Finalist
The True Blue ScouTS of
Sugar Man SwaMp
kathiappelt.com
About the Book
Raccoon brothers Bingo and J’miah are the newest recruits of the Official
Sugar Man Swamp Scouts. The opportunity to serve the Sugar Man—the
massive creature who delights in delicious sugar cane and magnanimously
rules over the swamp—is an honor, and also a big responsibility, since the rest
of the swamp critters rely heavily on the intel of these hardworking Scouts.
Twelve-year-old Chap Brayburn is not a member of any such organization. But
he loves the swamp something fierce, and he’ll do anything to help protect it.
And help is surely needed, because world-class alligator wrestler Jaeger Stitch
wants to turn Sugar Man swamp into an Alligator World Wrestling Arena and
Theme Park, and the troubles don’t end there. There is also a gang of wild feral
hogs on the march, headed straight toward them all.
The Scouts are ready. All they have to do is wake up the Sugar Man. Problem
is, no one’s been able to wake that fellow up in a decade or four…
About the Author
Kathi Appelt is the author of the Newbery Honor-winning, National Book Award
Finalist, PEN USA Literary Award-winning, and bestselling The Underneath, as
well as the highly acclaimed novel Keeper, and many picture books. She is a
member of the faculty at Vermont College’s Master of Fine Arts program. She
has two grown children, lives in Texas with her husband, and once helped her
grandma raise a baby raccoon.
photo credit: chandler arden
atheneum Books for Young readers/Simon & Schuster
Finalist
The Thing AbouT Luck
kira-kira.us
About the Book
Summer knows that kouun means “good luck” in Japanese, and this year her
family has none of it. Just when she thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong,
an emergency whisks her parents away to Japan—right before harvest season.
Summer and her little brother, Jaz, are left in the care of their grandparents,
who come out of retirement in order to harvest wheat and help pay the bills.
The thing about Obaachan and Jiichan is that they are old-fashioned and
demanding, and between helping Obaachan cook for the workers, covering
for her when her back pain worsens, and worrying about her lonely little
brother, Summer just barely has time to notice the attentions of their boss’s
cute son. But notice she does, and what begins as a welcome distraction from
the hard work soon turns into a mess of its own.
Having thoroughly disappointed her grandmother, Summer figures the bad
luck must be finished—but then it gets worse. And when that happens, Summer
has to figure out how to change it herself, even if it means further displeasing Obaachan. Because it
might be the only way to save her family.
About the Author
Cynthia Kadohata is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning book Kira-Kira, the
Jane Addams Peace Award and Pen USA Award winner Weedflower, Cracker!,
Outside Beauty, A Million Shades of Gray, and several critically acclaimed adult
novels, including The Floating World. She has published numerous short stories in such
literary journals as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Grand Street, and the Mississippi
Review. She lives with her son, boyfriend, and dog in West Covina, California.
Atheneum books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster
Finalist
Far Far away
mcnealbooks.com
About the Book
Jeremy Johnson Johnson’s life has begun to feel like a cruel fairy tale. He hears
voices —“strange whisperings”—so the citizens of the small town of Never Better
treat him like an oddity and an outcast. Meanwhile, his mother takes a bite of
a cake so delicious it’s rumored to be bewitched and runs away with another
man. Jeremy’s heartsick father goes into his room and stays there unhappily
ever after. Then the town’s coltish, copper-haired beauty takes a bite of the
cake herself and falls in love with the first person she sees: Jeremy. In any other
place, this would be a turn for the better for Jeremy, but not in Never Better,
where the Finder of Occasions—whose identity and evil intentions nobody
knows—is watching and waiting, waiting and watching. . .
About the Author
Tom McNeal holds an MA in creative writing from UC Irvine and was a Stegner
fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University. He is also the author, with his
wife, Laura, of four young adult novels—Crooked, Crushed, The Decoding of
Lana Morris, and Zipped. His adult titles include Goodbye, Nebraska, winner of
the California Book Award, and To Be Sung Underwater. He lives with his wife
and two sons in Southern California.
Photo credit: Jeff Lucia
alfred a. Knopf/random House
Finalist
Picture Me GoNe
megrosoff.co.uk
About the Book
Mila has an exceptional talent for reading a room—sensing hidden facts
and unspoken emotions from clues that others overlook. So when her father’s
best friend, Matthew, goes missing from his upstate New York home, Mila and
her beloved father travel from London to find him. She collects information
about Matthew from his belongings, from his wife and baby, from the dog he
left behind, and from the ghosts of his past—slowly piecing together the story
everyone else has missed. But just when she’s closest to solving the mystery, a
shocking betrayal calls into question her trust in the one person she thought
she could read best.
About the Author
Meg Rosoff was born in Boston and currently lives in London with her husband
and daughter. Her debut novel, How I Live Now, won the Michael L. Printz Award,
was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and is now a major motion picture film.
Her second novel, Just in Case, won the 2007 CILIP Carnegie Medal and was
an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. What I Was, Rosoff’s third novel, was shortlisted for the 2008 CILIP Carnegie Medal. Her latest novel with Putnam, There
Is No Dog, received four starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews,
Booklist, and Horn Book.
Photo credit: Zoe Norfolk
G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Group uSA
emcee
About the Emcee
Sarah Harrison Smith is the Children’s Book Editor
of The New York Times Book Review. Smith began
her career at The New Yorker, where she was a
fact checker for five years. After writing The Fact
Checker’s Bible, she joined the Times in 2005
as head of research at the Sunday Times. In
addition to writing for The New York Times, she
has reviewed for The New Yorker, Salon, The New
Leader, and the Boston Phoenix. Smith graduated
from Oxford University and has a master’s
degree in English and comparative literature
from Columbia University. She is married to the
poet David Yezzi and has three children.
Photo credit: The New York Times
Finalist
Boxers & saints
geneyang.com
About the Book
In two volumes, Boxers & Saints tells two parallel stories.
The first is of Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy whose
village is abused and plundered by Westerners claiming
the role of missionaries. Little Bao, inspired by visions of
the Chinese gods, joins a violent uprising against the
Western interlopers. Against all odds, their grassroots
rebellion is successful.
But in the second volume, Yang lays out the opposite
side of the conflict. A girl whose village has no place
for her is taken in by Christian missionaries and finds, for
the first time, a home with them. As the Boxer Rebellion
gains momentum, Vibiana must decide whether to
abandon her Christian friends or to commit herself fully
to Christianity.
About the Author
Gene Luen Yang began drawing comic books in the fifth grade. He was an
established figure in the indie comics scene when he published his first book
with First Second, American Born Chinese, which is now in print in over ten
languages. American Born Chinese’s critical and commercial success, along
with its status as a National Book Award Finalist and winner of the Printz Award,
catapulted Yang into stardom as a major voice of our times.
First second/Macmillan