2015-2016
Volunteer State Book Award
Nominated Titles
Middle School Division
Nazi Hunters
by Neal Bascomb
• This book presents the history of
the group of spies, Holocaust
survivors, and lawyers who
pursued Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi
war criminal, for fifteen years in
order to bring him to justice for
his role in the killing of
thousands of Jews during World
War II.
Jinx
by Sage Blackwood
• A young boy named Jinx
encounters magic and danger as
he grows up in the deep, dark
forest known as the Urwald and
discovers that the world beyond-and within--the Urwald is more
complex than he could imagine.
He and his newfound friends
must confront the an evil wizard
in order to find the forest’s
secrets.
Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking
by Erin Dionne
• Thirteen-year-old Moxie must
solve a famous art heist in order
to protect those she loves from
her ailing grandfather's gangster
past. This novel includes facts
about the infamous 1990
Gardner Museum art theft.
Foul Trouble
by John Feinstein
• College recruiters are clambering
to sign up Terrell Jamerson, the
#1 high school basketball player
in the country. Not all of these
recruiters are playing fair, and
Terrell will have to think fast if he
wants to stay in the game.
Salt
by Helen Frost
• Twelve-year-olds Anikwa of the
Miami tribe and James from a
trading post in the Indiana
Territory find their friendship
threatened by the rising fear and
tension brought by the War of
1812.
Zebra Forest
by Adina Rishe Gewirtz
• Annie and her younger brother
are being raised by their fragile
grandmother and are
surrounded by family secrets.
Everything changes when an
escaped prisoner shows up at
their house and takes the family
hostage.
Prisoner B-3087
by Alan Gratz
• Based on the true story of Jack
Gruener, this novel tells his story
of survival from the Nazi
occupation of Krakow, through a
succession of concentration
camps, and to the final liberation
of Dachau.
Sure Signs of Crazy
by Karen Harrington
• Sarah writes letters to her hero,
Atticus Finch of To Kill a
Mockingbird, for help in
understanding her mentally ill
mother, her first real crush, and
life in her small Texas town.
The Thing About Luck
by Cynthia Kadohata
• Summer thinks nothing else can
possibly go wrong in a year of
bad luck. Then an emergency
takes her parents to Japan, and
Summer must care for her little
brother while helping her
grandparents work the grain
harvest.
Monument 14
by Emmy Laybourne
• A strange weather phenomenon
drives students into a superstore
where fourteen kids take refuge
while the world outside gets
torn apart from a series of
escalating disasters.
March: Book 1
by John Lewis
• This graphic biography presents
events from the life of Georgia
congressman John Lewis and
focuses on his youth in rural
Alabama, his meeting with
Martin Luther King Jr., and the
birth of the Nashville Student
Movement.
The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano
by Sonia Manzano
• It is 1969 in Spanish Harlem, and
Evelyn is trying hard to break
free from her conservative
Puerto Rican surroundings.
When her activist grandmother
comes to stay and the
neighborhood protests start,
daily life gets a lot more
complicated--and dangerous—
for her family.
Far Far Away
by Tom McNeal
• When Jeremy's strange ability to
speak to the ghost of Jacob
Grimm draws the interest of
Ginger, the two friends find
themselves at the center of a
series of disappearances in their
hometown and the dark secrets
of its fabled bakery.
Call of the Klondike
by David Meissner and Kim Richardson
• Through telegrams, letters, diary
entries, and newspaper articles,
the authors retell the true story
of Will Stanley Pearce and
Marshall Bond's adventures as
prospectors during the Klondike
gold rush.
Endangered
by Eliot Schrefer
• Sophie travels with her mother
to an animal sanctuary for
bonobos in the Congo. After
rebel soldiers overrun the
compound, she and the apes
flee into the jungle where they
must fight for their survival.
Counting by 7s
by Holly Goldberg Sloan
• A brilliant but eccentric young
girl named Willow must figure
out how to connect with other
people and find a surrogate
family for herself after her own
parents are killed in a car
accident.
The President Has Been Shot
by James Swanson
• Swanson discussing the
assassination of President John
F. Kennedy and related events,
including his funeral and the
apprehension of his killer in this
dramatic work of narrative nonfiction.
One Came Home
by Amy Timberlake
• In 1871 Wisconsin, sharpshooter
Georgia sets out to find her
missing sister. Everyone assumes
Agatha is dead, but Georgia
refuses to give up hope that her
sister is still alive. All she has to
do is find her.
Paperboy
by Vince Vawter
• When an eleven-year-old boy
takes over a friend's newspaper
route in July, 1959, in Memphis,
his debilitating stutter makes for
a memorable month, especially
after he runs afoul of the local
junkman.
Boxers & Saints
by Gene Yang
• The two-boxed set of graphic
novels looks at China in 1898
during the Boxer Rebellion from
two very different perspectives.