YOUNG HOOSIER BOOK
NOMINEES
Intermediate Books 2014-2015
Association of Indiana School Library Educators
Arlington: The Story of Our Nation’s
Cemetery by Chris Demarest
“The story of the national cemetery—from the
Revolutionary War to the present.
Arlington recounts the complicated history of
one of the nation's most famous and mostvisited national monuments and its fascinating
daily life. Carefully researched and
documented, Chris Demarest's watercolor
paintings capture the spirit and pathos of the
last resting place of more than 300,000
Americans who have served their country.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEiZmAdKNU4
Breaking Stalin’s Nose by
Eugene Yelchin
“Sasha Zaichik has known the laws of the Soviet
Young Pioneers since the age of six:
The Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the
Communist Party, and Communism.
A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always
acts according to conscience.
A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings.
But now that it is finally time to join the Young
Pioneers, the day Sasha has awaited for so long,
everything seems to go awry. He breaks a
classmate's glasses with a snowball. He accidentally
damages a bust of Stalin in the school hallway. And
worst of all, his father, the best Communist he knows,
was arrested just last night.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwZbwWRW0yY
Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story
by S.D. Nelson
“Blending archival material with original prose and artwork,
Nelson (Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story) crafts a first-person
biography of Waheenee-wea (Buffalo Bird Woman), a
member of the Hidatsa tribe that flourished near the Missouri
River on the Great Plains. Photographs of the Hidatsa people
tending to crops, preparing food, and dressed in traditional
attire bring their daily activities and traditions into vivid relief.
Nelson's acrylic paintings and b&w pencil drawings are
intriguingly interlaced with the photographs, contrasting Native
American figures in blunt profile with harvest colors and
background textures that mimic dried spears of grass, leather
skins, and basket weaves. Quotations from Buffalo Bird
Woman's writings (which she recorded in collaboration with an
anthropologist in 1906) appear throughout, including a lament
over the loss of land and customs after her people were
relocated to a reservation: "I am an old woman now. The
buffaloes and black-tail deer are gone, and our Indian ways
are almost gone. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I ever
lived them." A memorable account of perseverance.”
Cardboard by Doug Tennapel
“When cardboard creatures come magically to
life, a boy must save his town from disaster.
Cam's down-and-out father gives him a
cardboard box for his birthday and he knows it's
the worst present ever. So to make the best of a
bad situation, they bend the cardboard into a
man, and to their astonishment, it comes
magically to life. But the neighborhood bully,
Marcus, warps the powerful cardboard into his
own evil creations that threaten to destroy
them all!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMcHT05Cazk
Chuck Close: Face Book by
Chuck Close
“This fascinating, interactive autobiography
presents Chuck Close’s story, his art, and a
discussion of the many processes he uses in the
studio. The question-and-answer format is
based on real kids’ inquiries about Close’s life
and work, and his answers to them. Close, who
is wheelchair-bound and paints with a brush
strapped to his arm, discusses the severe
dyslexia and face blindness he has struggled
with since childhood, as well as a collapsed
spinal artery that left him nearly paralyzed at
the age of 48.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJkwKxLJmdE
Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific
Discovery from Your Own Backyard
by Loree Griffin Burns
“Anyone can get involved in gathering data for
ongoing, actual scientific studies such as the
Audubon Bird Count and FrogWatch USA. Just
get out into a field, urban park, or your own
backyard. You can put your nose to a monarch
pupa or listen for raucous frog calls. You can
tally woodpeckers or sweep the grass for
ladybugs.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsNMBTpFsAI
Guinea Dog by Patrick Jennings
“A humorous story about an unusual pet. Rufus has
but one wish—a dog. His stay-at-home Dad does not
agree. His list of reasons not to get a dog extends
over two pages. Rufus’s sympathetic mom brings
home a guinea pig, which Rufus has expressly said
he does not want. To his surprise, though, the guinea
pig (which he sullenly names Fido) behaves like a
dog! She obeys every command Rufus gives her,
plays tug-o’-war and even chews shoes. His best
friend wishes she were his when, during a Frisbee
game, out of nowhere, she retrieves the disc and
brings it to Rufus. The family decides to return Fido to
the pet store, but a classmate is willing to buy her to
replace her hamster—and it’s then that Rufus begins
to have second thoughts.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX06-k7Qi7c
Kindred Souls by Patricia
MacLachlan
“Jake and 88-year-old Billy are "kindred souls." They
live on a farm that their family has owned for
generations; in fact, Billy was born in a sod house he
remembers fondly, the ruins of which still exist on the
property. This is an intense, rewarding read: Readers
see Billy directly through Jake's young eyes; there is
no omniscient voice explaining that Billy is reaching
the end of his days, and that's why he is sometimes
childlike himself. Some may realize the inevitable
early on; Jake's mistaken confidence in Billy's
immortality—"I don't worry about him dying. He will
live forever. I know that," and "And Billy is going to live
forever," are representative thoughts—foreshadows
the inevitable. Jake and his siblings undertake a
remarkably ambitious project: They rebuild the sod
house; Billy moves into it, and he eventually passes
away there.”
Louisa May’s Battle: How the Civil War
Led to Little Women by Kathleen Krull
“Louisa May Alcott is best known for penning Little
Women, but few are aware of the experience that
influenced her writing most-her time as a nurse
during the Civil War. Caring for soldiers' wounds and
writing letters home for them inspired a new realism
in her work. When her own letters home were
published as Hospital Sketches, she had her first
success as a writer. The acclaim for her new writing
style inspired her to use this approach in Little
Women, which was one of the first novels to be set
during the Civil War. It was the book that made her
dreams come true, and a story she could never
have written without the time she spent healing
others in service of her country.”
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose
“May is helping out on a neighbor’s Kansas
prairie homestead—just until Christmas, says Pa.
She wants to contribute, but it’s hard to be
separated from her family by 15 long, unfamiliar
miles. Then the unthinkable happens: May is
abandoned. Trapped in a tiny snow-covered
sod house, isolated from family and neighbors,
May must prepare for the oncoming winter.
While fighting to survive, May’s memories of her
struggles with reading at school come back to
haunt her. But she’s determined to find her way
home again.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FopNl_Y8iQM
PLUNKED by Michael Northrop
“Sixth grader Jack Mogens has it all figured out:
He’s got his batting routine down, and his
outfielding earns him a starting spot alongside
his best friend Andy on their Little League team,
the Tall Pines Braves. He even manages to have
a not-totally-embarrassing conversation with
Katie, the team’s killer shortstop. But in the first
game of the season, a powerful stray pitch
brings everything Jack’s worked so hard for
crashing down around his ears. How can he
explain to his parents and friends why
he won’tbe playing? Readers will root for Jack
as he finds the courage to step back up to the
plate.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Nki3aS-qM
The Second Life of Abigail Walker
by Frances O’Roark Dowell
“Seventeen pounds. That’s the difference between Abigail
Walker and Kristen Gorzca. Between chubby and slim,
between teased and taunting. Abby is fine with her body and
sick of seventeen pounds making her miserable, so she speaks
out against Kristen and her groupies - and becomes officially
unpopular. Embracing her new status, Abby heads to an
abandoned lot across the street and crosses an unfamiliar
stream that leads her to a boy who's as different as they
come.
Anders is homeschooled, and while he's worried that Abby’s
former friends are out to get her, he’s even more worried
about his dad, a war veteran home from Afghanistan who is
dangerously disillusioned with life. But if his dad can finish his
poem about the expedition of Lewis and Clark, if he can
effectively imagine what it is to experience freshness and
innocence, maybe he will be okay. As Abby dives into the
unexpected role as research assistant, she just as unexpectedly
discovers that by helping someone else find hope in the world,
there is plenty there for herself, as well.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu9vo3rUSMM
Snakes by Nic Bishop
“Calling snakes “strange, secretive, and surprising,”
Bishop offers an excellent photographic guide to
these reptiles in all their diversity. Striking magnified
images depict a variety of snake species in the wild
and in captivity, including a feathered bush viper
(whose scales resemble tree leaves), garter snakes
overwintering in a burrow, and an African eggeating snake living up to its moniker. Bishop
accompanies the photographs with factual
information about each specimen, as well as
observations about the snakes’ physical
characteristics and behavior (“Extra-large scales on
a snake’s belly act like the tread on your shoes”).
Herpetologists in training, look no further.”
Sophie Simon Solves Them All
by Lisa Graff
“Wishes come true when third-grade genius Sophie
Simon applies her intellectual skills to her classmates'
problems with their parents' expectations and solves
a problem of her own. Sophie wants a graphing
calculator, Owen Luu wants a rabbit, Julia
McGreevy wants to be a journalist and Daisy Pete
(and everyone else in her ballet class) wants to
avoid the ballet recital. Sophie's parents just want
her to be a normal kid, with friends. Everyone ends
up happy in this middle-grade spoof. Exaggerations
abound: Their teacher’s long list of rules includes “No
thinking,” the ballet teacher threatens to chop off
toes and Sophie’s parents are distraught that she has
visited the library. Sophie is brilliant, reading a
calculus text for fun. Daisy is clumsy, Julia mathaverse and Owen frightened of nearly everything. A
ring-tailed lemur wreaks havoc at Owen’s birthday,
and the ballet recital becomes a sit-in.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGJFTa7naew
The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver
“When Liza’s brother, Patrick, changes overnight, Liza
knows exactly what has happened: The spindlers have
gotten to him and stolen his soul.
She knows, too, that she is the only one that can save
him.
To rescue Patrick, Liza must go Below, armed with little
more than her wits and a broom. There, she uncovers a
vast world populated with talking rats, music-loving
moles,
greedy troglods, and overexcitable nids . . . as well as
terrible dangers. But she will face her greatest
challenge
at the spindlers’ nests, where she encounters
the evil queen and must pass a series of
deadly tests — or else her soul, too, will
remain Below forever.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXGWB0T_ojY
Summer of the Gypsy Moths
by Sara Pennypacker
“Stella loves living with Great-aunt Louise in her big old
house near the water on Cape Cod for many reasons,
but mostly because Louise likes routine as much as she
does, something Stella appreciates since her mom is,
well, kind of unreliable. So while Mom "finds herself,"
Stella fantasizes that someday she'll come back to the
Cape and settle down. The only obstacle to her plan?
Angel, the foster kid Louise has taken in. Angel couldn't
be less like her name - she's tough and prickly, and the
girls hardly speak to each other.
But when tragedy unexpectedly strikes, Stella and
Angel are forced to rely on each other to survive, and
they learn that they are stronger together than they
could have imagined. And over the course of the
summer they discover the one thing they do have in
common: dreams of finally belonging to a real family.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFY4tNjMU1o
The Trouble With Chickens
by Doreen Cronin
“J.J. Tully is supposed to be enjoying peaceful
retirement on a farm, but it's a hard adjustment
after seven adrenaline-filled years as a searchand-rescue dog, until his simple life on the farm
is turned upside down when two chicks go
missing. Moosh, the mother hen, is left with a
ransom note and comes to J.J. Tully for help.
After negotiating a hamburger out of the deal,
J.J. takes the case. But things are not what they
seem, and no one is telling the whole truth. Let
the bird-brained hunt for the lost peeps begin!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB0ZrGJdiDM
The Vengekeep Prophecies
by Brian Farrey
“Forget what you know about prophecies—this epic middle-grade
fantasy about a clumsy boy born into a family of thieves is fresh,
fun, and anything but predictable! The first in an unforgettable
trilogy, this Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of the Year takes
everything you thought you knew about fantasy and spins it into
pure magic.
Jaxter Grimjinx is a born thief. At least, he's supposed to be. For
generations, the Grimjinx clan has produced the swiftest, cleverest
thieves in Vengekeep. The problem is, Jaxter is clumsy. So clumsy
that in his first solo heist, he sets the Castellan's house on fire and
lands his family in prison. Even Jaxter's talent for breaking magical
locks can't get them out of this bind.
Then a suspiciously convenient prophecy emerges, naming the
Grimjinx clan as the soon-to-be heroes of Vengekeep. It's good
enough to get his family out of jail, but when the doomsday
prophecy starts to come true, Jaxter is pretty sure a life behind bars
would be a better fate. Now, with the help of his new friend, Callie,
Jaxter will have to face down flaming monsters, a bazaar of
thieves, and a renegade sorcerer to become the hero he was truly
born to be.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU1klWgpKIU
Wild Life by Cynthia DeFelice
“Erik Carlson has just passed the New York State Hunter
Safety class, and is all set to go on his first-ever pheasant
hunting trip, when his life is turned upside down. His
Army reservist parents are both being unexpectedly
deployed to Iraq. Instead of going hunting with his
friend Patrick, Erik is shipped off to North Dakota to live
with Big Darrell and Oma, grandparents he barely
knows. Oma seems nice enough, but Erik finds Big
Darrell to be unwelcoming and downright mean. When
Erik rescues a dog that’s been stuck by a porcupine, Big
Darrell says he can’t keep her. But Erik has already
named the dog Quill and can’t bear to give her up.
After finding his Uncle Dan’s shotgun and camping
gear, Erik takes Quill and runs away, certain that they
can make it on their own out on the prairie. Family
relationships and old secrets complicate this wilderness
survival story.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgPnVZGucR8
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
“August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a
facial deformity that prevented him from going
to a mainstream school—until now. He's about
to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if
you've ever been the new kid then you know
how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just
an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But
can he convince his new classmates that he's
just like them, despite appearances?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOXDD3atWco
Work Cited
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"Amazon Prime Free Trial." Breaking Stalin's Nose: Eugene Yelchin: 9780805092165: Amazon.com: Books.
Web. 18 May 2014. <http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Stalins-Nose-EugeneYelchin/dp/0805092161>.
"Children's Book Review: Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story by S.D. Nelson. Abrams, $19.95 (56p) ISBN 978-14197-0355-3."PublishersWeekly.com. Web. 18 May 2014. <http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-14197-0355-3>.
"Cardboard by Doug TenNapel | Scholastic.com." Scholastic Teachers. Web. 18 May 2014.
<http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/cardboard#cart/cleanup>.
"Chuck Close." ABRAMS Books. Web. 18 May 2014. <http://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/Chuck_Close9781419701634.html>.
"Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery from Your Own Backyard."Barnes & Noble. Web. 18
May 2014. <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/citizen-scientists-loree-griffinburns/1101958281?ean=9780805095173>.
“Guinea Dog” Kurkus Reviews. Web. 18 May 2014. <https://www.kirkusreviews.com/bookreviews/patrick-jennings/guinea-dog/>.
“Kindred Souls” Kurkus Reviews. Web. 18 May 2014. <https://www.kirkusreviews.com/bookreviews/patricia-maclachlan/kindred-souls-maclachlan/>.
"Amazon Prime Free Trial." Louisa May's Battle: How the Civil War Led toLittle Women: Kathleen Krull,
Carlyn Beccia: 9780802796684: Amazon.com: Books. Web. 18 May 2014.
<http://www.amazon.com/Louisa-Mays-Battle-Civil-Little/dp/0802796680>.
Work Cited Continued
"May B." Goodreads. Web. 18 May 2014. <http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11527309-may-b>.
"PLUNKED." Michael Northrop RSS. Web. 18 May 2014. <http://michaelnorthrop.net/?page_id=2616>.
"The Second Life of Abigail Walker Summary and Reviews." BookBrowse.com. Web. 18 May 2014.
<http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/2767/the-second-life-of-abigailwalker>.
"Children's Book Review: Nic Bishop Snakes by Nic Bishop. Scholastic Nonfiction, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0545-20638-9."PublishersWeekly.com. Web. 18 May 2014. <http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0545-20638-9>.
“Sophie Simon Solves Them All” Kurkus Reviews. Web. 18 May 2014.
<https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lisa-graff/sophie-simon-solves-them-all/>.
"The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver." The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver. Web. 18 May 2014.
<http://thespindlersbook.com/>.
"The Official Site of Sara Pennypacker Author of the New York Times Bestselling Children's Books
Clementine, Summer of the Gypsy Moths, The Amazing World of Stuart, Flat Stanley, Pierre in Love,
Sparrow Girl and More." The Official Site of Sara Pennypacker Author of the New York Times
Bestselling Children's Books Clementine, Summer of the Gypsy Moths, The Amazing World of Stuart,
Flat Stanley, Pierre in Love, Sparrow Girl and More. Web. 18 May 2014.
<http://www.sarapennypacker.com/pennypacker-gypsymoths.htm>.
"The Trouble with Chickens by Doreen Cronin | Scholastic.com." Scholastic Teachers. Web. 18 May 2014.
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"Amazon Prime Free Trial." The Vengekeep Prophecies: Brian Farrey, Brett Helquist: 9780062049285:
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Work Cited Continued
"Wild Life." Cynthia DeFelice Wild Life Comments. Web. 18 May 2014.
<http://cynthiadefelice.com/novels/wild-life>.
"Wonder." Goodreads. Web. 18 May 2014. <http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11387515-wonder>.