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

Books that are part of something MORE

Some books and stories as just SO good that you wish that they were part of something more...

I hate the sinking feeling that comes with the end of a GOOD book. The knowledge that somehow, in the next few pages this story will be OVER. At that time, my time with this group of friends will come to an end. Sure, much like a great vacation, or your favorite memory, there story will remain there for the visiting and connecting with things newly read. Sadly, the time of discovery and the "how I am reacting" with their story will be done. I will know all that the author chose to share with me. What I continue to make of the story will be up to me.

Books in series, or with sequels, delay that moment of separation. Bless the author that has chosen to continue to share with me the "further adventures" of our common friends!

For all the time in the world to consider that for every favorite book, for each good read, there might be another one out there waiting for me to discover it. Oh, I am anxious to begin that journey and put my abilities to the test as I seek out the continuing possibilities.

Talking a book

There is a great art to talking a book.
Sharing a title that hit you just so is easier...

• if you can recall the details over time
• if you can tell enough to convey why it was good or interesting
• if you can do the above WITHOUT giving away too much
• if you can recall the author

Wandering the shelves or using an online tool : library catalog or google search can provide a book cover image which can help. Generally speaking this if process is easier if you work on it. Memory jolts can help. Just like writing a to do list helps to cement it in your mind. Writing a three line review can help your recall on a book. My efforts this year:

January
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
The story of two sisters each running from their warped version of their shared past. They discover, when circumstances throw them together, that in making the efforts to save each other, they are able to heal themselves. Having a special garden is just an added bonus!

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The modern history of Afghanistan as told from the day to day perspective of an outcast woman. This story will give you a renewed appreciation of all the things we take for granted.

February
East by Edith Pattou
This a young adult book offers a new take on the Beauty and the Beast story. Perfect for an icy cold day it involves travel throughout Greenland and the Scandinavian countries.

March
"The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan, a book for young readers and readers that are young at heart. Percy Jackson is having troubles in school and at home. His mother sends him to a summer camp where he learns that he is a demigod. He and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods...

April
"Beardance" by Will Hobbs .
This book continues the story of "Bearstone" an award winning book for boys and girls.
Both books are set in the wild mountain area of Colorado at the continental divide.
Cloyd has a connection with the bears but it seems the more he tries to help them, the more trouble they face.

"Small Steps" by Louis Sachar.
It is a sequel to "Holes" and tells the story of Armpit and his life after Camp Green Lake.
The central message from his parole office is to take change in small ways, or by small steps, then life won't overwhelm you and sweep you away. This lesson is tested when a national pop star singles him out for love.

October
I just finished reading "Just Ella" by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This version of Cinderella is a tale of an independent girl making the most of circumstances beyond her control. There is a logical explanation behind every one of the "magical" elements of the Cinderella Fairy Tale. Learn why her father married such a shallow woman, understand the glass slipper and the need to leave the ball by midnight, and think twice about the prince named "Charming." Read this book to remind yourself that there such a truth as "happily ever after."

Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award

2013 Master List 

Angleberger, Tom The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
Baskin, Nora Raleigh Anything but Typical
Draper, Sharon M. Out of My Mind
Falls, Kat Dark Life
Ferrari, Michael Born to Fly
Friend, Natasha Bounce
Gaiman, Neil The Graveyard Book
Gephart, Donna How to Survive Middle School
Hawkins, Aaron The Year Money Grew on Trees
Holm, Jennifer L. Turtle in Paradise
LaFleur, Suzanne Love, Aubrey
Lai, Thanhha Inside Out & Back Again
Meyer, Susan Lynn Black Radishes
Mulligan, Andy Trash
Perkins, Lynne Rae As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth
Rhodes, Jewell Parker Ninth Ward
Senzai, N. H. Shooting Kabul
Telgemeier, Raina Smile
Wiles, Deborah Countdown
Williams-Garcia, Rita One Crazy Summer

2012 Master List
Auch, M J One-Handed Catch
Broach, Elise Masterpiece
Burg, Ann E. All the Broken Pieces
Carmichael, Clay Wild Things
Clements, Andrew Extra Credit
Cochrane, Mick The Girl Who Threw Butterflies
Cody, Matthew Powerless
Kelly, Jacqueline The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Lin, Grace Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Magoon, Kekla The Rock and the River
Mass, Wendy Every Soul a Star
O'Connor, Barbara Greetings from Nowhere
Parry, Rosanne Heart of a Shepherd
Paulsen, Gary Woods Runner
Philbrick, Rodman The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
Prineas, Sarah The Magic Thief
Scieszka, Jon Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka
Smith, Roland Peak
Smith, Sherri L. Flygirl
Westerfeld, Scott Leviathan

Caudill List 2011
Anderson, Laurie Halse Chains
Bartoletti,  Susan Campbell The Boy Who Dared
Cassidy, Cathy Scarlett
Collins,  Suzanne The Hunger Games 
Connor, Leslie Waiting for Normal 
Frost,  Helen Diamond WillowHaddix, Margaret Peterson Found
Herlong,  M. H. The Great Wide Sea 
Hiaasen, Carl Scat
Korman,  Gordon Schooled
Law, Ingrid Savvy 
Mass, Wendy 11  Birthdays
McKissack, Patricia C. A Friendship for Today
Mull,  Brandon Fablehaven
Pearsall, Shelley All Shook Up
Roy,  Jennifer Yellow Star
Schmidt, Gary D. Trouble
Scott,  Michael The Alchemyst
Shafer, Audrey The Mailbox
Sonnenblick,  Jordan Notes from the Midnight Driver

Reading list of 2010 nominees :Naked Mole-Rat Letters by Mary Amato
Home of The Brave by Katherine Applegate
Shark Girl by Kelly L. Bingham
Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell
Freedom Walkers : The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman
Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
The Thing About Georgie by Lisa Graff
All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Dowling Hahn
Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs
Kimchi & Calamri by Rose Kent
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
The Mozart Question by Michael Morpurgo
A Small White Scar by K.A. Nuzum
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Elephant Run by Roland Smith
The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John
First Light by Rebecca Stead
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of A Tree by Lauren Tarshis
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf

2009 nominees:
M.M.Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley Blume
Blood on the River: James Town 1607 by Elisa Carbone
shug by Jenny HanPenny from Heaven by Jennifer L. HolmAlabama Moon by Watt KeyThe Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle
Rules by Cynthia Lord
Gossamer by Lois Lowry
Heat by Mike Lupica
Oh, Rats! : The Story of rats and people by Albert MarrinProject Mulberry by Linda Sue Park
Wolf Brother by Michelle PaverLife as We Knew It by Susan Beth PfefferThe Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan The WINNER:

A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama by Laura Amy Schlitz
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian SelznickLetters From Wolfie by Patti Sherlock
Black Storm Comin' by Diane Lee Wilson2008 nominees:
Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael WineripChicken Boy by Frances O'Roark DowellCode Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph BruchacCrooked River by Shelley PearsallDefiance by Valerie Hobbs

Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick / Winner
East by Edith PattouListening for Lions by Gloria WhelanThe Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
The Misadventures of Maude March, or, Trouble Rides a Fast Horse
by Audrey CouloumbisMVP*: *Magellan Voyage Project by Douglas EvansThe Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne BirdsallPrincess Academy by Shannon HaleThe Ruins of Gorlan by John FlanaganShakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach
The Schwa Was Here by Neal ShustermanThunder from the Sea by Joan Hiatt HarlowWorth by A. LaFayeYankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman2007 Nominees:
Airborn by Kenneth OppelBecoming Naomi Leon by Pam Muoz RyanChasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah WilesGregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Hachiko Waits by Leslea NewmanHana's Suitcase: A True Story by Karen Levine
Heartbeat by Sharon CreechIda B: And Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly)
Save the World by Katherine HanniganLast Shot by John Feinstein
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Once Upon a Marigold by Jean FerrisPeter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley PearsonRed Kayak by Priscilla CummingsThe Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley by Sally M. Walker
Shackleton's Stowaway by Victoria McKernanSo B. It by Sarah Weeks / WinnerStar of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson
Thin Wood Walls by David Patneaude2006 Nominees:
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer CholdenkoAny Small Goodness by Tony Johnston
The Boy Who Saved Baseball by John H. Ritter
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrauThe Conch Bearer by Chitra Banerjee DivakaruniDarby by Jonathan FuquaEragon by Christopher Paolini / winnerGranny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech
Jackie's Wild Seattle by Will HobbsJourney to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
The Last Treasure by Janet S. Anderson
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
The Ravenmaster's Secret by Elvira WoodruffThe River Between Us by Richard Peck
Sahara Special by Esme Raji CodellA Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
A Strong Right Arm by Michelle Y. Green
Tadpole by Ruth WhiteThe Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick2005 nominees:
Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane AuchDoing Time Online by Jan SieboldHeir Apparent by Vivian Vande VeldeHoot by Carl Hiaasen / WinnerHouse of the Scorpion by Nancy FarmerKite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean
Memory Boy by Will Weaver
Overboard by Elizabeth Fama
Phineas Gage by John FleischmanPictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly GiffRuby Holler by Sharon CreechRunt by Marion Dane BauerThe Shrouding Woman by Loretta Ellsworth
Stand Tall by Joan BauerStraw into Gold by Gary Schmidt
Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan
Trouble Don't Last by Shelley PearsallUnder the Same Sky by Cynthia DeFeliceWhen My Name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

2004 List
Belle Teal by Ann M. Martin
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
Dovey Coe by Francis O'Roark Dowell
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Fair Weather by Richard Peck
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
Foster's War by Carolyn Reeder
The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler
Ghost Soldier by Elaine Marie Alphin
Hidden Talents by David Lubar
Legend of Lady Ilena by Patricia Malone
Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman
Storm Warriors by Elisa Carbone
Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz (Winner)
Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
Wild Man Island by Will Hobbs
Zach's Lie by Roland Smith