DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

MASTER LIST 2006 – 2007

 

 

AUTHOR	TITLE	PUBLISHER	GRADE
Abrahams, Peter	Down the Rabbit Hole	HarperCollins	6 up
Allison, Jennifer	Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator	Dutton	6 up
Bechard, Margaret	Spacer and Rat	Roaring Brook	7 up
Birdsall, Jeanne	The Penderwicks	Knopf	4 up
Birney, Betty G.	The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs	Atheneum	4 up
Blackwood, Gary	Second Sight	Dutton	5 up
Broach, Elise	Shakespeare's Secret	Holt	5 up
Collins, Suzanne	Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods	Scholastic	4 up
Deem, James M.	Bodies from the Ash	Houghton	5 up
Dowell, Frances O'Roark	Chicken Boy	Atheneum	5 up
Dunkle, Clare B.	By These Ten Bones	Holt	7 up
Fleischman, Sid	Giant Rat of Sumatra	Greenwillow	4 up
Giblin, James Cross	Good Brother - Bad Brother	Clarion	6 up
Graff, Nancy Price	Taking Wing	Clarion	5 up
Hale, Shannon	Princess Academy	Bloomsbury	6 up
Hautman, Pete	Invisible	S&S	7 up
Hiaasen, Carl	Flush	Knopf	5 up
Lester, Julius	Day of Tears	Hyperion	7 up
Lubar, David	Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie	Dutton	7 up
Millman, Isaac	Hidden Child	FSG	4 up
Morris, Gerald	The Lioness and Her Knight	Houghton	6 up
Napoli, Donna Jo	The King of Mulberry Street	Wendy Lamb	5 up
Perkins, Lynne Rae	Criss Cross	Greenwillow	6 up
Pinkwater, Daniel	The Artsy Smartsy Club	HarperCollins	4 up
Rupp, Rebecca	The Return of the Dragon	Candlewick	4 up
Salisbury, Graham	Eyes of the Emperor	Wendy Lamb	7 up
Sidman, Joyce	Song of the Water Boatman	Houghton	4 up
Turner, Pamela S.	Gorilla Doctors	Houghton	5 up
Whelan, Gloria	Listening for Lions	HarperCollins	5 up
Wynne-Jones, Tim	A Thief in the House of Memory	FSG	7 up

 

These books, to be read during the 2006-2007 school year, comprise the master list for the award to be made in 2007. Voting forms will be made available to all Vermont schools and public libraries in spring, 2007, so children can vote for their favorite book. The master list titles have been selected to satisfy the reading interests of children in grades 4-8. Please note grade level before ordering the books.  The grades listed should be regarded more as maturity levels than reading levels.

MASTERLIST OF ANNOTATIONS

 

Abrahams, Peter.  Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery.  $16.89.  ISBN 0-06-073702-6 (PLB);  $15.99.  ISBN 0-06-073701-8 (Tr.).  Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls.

 

Allison, Jennifer.  Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator.  $10.99.  ISBN 0-525-47375-0.  During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old daughter, where she uses her purported psychic abilities and detective skills to solve the mystery of the mansion's boarded-up tower. 

 

Bechard, Margaret.  Spacer and Rat.  $16.95.  ISBN 1-59643-058-3.  Jack's predictable existence on Freedom space station is transformed when Kit, the Earthie rat, enters his life and enlists him and a sensitive robot in an effort to outwit the Company

 

Birdsall, Jeanne.  The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy.  $17.99.  ISBN 0-375-93143-0 (PLB);  $15.95.  ISBN 0-375-83143-6 (Tr.).  While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.

 

Birney, Betty G.  The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs.  $16.95.  ISBN 0-689-87136-8. 

Eben McAllister searches his small town to see if he can find anything comparable to the real Seven Wonders of the World. 

 

Blackwood, Gary.  Second Sight.  $16.99.  ISBN 0-525-47481-1. In Washington, D.C., during the last days of the Civil War, a teenage boy who performs in a mind-reading act befriends a clairvoyant girl whose frightening visions foreshadow an assassination plot. 

 

Broach, Elise.  Shakespeare's Secret. $16.95.  ISBN 0-8050-7387-6.  Named after a character in a Shakespeare play, misfit sixth-grader Hero becomes interested in exploring this unusual connection because of a valuable diamond supposedly hidden in her new house, an intriguing neighbor, and the unexpected attention of the most popular boy in school. 

 

Collins, Suzanne.  Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods.  $16.95.  ISBN 0-439-65623-0.

Eleven-year-old Gregor and his younger sister, Boots, return to the Underland beneath New York City to find the cure for a terrible plague that threatens the life of their mother, as well as the lives of the people, bats, and rats that populate the underworld. 

 

Deem, James M.  Bodies from the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii.  $16.00. 
ISBN 0-618-47308-4.  Referred to only as legend, it was not until the 18th century that workers began to uncover the remains of the city of Pompeii, covered within 24 hours with ash, pumice and volcanic rubble when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. 

Dowell, Frances O'Roark.  Chicken Boy.  $15.95.  ISBN 0-689-85816-7.  Since the death of his mother, Tobin's family and school life has been in disarray, but after he starts raising chickens with his seventh-grade classmate, Henry, everything starts to fall into place. 

 

Dunkle, Clare B.  By These Ten Bones.  $16.95.  ISBN 0-8050-7496-1.  After a mysterious young wood carver with a horrifying secret arrives in her small Scottish town, Maddie gains his trust - and his heart - and seeks a way to save both him and her townspeople from an ancient evil.

 

Fleischman, Sid.  Giant Rat of Sumatra: Or Pirates Galore.  $16.89.  ISBN 0-060-74239-9.  A cabin boy on a pirate ship finds himself in San Diego in 1846 as war breaks out between the United States and Mexico. 

 

Giblin, James Cross.  Good Brother - Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth.  $22.00.  ISBN 0-618-09642-6.  The intertwined tale of two sons in a theatrical family afflicted by alcoholism and depression, and the wedge that drove the family apart: Edwin's support of the North and John Wilkes' passion for the South. 

 

Graff, Nancy Price.  Taking Wing.  $15.00.  ISBN 0-618-53591-8. With his father in the Army Air Corps and his mother diagnosed with tuberculosis, thirteen-year-old Gus sets out to incubate a nest of orphaned duck eggs on his grandparents' farm in Vermont. 

 

Hale, Shannon.  Princess Academy.   $16.95.  ISBN 1-58234-993-2.  While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland.

 

Hautman, Pete.  Invisible.  $15.95.  ISBN 0-689-86800-6.  Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends - one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a popular student involved in football and theater - who grew up together and share a bond that nothing can sever. 

 

Hiaasen, Carl.  Flush.  $18.99.  ISBN 0-375-92182-6 (PLB); $16.95.  ISBN 0-375-82182-1 (Tr.).  With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home. 

 

Lester, Julius.  Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue.  $15.99.  ISBN 0-7868-0490-4.  Based on the largest slave auction in history, this tells the story in monologues and dialogues and through shifting time periods, of several of the families whose lives were ripped apart and changed forever on that day. 

 

Lubar, David.  Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie.  $16.99.  ISBN 0-525-47311-4.  While navigating his first year of high school and awaiting the birth of his new baby brother, Scott loses old friends and gains some unlikely new ones as he hones his skills as a writer. 

 

Millman, Isaac.  Hidden Child.  $18.00.  ISBN 0-374-33071-9.  The author details his difficult experiences as a young Jewish child living in Nazi-occupied France during the 1940s. 

 

 

Morris, Gerald  .  The Lioness and Her Knight.  $16.00.  ISBN 0-618-50772-8.  Headstrong sixteen-year-old Luneta and her distant cousin, Sir Ywain, travel to Camelot and beyond, finding more adventure than they hoped for until, with the help of a fool, Luneta discovers what she really wants from life. 

 

Napoli, Donna Jo.  The King of Mulberry Street.  $15.95.  ISBN 0-385-74653-9.  Beniamino, a nine-year-old Jewish boy from Napoli, assumes his mother is onboard when he is smuggled aboard a cargo ship heading to America in 1892, and must make the best of his plight when the ship lands at Ellis Island. 

 

Perkins, Lynne Rae.  Criss Cross.  $16.89.  ISBN 0-06-009273-4 (PLB);  $15.99. 
ISBN 0-06-009272-6 (Tr.). Teenagers in a small town experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love. 

 

Pinkwater, Daniel.  The Artsy Smartsy Club.  $16.89.  ISBN 0-06-053558-X.  After three Hoboken children and their giant chicken Henrietta begin to appreciate beautiful sidewalk art, they venture into art class and visits to Manhattan. 

 

Rupp, Rebecca.  The Return of the Dragon.  $15.99.  ISBN 0-7636-2377-6.  Hannah, Zachary, and Sarah Emily return to Lonely Island to save their friend Fafnyr, a three-headed dragon, from being captured by a rich man who wants to put the creature on display. 

 

Salisbury, Graham.  Eyes of the Emperor.  $15.95.  ISBN 0-385-90874-1.  Following orders from the United States Army, young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt Japanese during World War II. 

 

Sidman, Joyce.  Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems.  $16.00. 
ISBN 0-618-13547-2.  A collection of poems that provide a look at some of the animals, insects, and plants that are found in ponds, with accompanying information on each.

 

Turner, Pamela S.  Gorilla Doctors: Saving Endangered Great Apes.  $17.00. 
ISBN 0-618-44555-2.  A group of scientists provide veterinary care to the endangered mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda. 

 

Whelan, Gloria.  Listening for Lions.  $16.89.  ISBN 0-06-058175-1 (PLB);  $15.99. 
ISBN 0-06-058174-3.  Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1919, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital. 

 

Wynne-Jones, Tim.  A Thief in the House of Memory.  $17.00.  ISBN 0-374-37478-3.  The death of an apparent stranger in the Steeple family's old home triggers troubling questions for sixteen-year-old Declan as he tries to make sense of his fragmented dreams, random memories, and unexplained coincidences, hoping to learn the truth about the mother who suddenly left when he was ten. 

DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER

COMMITTEE MEMBERS, 2006 - 2007

 

 

Steve Madden, Chair

Camel’s Hump Middle School

173 School St.

Richmond, VT  05477

Phone: (802) 434-2188

email: stemadden@yahoo.com

 

 

Kate Davie

Blue Mountain Union School

2420 Rte. 302

Wells River, VT  05081

Phone: (802) 757-2711

email: kate.davie@bmuschool.org

 

 

 

Dawn Fairbanks

Waterbury Public Library

28 N. Main St.

Waterbury, VT  05676

Phone: (802) 244-7036

email: dawn@waterburypubliclibrary.com

 

 

Susan Hunter

Riverside Middle School

13 Fairground Rd.

Springfield, VT  05156

Phone: (802) 885-8490

Email: shunter@springfield.k12.vt.us

 

 

 

 

Janet Kleinberg

Mark Skinner Library

PO Box 438

Manchester, VT 05254

Phone: (802) 362-0621

email: jkleinberg@hotmail.com

 

 

Beth Reynolds

Norwich Public Library

368 Main St.

PO Box 290

Norwich, VT  05055

Phone: (802) 649-1184

email: beth.reynolds@norwichlibrary.org

 

 

Linda Urban

148 Northfield St.

Montpelier, VT  05602

Phone: (802) 229-1154

email: linda_urban@adelphia.net

 

 

 

Consultant to DCF Award Committee:

 

Grace W. Greene

Children’s Services Consultant

Vermont Dept. of Libraries

109 State Street

Montpelier, VT  05609-0601

Phone: (802) 828-6954

Fax: (802) 828-2199

email: grace.greene@dol.state.vt.us