2010-2011 NCCBA Nominees

Picture Books

Bluemle, Elizabeth. How Do You Wokka-Wokka? Somerville, Mass: Candlewick Press. 2009.
A young boy who likes to "wokka-wokka, shimmy-shake, and shocka-shocka" gathers his neighbors together for a surprise celebration.

Brown, Peter. The Curious Garden. NY: Little, Brown and Company. 2009.
Liam discovers a hidden garden and with careful tending spreads color throughout the gray city.

Fucile, Tony. Let's Do Nothing. Sommerville, Mass: Candlewick Books. 2009.
Frankie and Sal have run out of things to do: "We've played every sport ever invented" and "baked enough cookies to feed a small country--" Then Sal hits upon a solution: "Let's do nothing!" How hard could that be?.

Greenstein, Elaine. The Goose Man: the Story of Konrad Lorenz. 2009.
This book tells the true story of Konrad Lorenz, whose love for animals as a child led to his winning the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking research of the behavior of geese.

Kajikawa, Kimiko. Tsunami! NY: Philomel Books. 2009.
A wealthy man in a Japanese village, whom everyone calls Ojiisan, which means grandfather, sets fire to his rice fields to warn the innocent people of an approaching tsunami.

Lithgow, John. I Got Two Dogs. NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 2008.
A song celebrating two dogs that are as different as they could be, and both well-loved by their owner.

MacDonald, Margaret Read. The great smelly, slobbery, small-tooth dog : a folktale from Great Britain. Atlanta, GA: August House Little Folk. 2007.
In this British variant of a traditional tale, a great smelly, slobbery, small-tooth dog rescues a rich man from bandits and demands that the man bring his beautiful daughter to live in his castle.

McNaughton, Colin. Not Last Night But the Night Before. Sommerville, MA: Candlewick Press. 2009.
A child’s quiet night is transformed into a birthday celebration full of beloved fairy-tale characters.

Perlman, Janet. The Delicious Bug. Toronto: Kids Can Press. 2009.
A struggle between two chameleons over one delicious bug highlights the importance of peacefully resolving conflict.

Piernas-Davenport, Gail. Shanté Keys and the New Year's Peas. Morton Grove, IL: Albert Whitman. 2007.
When Shanté is sent to find black-eyed peas for her family's New Year's celebration, she learns about each of her neighbor's New Year's traditions in their home countries.

Thomas, Jan. Rhyming Dust Bunnies. NY: Antheneum Books for Young Readers. 2008.
As three dust bunnies, Ed, Ned, and Ted, are demonstrating how much they love to rhyme, a fourth, Bob, is trying to warn them of approaching danger.

Van Dusen,Chris. Circus Ship. Somerville MA: Candlewick Press. 2009.
When a circus ship runs aground off the coast of Maine, the poor animals are left on their own to swim the chilly waters. Staggering onto a nearby island, they soon win over the wary townspeople with their kind, courageous ways. So well do the critters blend in that when the greedy circus owner returns to claim them, villagers of all species conspire to outsmart the bloated blowhard.

Junior Books

Carmichael, Clay. Wild Things. Honesdale, PA: Front Street. 2009.
Stubborn, self-reliant, eleven-year-old Zoe, recently orphaned, moves to the country to live with her prickly half-uncle, a famous doctor and sculptor, and together they learn about trust and the strength of family.

Clayton, Sally Pomme. Persephone. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. 2009.
Persephone is carried off to the underworld by Hades, but her mother, Demeter, places a curse of winter on the earth until Zeus allows Persephone to return, which causes spring to come, stipulating that Persephone must return to Hades for three months every year. (Summary from Novelist K-8 January 31, 2010)

Cole, Henry. A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration and the Meaning of Home. NY: Katherine Tegen Books. 2010.
Celeste, a mouse longing for a real home, becomes a source of inspiration to teenaged Joseph, assistant to the artist and naturalist John James Audubon, at a New Orleans, Louisiana, plantation in 1821.

Davies, Jacqueline. The Lemonade War. Boston: Sandpiper/Houghton Mifflin. 2007.
Evan and his younger sister, Jesse, react very differently to the news that they will be in the same class for fourth grade and as the end of summer approaches, they battle it out through lemonade stands, each trying to be the first to earn 100 dollars. Includes mathematical calculations and tips for running a successful lemonade stand.

Deedy, Carmen Agra. 14 Cows for America. Peachtree Publishers. 2009.
Maasai tribal members, after hearing the story of the September 11th attacks from a young Massai, who was in New York on that day, decide to present the American people with fourteen sacred cows as a healing gift.

DiTerlizzi, Tony. Kenny and the Dragon. Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. 2008.
Book-loving Kenny the rabbit has few friends in his farming community, so when one, bookstore owner George, is sent to kill another, gentle dragon Grahame, Kenny must find a way to prevent their battle while satisfying the dragon-crazed townspeople.

Hiaasen, Carl. Scat. NY: Alfred A. Knopf. 2009.
Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing.

Kehoe, Tim. The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow. NY: Little, Brown and Company. 2009.
Eleven-year-old Vincent Shadow, inspired by the ideas of the inventor Nikola Tesla, has always kept his many unusual toy inventions secret from his family until he enters a contest whose prize is to spend a summer working with the eccentric Howard G. Whizz of Whizzer Toys.

Lin, Grace. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. NY: Little, Brown and Company. 2009.
Minli, an adventurous girl from a poor village, buys a magical goldfish, and then joins a dragon who cannot fly on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon in hopes of bringing life to Fruitless Mountain and freshness to Jade River.

Mass, Wendy. 11 Birthdays. NY: Scholastic Press. 2009.
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.

Philbrick, Rodman. The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg. NY: Blue Sky Press. 2009.
Twelve-year-old Homer, a poor but clever orphan, has extraordinary adventures after running away from his evil uncle to rescue his brother, who has been sold into service in the Civil War.

Winter, Jonah. You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax? NY: Schwartz & Wade Books. 2009.
In this striking picture book biography, an old-timer tells us what made Sandy Koufax so amazing. We learn that the beginning of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers was rocky, that he was shy with his teammates, and experienced discrimination as one of the only Jews in the game. We hear that he actually quit, only to return the next season--different--firing one rocket after another over the plate....

Woodson, Jacqueline. Peace, Locomotion. NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 2009.
Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.