Texas Bluebonnet Award
2010-2011 Master List Summaries, Q & A’s
Compiled and Developed by Dixie Allen
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
Summary: After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together,
Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each
other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately
but peculiar things begin to happen as the day of their birthday begins to
repeat itself over and over again.
1. What is the recurring problem in 11 Birthdays?
-Amanda and Leo are repeating their 11th birthday everyday.
2. What was the ultimate solution to solving the problem of repeating their
birthdays
-They had to forgive each other, become friends, and restore the apple trees
that had been given to them when they were younger.
14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy
Summary: Presents an illustrated tale of a gift of fourteen cows given by
the Maasai people of Kenya to the U.S. as a gesture of comfort and
friendship in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
1. Why did Kimeli feel the need to give something to America?
-He was in New York when the World Trade Center was destroyed and he
feels a gift from his people might help with the healing.
2. Why is the cow so significant that it is the perfect gift?
-To the Masai, the cow is life and is treated as kindly as one of the family.
All Stations! Distress!: April 15, 1912: The Day the Titanic Sank by Don Brown
Summary: Presents an illustrated account of the Titanic's deadly voyage on
April 12, 1912, when two thousand passengers, rich and poor alike, fought to
survive the tragedy while partially filled lifeboats launched into the night
with seven hundred people as some family members stayed behind.
1. How come, with so many lifeboats on board, so few passengers and crew
members survived the sinking of the Titanic?
-There weren’t enough lifeboats for all the passengers, the lifeboats were not
filled with as many as they could hold, and the passengers that were in
steerage were not released in time to get on the boats.
2. What do you think was the bravest action any one person took as the boat was
sinking?
-Answers will vary.
The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski
Summary: Twelve-year-old Petra, accompanied by her magical tin spider,
goes to Prague hoping to retrieve the enchanted eyes the Prince of Bohemia
took from her father, and is aided in her quest by a Roma boy and his sister.
1. Why is it so important that Petra retrieve her father’s eyes and the heart of the
clock from the Prince of Bohemia?
-She certainly wants her father to be able to see again but the heart also will
help the clock to control the weather and can make the Prince too powerful.
2. What is her father’s reaction when she returns his eyes to him?
-He is angry because he is afraid the Prince will come after them and they will
be in danger.
Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury
Summary: Nine-year-old Calvin catches the attention of the school bully on
the day before he starts fourth grade, while at home, the unfriendly, fifteenyear-old daughter of his mother's best friend has taken over his room.
1. What causes Calvin to have to move in to the storage room at the house?
-A teenage daughter of a friend of his mothers is coming to live with them.
2. Who helps Calvin get over his fear and disgust in having to move to the
storage room.
-His mother’s boyfriend Ledward helps him work through it.
Down Down Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins
Summary: Illustrations explore the ocean from the birds and waves down to
the deepest, darkest bottom; and feature jellyfish, squid, whales, and more.
1. What information is provided in the strip down the right-hand side of each set
of pages?
-The depth in feet and meters and the temperature of the water.
2. Which depth of water and fish is the most fascinating to you and why?
-Answers will vary.
Dying to Meet You: 43 Cemetery Road by Kate Klise
Summary: In this story told mostly through letters, children's book author, I.
B. Grumply, gets more than he bargained for when he rents a quiet place to
write for the summer.
1. What format does the author use to tell the story?
-The author uses letter writing between the characters in the story.
2. What does Mr. Grumply’s learn from Olive about himself as a writer and a
person?
-He learns that it was his inability to care for anyone else that had made him a
lousy writer and a miserable man.
The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino
Summary: A pictorial biography of Jacques Cousteau, covering his
adventures aboard "Calypso" with his team of scientists, diving equipment,
and waterproof cameras, and work to protect the oceans from pollution.
1. What caused Jacques to get interested in the water and exploring?
-He was sickly as a little boy and his doctor encouraged him to swim to build
up his strength.
2. What did the film “The Silent World” that Jacques Cousteau made do for the
rest of the world?
-It gave everybody that saw it their first glimpse of the amazing universe
under the sea.
The Hinky Pink: An Old Tale by Megan McDonald
Summary: Anabel, a talented seamstress, is delighted to be summoned to
the Great Castle of Firenze to create a special dress for Princess Isabella
Caramella Gorgonzola, but becomes discouraged when her efforts are
continually subverted by an unseen sprite.
1. What does the princess want Anabel to do in one week?
-She wants Anabel to make her the finest dress for the Butterfly Ball.
2. What does the Hinky Pink keep doing to keep Anabel from making the dress?
-She keeps tossing Anabel out of her bed at night so she doesn’t get any sleep.
3. What does Anabel finally do that gets the Hinky Pink to stop?
-Anabel makes the Hinky Pink a bed of her own in a small thimble.
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
Summary: Kek, an African refugee, is confronted by many strange things at
the Minneapolis home of his aunt and cousin, as well as in his fifth-grade
classroom, and longs for his missing mother, but finds comfort in the
company of a cow and her owner.
1. What happened to Kek’s family in the Sudan?
-His father and brother were killed and his mother is still missing.
2. What does Kek find to do that makes him feel like he did back home?
-He helps an older lady with taking care of her cow and her farm.
Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow by James Rollins
Summary: Jack Ransom and his sister, Kady, are sent on a wild hunt for
answers when a mysterious letter arrives on the doorstep and leads them to a
strange world inhabited by a mix of long-lost civilizations, where they hope
to learn the truth about their parents' disappearance.
1. What causes Jake and Kady to suddenly disappear from their world and
appear in the new strange world?
-Jake takes to the halves of the Mayan coin that they had received from their
parents and places them together into a hole of the pyramid at the museum.
2. What does Jake discover about the people in this strange new world?
-They are a mix of civilizations from all over the world and from different
time periods.
Mudshark by Gary Paulsen
Summary: Principal Wagner confidently deals with a faculty washroom
crisis, a psychic parrot, and a terrorizing gerbil, but when sixty-five erasers
go missing, he enlists the help of the school's best problem solver and lost
item locator, twelve-year-old Lyle Williams, also known as Mudshark.
1. What unique talent does Mudshark have?
-He knows everything that is going on by listening and paying attention to all that
he sees and hears.
2. How does the library parrot wind up knowing so many answers to what is going
on in the school?
-He gets out of his cage and flies around when nobody is looking.
Pirates by David L. Harrison
Summary: A collection of poems describing the highs and lows of a pirate's
life at sea.
1. What kinds of men were the pirates looking for to work on the pirate ships?
-They needed men who could steal things, tie a knot, and be rotten through
and through.
2. What happened if a pirate was caught breaking the rules?
-He might be flogged or marooned on an island.
Sparrow Girl by Sara Pennypacker
Summary: Ming-Li vows to save as many sparrows as she can after her
country's leader called sparrows the enemy of the farmer and banished
them all from China.
1. Why did “The Leader” want to get rid of all the sparrows?
-He felt they were eating too much grain and so they all had to go.
2. What happened to the crops after the sparrows were all gone?
-The crops started to have problems when the sparrows were not there to eat
the insects that ate the grains as well.
Squirrel’s World by Lisa Moser
Summary: Squirrel's well-meaning attempts to help Mouse, Turtle, and his
other forest friends do not always turn out as planned.
1. Why was so much food for the mouse a bad thing?
-It would take him forever to eat it and he only wanted to store some up for
winter.
2. What was the really nice thing squirrel did for rabbit when rabbit couldn’t go
to sleep because he was afraid?
-He brought him a firefly so it wouldn’t be so dark.
Surfer of the Century: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku by Ellie Crowe
Summary: A biography of Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, five-time
Olympic swimming champion from the early 1900s who is also
considered worldwide as the father of modern surfing.
1. How did the Amateur Athletic Union react when Duke broke the world
records for swimming in Hawaii?
-They refused to believe his times and wanted him to race again to prove it.
2. What dramatic rescue did Duke Kahanamoku lead when he was on a beach in
Southern California.
- A boat capsized and Duke and his fellow surfers used their boards and
swimming skills to rescue nearly all of the people that had been thrown in to
the water.
Tap Dancing on the Roof by Linda Sue Park
Summary: Presents twenty-six sijo, traditional Korean syllabic poems, on
"inside" and "outside" themes.
1. From what country do the sijo-type poems originate?
-They come from Korea
2. What is your favorite poem & why?
-Answers will vary.
That Book Woman by Heather Henson
Summary: Young Cal, who lives high in the Appalachian
Mountains with his family, does not understand his sister's love for
books, but the Book Woman always wanders to their home, and
Cal's parents are always willing to trade something to keep Cal's
sister reading.
1. Why does Cal not want to see the book woman coming up the mountain?
-He knows what he is good at and reading is not it.
2. What about the book woman makes Cal change his mind about learning to
read.
-He admires her bravery in coming up the mountain in all kinds of weather to
bring them books.
The Uglified Ducky: A Maynard Moose Tale by Willy Claflin
Summary: The ugly duckling, in the Northern Piney Woods of Alaska,
where a baby moose is raised by a family of ducks who try to teach him to
waddle, quack, and fly but cannot see his true beauty.
1. What happens when the uglified ducky tries to fly?
-He trips and falls since he cannot fly.
2. How does the uglified ducky find out he is a moose?
-He wonders off after being abandoned by his ducky family and wonders up
some other moose where one tells and shows him he really is a handsome
moose.
Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff
Summary: After her brother Jared dies, ten-year-old Annie worries about
the hidden dangers of everything, from bug bites to bicycle riding, until she
is befriended by a new neighbor who is grieving her own loss.
1. Why was Annie so worried all the time about getting hurt or getting sick?
-Her brother had died without any warning signs and she felt like if she was
just careful enough it wouldn’t happen to her.
2. What did closing the umbrella have to do with the story?
-Annie’s new neighbor, Ms. Finch, explained to her that sometimes when you
are so busy trying to stay under an umbrella you might not ever see the sun
come out and that closing the umbrella bit by bit would help her move
forward.
Cover images and summaries provided by Follett Titlewave and Bound to Stay Bound.