2017 MOCK NEWBERY AWARD CHALLENGE
The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American
children's book published the previous year. Anderson’s Bookshops sponsors a mock version of this award to promote
the excellent books that they think have a chance of winning the Newbery this year to readers in the
Naperville/Downers Grove area. If you’d like to participate, here’s what you have to do:
1.
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Read at least three titles on the following list by early January 2017.
Sign the contract which will be kept in the LRC and add titles as you read.
You need to reflect about each title that you read, but you have options for HOW you respond. You can: a) Discuss one of the questions
with a staff member and have them initial your contract OR b) Write an online review in Atriuum and Mrs. Sherry will sign the contract.
For further explanation and to access the online response, visit the Patriot Book Awards Page under the Resources/Library Channel on
the top navigation of the Jefferson webpage (http://www.naperville203.org/jjhs).
READ
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Ms. Bixby’s Last Day
Anderson, John David
Ms. Bixby unexpectedly announces that she is very sick and won't be able to finish the school year, and Topher, Brand and Steve come up
with a plan to tell her how much she means to them.
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Girl Who Drank the Moon
Barnhill, Kelly
A young girl raised by a witch, a swamp monster, and a perfectly tiny dragon must unlock the dangerous magic buried deep inside her.
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Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story
Baskin, Nora Raleigh
Relates how the lives of four children living in different parts of the country intersect and are affected by the events of September 11,
2001.
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Gertie’s Leap to Greatness
Beasley, Kate
Gertie has a daddy who works on an oil rig, a great-aunt who always finds the lowest prices at the Piggly Wiggly, and two loyal best
friends. So when her absent mother decides to move away from their small town, Gertie sets out on her greatest mission yet: becoming
the best fifth grader in the universe to show her mother exactly what she'll be leaving behind. There's just one problem: Seat-stealing
new girl Mary Sue Spivey wants to be the best fifth grader, too. And there is simply not enough room at the top for the two of them.
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Wild Robot
Brown, Peter
Roz the robot discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island with no memory of where she is from or why she is there, and her only
hope of survival is to try to learn about her new environment from the island's hostile inhabitants.
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Unbound: A Novel in Verse
Burg, Ann
With candor and compassion, Ann Burg unearths a startling chapter of American history – the remarkable story of runaways who sought
sanctuary in the wilds of the Great Dismal Swamp – and creates a powerful testament to the right of every human to be free
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Summerlost
Condie, Ally
Following the sudden deaths of her father and autistic younger brother, Cedar Lee spends the summer working at a Shakespearean
theater festival, making a new friend, and coming to terms with her grief.
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All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook
Connor, Lesllie
Life changes completely for 11-year-old Perry after a crusading district attorney removes him from his mother’s care and the only home
he has ever known, the Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility. When a class project leads Perry to explore the inmates’ stories, he realizes
that his mother’s manslaughter conviction is based on a cover-up, and he is determined to get to the truth.
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Moo
Creech, Sharon
In a mix of poetry and prose, this story follows one family’s move to rural Maine and the surprising connection between a girl and one
very ornery cow named Zora.
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Raymie Nightingale
DiCamillo, Kate
Hoping that if she wins a local beauty pageant her father will come home, Raymie practices twirling a baton and performing good deeds
as she is drawn into an unlikely friendship with a drama queen and a saboteur.
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What Elephants Know
Dinerstein, Eric
In simple poetic prose, author Eric Dinerstein brings to life Nepal’s breathtaking jungle wildlife and rural culture as seen through the eyes
of a young outcast struggling to find his place in the world.
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Free Verse
Dooley, Sarah
Five, seven, five—the pattern of haiku—is the combination for Sasha to open the door to her poetic self. The 13-year-old lives in Caboose,
West Virginia, and if it wasn’t for bad luck, she’d have no luck at all: her mother walked away, her father died in the mines, and her
brother was killed in the line of fire, leaving foster mom Phyllis to do her best with egg-salad sandwiches served on the porch at four in
the morning. Sasha, meanwhile, tries to manage her desperate life, but blackout rages keep setting her back. Thankfully, a school
counselor, new friends, and a poetry club with an unlikely leader help Sasha begin to cope will all the hardships thrown her way.
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Some Kind of Courage
Gemeinhart, Dan
In 1890 Washington the only family Joseph Johnson has left is his half-wild Indian pony, Sarah, so when she is sold by a man who has no
right to do so, he sets out to get her back--and he plans to let nothing stop him in his quest.
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Inquisitor’s Tale
Gidwitz, Adam
This is an exciting and hilarious new medieval adventure about history, religion . . . and farting dragons, from the bestselling author of A
Tale Dark and Grimm.
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When Friendship Followed Me Home
Griffin, Paul
Seventh-grader Ben, always an outsider, is led into a deep friendship with Halley, who is being treated for cancer, by the special dog he
and his adoptive mother take in.
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Garvey’s Choice
Grimes, Nikki
Garvey's father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading--anything but
sports. Feeling like a failure, he comforts himself with food. Garvey is kind, funny, smart, a loyal friend, and he is also overweight, teased
by bullies, and lonely. When his only friend encourages him to join the school chorus, Garvey's life changes. The chorus finds a new
soloist in Garvey, and through chorus, Garvey finds a way to accept himself, and a way to finally reach his distant father--by speaking the
language of music instead of the language of sports.
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Full of Beans
Holm, Jennifer
Ten-year-old Beans Curry, a member of the Keepsies, the best marble playing gang in Depression-era Key West, Florida, engages in
various schemes to earn money while "New Dealers" from Washington, D.C., arrive to turn run down Key West into a tourist resort.
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Some Kind of Happiness
Legrand, Claire
A multilayered plot, engaging characters, and more than one mystery highlight this ambitious novel. Eleven-year-old Finley spends a
summer with her grandparents and a swarm of other relatives from her father's side of the family. Suffering from depression which is
amplified by her parents' likely divorce, Finley escapes through writing. She creates elaborate tales about the magical Everwood forest,
featuring herself as "the orphan girl." Everwood tales, neatly inserted into the narrative, parallel her own worries and triumphs. Exploring
the real forest near her grandparents' home brings her hope; so do new friendships with her cousins and a trio of wild neighbor boys. As
she defies her grandparents and tries to keep her debilitating "blue days" a secret, Finley also discovers family secrets from the past.
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Furthermore
Mafi, Tahereh
Twelve-year-old Alice Queensmeadow, with the help of her friend Oliver, travels through the dangerous, magical land of Furthermore in
order to rescue her missing father and prove her own magical abilities.
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Tru & Nelle
Neri, Greg
In their small town of Monroeville, Alabama in 1930, misfits Tru and Nelle strike up a friendship and find a mystery to solve when
someone breaks into the drugstore and steals some candy and a fancy brooch. Based on the real-life friendship of Truman Capote and
Nelle Harper Lee.
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Best Man
Peck, Richard
Newbery Medalist Richard Peck tells a story of small-town life, gay marriage, and everyday heroes in this novel for fans of Gary Schmidt
and Jack Gantos.
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Pax
Pennypacker, Sara
After being forced to give up his pet fox Pax, a young boy named Peter decides to leave home and get his best friend back.
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Bitter Side of Sweet
Sullivan, Tara
Kept as forced labor on a chocolate plantation in the Ivory Coast, Amadou and his younger brother Seydou had given up hope, until a
young girl arrives at the camp who rekindles the urge to escape.
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Ghosts
Telgemeier, Raina
Catrina and her family have moved to the coast of Northern California for the sake of her little sister, Maya, who has cystic fibrosis--and
Cat is even less happy about the move when she is told that her new town is inhabited by ghosts, and Maya sets her heart on meeting
one.
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Wolf Hollow
Wolk, Lauren
Twelve-year-old Annabelle must learn to stand up for what's right in the face of a manipulative and violent new bully who targets people
Annabelle cares about, including a homeless World War I veteran.