2015 - 2016 BLACK-EYED SUSAN NOMINEES GRADES 9-12
The Impossible Knife of
Memory
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Hayley Kincaid and her father move back to their hometown to
try a "normal" life, but the horrors he saw in the war threaten
to destroy their lives.
Realistic fiction
Lexile: HL 720
The Naturals
by Jennifer Barnes
Mystery
Lexile: HL 690
Nearly Gone
by Elle Cosimano
Mystery
Lexile: HL 690
The Unfinished Life of Addison
Stone
by Adele Griffin
Mystery, Realistic Fiction
Lexile: HL 760
Open Road Summer
by Emery Lord
Romance
Lexile:
Steelheart
by Brandon Sanderson
Science Fiction>Dystopia
Lexile: HL 680
The Scar Boys: a Novel
by Len Vlahos
Realistic Fiction
Lexile: HL 910
Rose Under Fire
by Elizabeth Wein
Historical Fiction
Book #2 Code Name Verity Series
Lexile: 950
Noggin
by John Corey Whaley
Science Fiction
Lexile: HL 760
The Shadow Hero
by Gene Luen Yang
Graphic Novel>Superhero
Lexile: GN 420
Seventeen-year-old Cassie, who has a natural ability to read
people, joins an elite group of criminal profilers at the FBI in
order to help solve cold cases.
A math-whiz from a trailer park discovers she's the only
student capable of unravelling complex clues left by a serial
killer who's systematically getting rid of her classmates.
When a celebrated New York City teenager, known for her
subversive street art, mysteriously dies, her life is examined in
a series of interviews with her parents, friends, boyfriends,
mentors, and critics.
Reagan and her best friend, country music star Lillah, spend
the summer on the road, traveling across America, having fun,
examining their friendship, fighting the tabloids, and figuring
out love.
At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an
Epic, a human with superhuman powers, and now, ten years
later, he joins the Reckoners--the only people who are trying
to kill the Epics and end their tyranny.
Written as a college admission essay, eighteen-year-old Harry
Jones recounts a childhood defined by the hideous scars he hid
behind, and how forming a band brought self-confidence,
friendship, and his first kiss.
When young American pilot Rose Justice is captured by Nazis
and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration
camp, she finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty,
bravery, and friendship of her fellow prisoners.
After dying at age sixteen, Travis Coates' head was removed
and frozen for five years before being attached to another
body, and now the old Travis and the new must find a way to
coexist while figuring out changes in his relationships.
The Shadow Hero is based on golden-age comic series The Green
Turtle, whose hero solved crimes and fought injustice just like any
other comics hero. But this mysterious masked crusader was hiding
more than your run-of-the-mill secret identity...The Green Turtle
was the first Asian American superhero.
2015 – 2016 BLACK-EYED SUSAN NOMINEES GRADES 6-9
I Kill the Mockingbird
by Paul Acampora
Realistic Fiction
Lexile:
The Crossover
by Kwame Alexander
Poetry>Sports
Lexile:
Night Gardener
by Jonathan Auxier
Fantasy>Horror
Lexile: 690
The Great Trouble: a Mystery of
London, the Blue Death, and a Boy
Called Eel
by Deborah Hopkinson
Historical Fiction
Lexile: 660
Ice Dog
by Terry Lynn Johnson
When best friends Lucy, Elena, and Michael receive their
summer reading list, they are excited to see To Kill A
Mockingbird included. But not everyone in their class shares the
same enthusiasm. So they hatch a plot to get the entire town
talking about the well-known Harper Lee classic.
Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle
with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores
his declining health.
Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to
work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is
quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted
by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house.
Eel, an orphan, and his best friend Florrie must help Dr. John
Snow prove that cholera is spread through water, and not
poisonous air, when an epidemic sweeps across their London
neighborhood in 1854.
In this survival story set in Alaska, fourteen-year-old Vicky and
her dog sled team find an injured sledder in the wilderness.
Adventure>Survival
Lexile: 690
The Boy on the Wooden Box
by Leon Leyson
The biography of Leon Leyson, the only memoir published by a
former Schindler's List child.
Memoir>Holocaust
Lexile: 1000
Greenglass House
by Kate Milford
Mystery
Lexile: 800
The Boundless
by Kenneth Oppel
Fantasy
Lexile: 730
Screaming at the Ump
by Audrey Vernick
Realistic fiction > sports
Lexile: 750
I am Malala: How One Girl
Stood Up for Education and
Changed
the World
Biography
Lexile: 830
At Greenglass House, a smuggler's inn, twelve-year-old Milo,
the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his winter holidays
relaxing but soon guests are arriving with strange stories about
the house sending Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, on an
adventure.
Aboard "The Boundless," the greatest train ever built, on its
maiden voyage across Canada, teenaged Will enlists the aid of a
traveling circus to save the train from villains.
Twelve-year-old Casey lives with his father and grandfather at
their family-run umpire school, and as he deals with middle
school and his mother's unwelcome return, he stumbles on a
sensational story that has him questioning his dream of
becoming a journalist.
Malala Yousafzai's describes her fight for education for girls
under Taliban rule, the support she received from her parents
to pursue an education, and how the Taliban retaliated against
her by trying to kill her.