Besterman (Bobbs-Merrill)
    
  • The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories by Harold Courlander (Holt)
    
  • Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
    
  
  
  
• 1947 Medal Winner: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Wonderful Year by Nancy Barnes (Messner)
    
  • Big Tree by Mary & Conrad Buff (Viking)
    
  • The Heavenly Tenants by William Maxwell (Harper)
    
  • The Avion My Uncle Flew by Cyrus Fisher, pseud. (Darwin L. Teilhet) (Appleton)
    
  • The Hidden Treasure of Glaston by Eleanor Jewett (Viking)
    
  
  
  
• 1946 Medal Winner: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
    
  • The Moved-Outers by Florence Crannell Means (Houghton)
    
  • Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear by Christine Weston (Scribner)
    
  • New Found World by Katherine Shippen (Viking)
    
  
  
  
• 1945 Medal Winner: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
    
  • The Silver Pencil by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
    
  • Abraham Lincoln's World by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
    
  • Lone Journey: The Life of Roger Williams by Jeanetter Eaton (Harcourt)
    
  
  
  
• 1944 Medal Winner: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)
  Honor Books:
  
  • These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
    
  • Fog Magic by Julia Sauer (Viking)
    
  • Rufus M. by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
    
  • Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates (Coward)
    
  
  
  
• 1943 Medal Winner: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
    
  • Have You Seen Tom Thumb? by Mabel Leigh Hunt (Lippincott)
    
  
  
  
• 1942 Medal Winner: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
    
  • George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
    
  • Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
    
  • Down Ryton Water by Eva Roe Gaggin (Viking)
    
  
  
  
• 1941 Medal Winner: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Blue Willow by Doris Gates (Viking)
    
  • Young Mac of Fort Vancouver by Mary Jane Carr (Crowell)
    
  • The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
    
  • Nansen by Anna Gertrude Hall (Viking)
    
  
  
  
• 1940 Medal Winner: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy (Viking)
    
  • Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz by Mabel Robinson (Random House)
    
  • By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
    
  • Boy with a Pack by Stephen W. Meader (Harcourt)
    
  
  
  1939 Medal Winner: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
  
• Honor Books:
  
  • Nino by Valenti Angelo (Viking)
    
  • Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard & Florence Atwater (Little, Brown)
    
  • Hello the Boat! by Phyllis Crawford (Holt)
    
  • Leader By Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot by Jeanette Eaton (Harcourt)
    
  • Penn by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
    
  
  
  
• 1938 Medal Winner: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Pecos Bill by James Cloyd Bowman (Little, Brown)
    
  • Bright Island by Mabel Robinson (Random House)
    
  • On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
    
  
  
  
• 1937 Medal Winner: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Phebe Fairchild: Her Book by Lois Lenski (Stokes)
    
  • Whistler's Van by Idwal Jones (Viking)
    
  • The Golden Basket by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)
    
  • Winterbound by Margery Bianco (Viking)
    
  • The Codfish Musket by Agnes Hewes (Doubleday)
    
  • Audubon by Constance Rourke (Harcourt)
    
  
  
  
• 1936 Medal Winner: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Honk, the Moose by Phil Stong (Dodd)
    
  • The Good Master by Kate Seredy (Viking)
    
  • Young Walter Scott by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
    
  • All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud by Armstrong Sperry (Winston)
    
  
  
  
• 1935 Medal Winner: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Pageant of Chinese History by Elizabeth Seeger (Longmans)
    
  • Davy Crockett by Constance Rourke (Harcourt)
    
  • Day On Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic by Hilda Von Stockum (Harper)
    
  
  
  
• 1934 Medal Winner: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Forgotten Daughter by Caroline Snedeker (Doubleday)
    
  • Swords of Steel by Elsie Singmaster (Houghton)
    
  • ABC Bunny by Wanda Gág (Coward)
    
  • Winged Girl of Knossos by Erik Berry, pseud. (Allena Best) (Appleton)
    
  • New Land by Sarah Schmidt (McBride)
    
  • Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)
    
  • Glory of the Seas by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)
    
  • Apprentice of Florence by Ann Kyle (Houghton)
    
  
  
  
• 1933 Medal Winner: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Swift Rivers by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
    
  • The Railroad To Freedom: A Story of the Civil War by Hildegarde Swift (Harcourt)
    
  • Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia by Nora Burglon (Doubleday)
    
  
  
  
• 1932 Medal Winner: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
  Honor Books:
  
  • The Fairy Circus by Dorothy P. Lathrop (Macmillan)
    
  • Calico Bush by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
    
  • Boy of the South Seas by Eunice Tietjens (Coward-McCann)
    
  • Out of the Flame by Eloise Lownsbery (Longmans)
    
  • Jane's Island by Marjorie Allee (Houghton)
    
  • Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy by Mary Gould Davis (Harcourt)
    
  
  
  
• 1931 Medal Winner: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
  Honor Books:
  
  • Floating Island by Anne Parrish (Harper)
    
  • The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess by Alida Malkus (Harcourt)
    
  • Queer Person by Ralph Hubbard (Doubleday)
    
  • Mountains are Free by Julie Davis Adams (Dutton)
    
  • Spice and the Devil's Cave by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)
    
  • Meggy MacIntosh by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Doubleday)
    
  • Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes by Herbert Best (Doubleday)
    
  • Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer by Alice Lide & Margaret Johansen (Little, Brown)
    
  
  
  
• 1930 Medal Winner: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
  Honor Books:
  
  • A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland by Jeanette Eaton (Harper)
    
  • Pran of Albania by Elizabeth Miller (Doubleday)
    
  • Jumping-Off Place by Marion Hurd McNeely (Longmans)
  • The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales by Ella Young (Longmans)
  • Vaino by Julia Davis Adams (Dutton)
  • Little Blacknose by Hildegarde Swift (Harcourt)
    
    
    • 1929 Medal Winner: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
      Honor Books:
      
      • Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo by John Bennett (Longmans)
        
      • Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág (Coward)
        
      • The Boy Who Was by Grace Hallock (Dutton)
        
      • Clearing Weather by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
        
      • Runaway Papoose by Grace Moon (Doubleday)
        
      • Tod of the Fens by Elinor Whitney (Macmillan)
        
      
      
    • 1928 Medal Winner: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
      Honor Books:
      
      • The Wonder Smith and His Son by Ella Young (Longmans)
        
      • Downright Dencey by Caroline Snedeker (Doubleday)
        
      
      
    • 1927 Medal Winner: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
      Honor Books:
      
      • [None recorded]
        
      
      
    • 1926 Medal Winner: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
      Honor Book:
      
      • The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)
        
      
      
    • 1925 Medal Winner: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)
      Honor Books:
      
      • Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by Annie Carroll Moore (Putnam)
        
      • The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish (Macmillan)
        
      
      
    • 1924 Medal Winner: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
      Honor Books:
      
      • [None recorded]
        
      
      
    • 1923 Medal Winner: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)
      Honor Books:
      
      • [None recorded]
        
      
      
    • 1922 Medal Winner: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)
      Honor Books:
      
      • The Great Quest by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
        
      • Cedric the Forester by Bernard Marshall (Appleton)
        
      • The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure by William Bowen (Macmillan)
        
      • The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)
      • The Windy Hill by Cornelia Meigs (Macmillan)
        

The Bluestem Award

The Bluestem Award:  3-5 Children's Choice Award is designed for students in grades 3-5. Its annual master may contain non-fiction, timeless classics as well as current titles, biography,and  other diverse and varied content titles appropriate for this age group. 

2014 Master List Bluestem Book Award
Amato, Mary Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook

Banerjee, Anjali Seaglass Summer 

Beccia, Carlyn I Feel Better with a Frog in my Throat : history's strangest cures 

Cotler, Stephen and Adam McCauley (ill) Cheesie Mack is not a Genius or Anything

Curtis, Christopher Paul Bud, not Buddy

Davies, Jacqueline The Lemonade War
Dennis, Brian, Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery Nubs : the true story of a mutt, a marine & a miracle
DiCamillo, Kate Because of Winn-Dixie
Green, Michelle Y A Strong Right Arm: the story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson

Hurwitz, Michele Weber Calli be Gold
Jenkins, Steve Bones: skeletons and how they work
Kerley, Barbara and Brian Selznick (ill) The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins : an illuminating history of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, artist and lecturer
Lowry, Lois Number the Stars
MacLachlan, Patricia and Amy June Bates (ill) Waiting for the Magic 

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds Emily’s Fortune 

Palacio, R J Wonder

Pennypacker, Sara and Marla Frazee (ill) Clementine 

Scieszka, Jon and Lane Smith (ill) Knights of the Kitchen Table (Time Warp Trio vol 1)
Weeks, Sarah Pie 

Whybrow, Ian and Tony Ross (ill) Little Wolf's Book of Badness

 Master List for the 2012-2013 school year:
Alvarez, Julia How Tia Lola Came to Stay Knopf 2001
Barton, Chris The Day-­‐Glo Brothers Charlesbridge 2009
Bosch, Pseudonymous The Name of this Book is Secret Little Brown 2008
Buyea,Rob Because of Mr. Terupt Delacorte Press 2010
Cassino, Mark The Story of Snow Chronicle 2009
Chin, Jason Redwoods Flash Point 2009
Creech, Sharon Love that Dog HarperCollins 2003
DiCamillo, Kate The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Candlewick 2006
Draper, Sharon Out of My Mind Atheneum 2010
Epstein, Adam and Andrew Jacobson The Familiars HarperCollins 2010
Frazier,Sundee T. Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything In It Delacorte Press 2007
Graff, Lisa The Thing about Georgie HarperCollins 2008
Gutman, Dan Honus and Me HarperCollins 1998
Lord,Cynthia Touch Blue Scholastic 2010
Morpurgo, Michael War Horse Scholastic 1982
Pitchford, Dean Captain Nobody Putnam 2009
Raczka, Bob Guyku Houghton Mifflin 2009
Ramsey, Calvin A. Ruth and the Green Book Carolrhoda 2010
Singer, Marilyn Mirror Mirror Dutton 2010
West, Jacqueline The Shadows (Books of Elsewhere Vol.1) Dial 2010

Master List released for the 2011-2012 school year:
14 Cows for America by Carmen Deedy 

Adventures in Cartooning by James Sturm and Andrew Arnold  ### Winner


All Stations! Distress! April 15, 1912 : the Day the Titanic Sank by Dan Brown 


Animal Heroes: True Rescue Stories by Sandra Markle 


Bad news for outlaws: the Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson 


Bunnicula: a Rabbit Tale of Mystery by James Howe 


Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise 


Extra Credit by Andrew Clements 


Faith, Hope and Ivy June Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 

Flight of the Phoenix by R.L. LaFevers 


Just Grace by Charise Harper 


Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka

Passage to Freedom: the Sughihara story by Ken Mochizuki 


Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan 


Rules by Cynthia Lord 


Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis 


Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar, Louis 


Sisters Grimm: the Fairy‐Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley 


Swindle by Gordon Korman 


World According to Humphrey by Betty Birney

Master List released for the 2010-2011 school year:
Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows
Nic Bishop Frogs by Nic Bishop
No Talking by Andrew Clements
BFG by Roald Dahl
Kenny and the Dragon by Tony DiTerlizzi
Sky Boys: How they Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson
mmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell
Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
Being Teddy Roosevelt by Claudia Mills
Hachiko Waits by Leslea Newman
Boys of Steel by Marc Tyler Nobleman
How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'ConnorHoudini Box by Brian Selznik
Dodger and Me by Jordan Sonnenblick
Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli
Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln by Judith St. George

Shredderman: Secret Identity by Wendelin Van Draanen
Oggie Cooder by Sarah Weeks
Aurora County All-Stars by Deborah Wiles

Reading Mood

Just wondering aloud about how what you are reading can "put you in a mood," as much as how you are feeling can impact on what you choose to read.

Books to consider

I am always on the watch for a list of books to read. This project is ambitious and is fun to watch. I hope to read through, or at least consider, the books on the list when looking for my next read...
Author = read years ago
Title =recently read
Added a new Page to the Blog "Reading Wish List"Fiction
1984 - Orwell, George
A Handful of Dust - Waugh, Evelyn
A House for Mr. Biswas - Naipaul, V.S.
A Passage to India - Forster, E. M.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce, James
A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens, Charles
Animal Farm - Orwell, George
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy, Leo
Beloved - Morrison, Toni
Black Mischief - Waugh, Evelyn
Scoop - Waugh, Evelyn
The Loved One - Waugh, Evelyn
The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold - Waugh, Evelyn
Brideshead Revisited - Waugh, Evelyn
Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
Carried Away - Munro, Alice
Catch-22 - Heller, Joseph
Collected Stories - Chandler, Raymond
Collected Stories - Dahl, Roald
Collected Stories - Kafka, Fran
Collected Stories - Maugham, W. Somerset
Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky, Fyodor
David Copperfield - Dickens, Charles
Doctor Zhivago - Pasternak, Boris
Dubliners - Joyce, James
Great Expectations - Dickens, Charles
Heart of Darkness - Conrad, Joseph
Jane Eyre - Bronte, Charlotte
Joseph and His Brothers - Mann, Thomas
Lolita - Nabokov, Vladimir
Love in the Time of Cholera - Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
Madame Bovary - Flaubert, Gustave
Midnight’s Children - Rushdie, Salman
Moby Dick - Melville, Herman
Molloy - Beckett, Samuel
Malone Dies - Beckett, Samuel
The Unameable: A Trilogy - Beckett, Samuel
Mr. Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi - Narayan, R.K.
The Financial Expert - Narayan, R.K.
Waiting for the Mahatma - Narayan, R.K.
Mrs. Dalloway - Woolf, Virginia
My Antonia - Cather, Willa
Offshore - Fitzgerald, Penelope
Human Voices - Fitzgerald, Penelope
The Beginning of Spring - Fitzgerald, Penelope
Oliver Twist - Dickens, Charles
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Solzhenitsyn, Alexander
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
Pale Fire - Nabokov, Vladimir
Persuasion - Austen, Jane
Pnin - Nabokov, Vladimir
Pride and Prejudice - Austen, Jane
Rabbit Angstrom - Updike, John
Sense and Sensibility - Austen, Jane
Song of Solomon - Morrison, Toni
Swami and Friends - Narayan, R.K.
The Bachelor of Arts - Narayan, R.K.
The Dark Room - Narayan, R.K.
The English Teacher - Narayan, R.K.
The Arabian Nights
The Big Sleep - Chandler, Raymond
Farewell my Lovely - Chandler, Raymond
The High Window - Chandler, Raymond
The Bookshop- Fitzgerald, Penelope
The Gate of Angels - Fitzgerald, Penelope
The Blue Flower - Fitzgerald, Penelope
All the Pretty Horses / The Border Trilogy - McCarthy, CormacThe Crossing / The Border Trilogy - McCarthy, Cormac
Cities of the Plain / The Border Trilogy - McCarthy, Cormac
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky, Fyodor
The Castle - Kafka, Franz
The Complete Henry Bech - Updike, John
The Complete Short Novels - Chekhov, Anton
The Complete Short Stories - Waugh, Evelyn
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis - Bassani, Giorgio
The General in His Labyrinth - Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
The Handmaid’s Tale - Atwood, Margaret
The House of the Spirits - Allende, Isabel
The Human Factor - Greene, Graham
The Lady in the Lake - Chandler, Raymond
The Little Sister - Chandler, Raymond
The Long Goodbye - Chandler, Raymond
Playback - Chandler, Raymond
The Magic Mountain - Mann, Thomas
The Maltese Falcon - Hammett, Dashiell
The Thin Man - Hammett, Dashiell
Red Harvest - Hammett, Dashiell
The Mill on the Floss - Eliot, George
The Name of the Rose - Eco, Umberto
The Plague - Camus, Albert
The Fall - Camus, Albert
Exile and the Kingdom - Camus, Albert
Selected Essays - Camus, Albert
The Postman Always Rings Twice - Cain, James M
Double Indemnity - Cain, James M
Mildred Pierce - Cain, James M
Selected Stories - Cain, James M
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Spark, Muriel
The Girls of Slender Means - Spark, Muriel
The Driver’s Seat - Spark, Muriel
The Only Problem - Spark, Muriel
The Radetzky March - Roth, Joseph
The Scarlett Letter - Hawthorne, Nathaniel
The Stranger - Camus, Albert
The Tale of Genji - Murasaki, Shikibu
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Highsmith, Patricia
Ripley Underground - Highsmith, Patricia
Ripley’s Game - Highsmith, Patricia
The Trial - Kafka, Franz
Things Fall Apart - Achebe, Chinua
This Side of Paradise - Fitzgerald, F. Scott
To the Lighthouse - Woolf, Virginia
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - Twain, Mark
Ulysses - Joyce, James
Zeno’s Conscience - Svevo, Italo
The Best of Wodehouse - Wodehouse, P. G.
Dain Curse - Hammett, Dashiel
The Glass Key and The Selected Stories - Hammett, Dashiel
Death Comes for the Archbishop - Cather, Willa
Ficciones - Borges, Jorge Luis
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler - Calvino, Italo
The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov, Mikhail
Sons and Lovers - Lawrence, D. H.
The Cairo Trilogy - Mahfouz, Naguib
The Sword of Honour Trilogy - Waugh, Evelyn
Three Novels of Ancient Egypt Khufu’s Wisdom - Mahfouz, Naguib
Rhodopis of Nubia - Mahfouz, Naguib
Thebes at War - Mahfouz, Naguib
Mansfield Park - Austen, Jane
Northanger Abbey - Austen, Jane
Emma - Austen, Jane

Non-Fiction
Democracy in America - Tocqueville, Alexis De
Essays - Orwell, George
Meditations - Aurelius, Marcus
Rights of Man and Common Sense - Paine, Thomas
Speak, Memory - Nabokov, Vladimir
The Republic - Plato
The Prince - Machiavelli, Niccolo
The Wealth of Nations - Smith, Adam
Walden - Thoreau, Henry David
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live - Didion, Joan
Waugh Abroad: Collected Travel Writing - Waugh, Evelyn
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Wollstonecraft, Mary

Religion
Tao Te Ching - Lao-Tzu
The Collected Works - Gibran, Kahlil
The Confessions - Augustine

Poetry
The Aeneid - Virgil
The Divine Comedy - Dante, Alighieri
The Iliad - Homer
The Odyssey - Homer
Marriage Poems - Hollander, John
Baudelaire: Poems - Baudelaire, Charles

Philosophy
The Analects - Confucius

History
The Histories - Herodotus

Biography
The Periodic Table - Levi, Primo
The Woman Warrior, China Men - Kingston, Maxine Hong
The Life of Samuel Johnson - Boswell, James

Children’s
Adventures of Robin Hood - Green, Roger Lancelyn
Aladdin and Other Tales - Robinson, W. Heath
Anne of Green Gables - Montgomery, L. M.
A Apple Pie & Nursery Rhymes - Greenaway, Kate
The BFG - Dahl, Roald
Black Beauty - Sewell, Anna
A Book of Nonsense - Lear, Edward
A Child’s Garden of Verses - Stevenson, Robert Louis
A Christmas Carol - Dickens, Charles
Daddy Long Legs - Webster, Jean
Don Quixote of the Mancha - Cervantes, Miguel De
English Fairy Tales - Jacobs, Joseph
The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children - Avery, Gillian
The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse - Guinness, Louise
Fables - Aesop
Fairy Tales - Andersen, Hans Christian
Fairy Tales - The Brothers Grimm
Jack the Giant Killer - Doyle, Richard
Just So Stories - Kipling, Rudyard
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table - Green, Roger Lancelyn
The Light in the Forest - Richter, Conrad
Little Red Riding Hood & Other Stories - Perrault, Charles
Little Women - Alcott, Louisa May
Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes - Jerrold, Walter
Peter Pan - Barrie, J.M.
The Pied Piper of Hamlin - Browning, Robert
The Princess and the Goblin - MacDonald, George
Ride a Cock-Horse and Other Rhymes and Stories - Caldecott, Randolph
Robinson Crusoe - Defoe, Daniel
Russian Fairly Tales - Avery, Gillian
The Scarlett Pimpernel - Orczy, Baroness
The Secret Garden - Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Sherlock Holmes - Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
Sleeping Beauty - Evans, C.S.
The Three Musketeers - Dumas, Alexandre
Treasure Island - Stevenson, Robert Louis
The Wind in the Willows - Grahame, Kenneth
The Wizard of Oz - Baum, L. Frank
A Wonder Book for Boys & Girls - Hawthorne, Nathaniel