ANNOUNCING THE WINNER AND HONOR BOOKS

The four honor books:
One Crazy Summer 
Heart of a Samurai
Dark Emperor and other Poems of the Night
Turtle in Paradise

AND THE WINNING TITLE IS:
Moon over Manifest

AND THE WINNER IS....

Today at our Mock Newbery Election, participants from our book group voted for the following:
Winner:  Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Honor books in ranking order:  Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm, Mirror Mirror: a Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer, Candymakers by Wendy Mass, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Stephen Angleberger

Congratulations to the Falmouth Mock Newbery Book Group for your enthusiasm.  You guys were awesome.
A big THANK YOU to our ten readers from the community.  It made the event that much more special.

Cathy Potter, the school librarian was instrumental in making this whole project a success.

Get ready to start reading the 2011 books for the 2012 Mock Newbery Club.

List #3

This list has fewer titles than previous lists so that you are able to read more of the titles.  Though we urge you to read two books from this list for the December book club meeting, we are also encouraging participants to continue reading from lists #1 and #2.  At our December meeting we will be asking for book suggestions for the final list. 

Clementine: Friend of the Week
Falling In by Frances
Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester
The Night Fairy
Ninth Ward
Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down
Star in the Forest
Word After Word After Word


Reading List #2
Reading List #1

Mock Newbery Book Club information
Book Discussion guidelines

The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams by Rhonda Hayter

From the Publisher: "Abbie Adams and her family come from a long line of witches, and she’s having a tough time keeping it a secret from her best friend and the rest of her school, especially the day her little brother morphs into a wolf and tries to eat his teacher. That’s also the day her father brings home a kitten. But when Abbie looks into the kitten’s eyes, she realizes there’s a boy in there! He’s under a spell and soon the whole family bands together to rescue him. They are shocked to realize he’s none other than the young Thomas Edison, and if they don’t save him fast, he’ll never change the world with his inventions."
Publisher: Penguin, 2010, 256 pp.

The Other Half of My Heart by Sundee T. Frazier

From the Publisher: "The close relationship of a pair of biracial twins is tested when their grandmother enters them in a pageant for African American girls.  When Minerva and Keira King were born, they made headlines: Keira is black like Mama, but Minni is white like Daddy. Together the family might look like part of a chessboard row, but they are first and foremost the close-knit Kings. Then Grandmother Johnson calls, to invite the twins down South to compete for the title of Miss Black Pearl Preteen of America.  Minni dreads the spotlight, but Keira assures her that together they'll get through their stay with Grandmother Johnson. But when grandmother's bias against Keira reveals itself, Keira pulls away from her twin. Minni has always believed that no matter how different she and Keira are, they share a deep bond of the heart. Now she'll find out the truth."
Publisher: Random House, 2010, 304 pp.

Love Puppies and Corner Kicks by R. W. Krech

From the Publisher: "What's a girl to do when Mom and Dad announce that the whole family is moving to Scotland for a yearlong teacher exchange? Can you spell d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r? When Andrea gets there, she finds she and her family are living with the principal and she is being pestered by the ultraweird Jasmin. But then she finds an amazing girls' soccer league and a cute boy named Stewart. Will Andrea's new tough soccer girls accept that she is crushing on a boy from a rival team and not totally devoted to winning a championship?"
Publisher: Penguin, 2010, 213 pp.

The Best Horse Ever by Alice DeLaCroix

From the Publisher: "For Abby, it's a dream come true. She's finally going to have her very own horse: Griffin, a beautiful bay. Abby can't wait to ride, brush, and feed him, and doesn't understand how her best friend, Devon, could be afraid of such a wonderful horse. She certainly could not have guessed that Devon would get so mad at her for saying so. Yet when Griffin arrives, he does seem so awfully big and hard to handle. Can Abby learn to manage her horse and her friendship? "
Publisher: Holiday House, 2010, 80 pp.

Keeper by Kathi Appelt

From the Publisher: "To ten-year-old Keeper, this moon is her chance to fix all that has gone wrong...and so much has gone wrong. But she knows who can make things right again: Meggie Marie, her mermaid mother who swam away when Keeper was just three. A blue moon calls the mermaids to gather at the sandbar, and that's exactly where she is headed — in a small boat, in the middle of the night, with only her dog, BD (Best Dog), and a seagull named Captain. When the riptide pulls at the boat, tugging her away from the shore and deep into the rough waters of the Gulf of Mexico, panic sets in, and the fairy tales that lured her out there go tumbling into the waves. Maybe the blue moon isn't magic and maybe the sandbar won't sparkle with mermaids."
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2010, 399 pp.

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker

From the Publisher: "Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls asleep, only Annie is awake, and only Annie—blessed (or cursed?) with being impervious to magic—can venture out beyond the rose-covered hedge for help. She must find Gwen’s true love to kiss her awake. Joined by one of her father’s guards, Liam, who happened to be out of the castle when the sleeping spell struck, Annie travels through a fairy tale land populated with characters both familiar and new as she tries to fix her sister and her family . . . and perhaps even find a true love of her own."

Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2010, 272 pp.

The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow

"Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment
of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Cheng."  The two girls reveal their findings in journal entries that are colorful and interesting.
Publisher: Abrams, 2010, 208 pp.

This Means War by Ellen Wittlinger

Juliet's longtime best  friend, Lowell has suddenly decided it is uncool to be friends with a girl.  Friendless, Juliet meets Patsy who suggests a series of tests to prove girls are far superior to boys.  Set in 1962 during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 
Publisher, Simon and Schuster, 2010, 211 pp.

Justin Case: School, Drool, and other Daily Disasters by Rachel Vail

With plenty of humor,worrywart Justin Krzeszewski, nicknamed Justin Case, shares the trails and good fortune of his year in third grade.  Written in diary format and generously peppered throughout with Matthew Cordell's sketches.Publisher: Feiwel & Friends, 2010, 256 pp.

Henrietta Hornbuckle's Circus of Life by Michael de Guzman

From the Publisher: "As far as twelve-year-old Henrietta Hornbuckle is concerned, she has the best existence on the planet.  She is a clown in a small traveling circus.  Everyone she knows, including her parents, are clowns.  What Henrietta doesn't know is that this summer big  changes are waiting in the wings."
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010, 160 pp.

   

The Hidden Boy by Jon Berkeley

From the Publisher: "You are the lucky winner of a Blue Moon Once-in-a-Lifetime Adventure. It'll be the trip of a lifetime! The tour leaves from the Blue Moon office at 11 p.m. sharp. Groups of seven only. No pets."
 Publisher: HarperCollins, 2010, 262 pp.

The Nine Pound Hammer by John C. Bemis

From the Publisher: "What if John Henry had a son?  Twelve-year-old Ray is haunted by the strangest memories of his father, whom Ray swears could speak to animals. Now an orphan, Ray jumps from a train going through the American South and falls in with a medicine show train and its stable of sideshow performers. The performers turn out to be heroes, defenders of the wild, including the son of John Henry. They are hiding the last of the mythical Swamp Sirens from an ancient evil known as the Gog. Why the Gog wants the Siren, they can’t be sure, but they know it has something to do with rebuilding a monstrous machine that John Henry gave his life destroying years before, a machine that will allow the Gog to control the will of men and spread darkness throughout the world."
Publisher, Random House, 2010, 384 pp.

The Blue Shoe by Roderick Townley

From the Publisher: "It was only one shoe. It fit no one. But everyone wanted it."
Publisher: Random House, 2010, 272 pp.

The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe by Loree G. Burns

From the Publisher: "Without honey bees the world would be a different place. There would be no honey, no beeswax for candles, and, worst of all, barely a fruit, nut, or vegetable to eat. So imagine beekeeper Dave Hackenburg’s horror when he discovered twenty million of his charges had vanished. Those missing bees became the first casualties of a mysterious scourge that continues to plague honey bee populations today. In The Hive Detectives, Loree Griffin Burns profiles bee wranglers and bee scientists who have been working to understand colony collapse disorder, or CCD. In this dramatic and enlightening story, readers explore the lives of the fuzzy, buzzy insects and learn what might happen to us if they were gone."
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 2010, 66 pp.

8th Grade Super Zero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

From the Publisher: "Ever since a deeply unfortunate incident earlier this year, Reggie's been known as "Pukey" McKnight at his high-intensity Brooklyn middle school. He wants to turn his image around, but he has other things on his mind as well: his father, who's out of a job; his best friends, Ruthie and Joe C.; his former best friend Donovan, who's now become a jerk; and of course, the beautiful Mialonie. The elections for school president are coming up, but with his notorious nickname and "nothing" social status, Reggie wouldn't stand a chance, if he even had the courage to run. Then Reggie gets involved with a local homeless shelter, the Olive Branch. Haunted by two of the clients there—George, a once-proud man now living on the streets, and Charlie, a six-year-old kid who becomes his official "Little Buddy"—he begins to think about making a difference, both in the world and at school. Pukey for President? It can happen . . . if he starts believing."
Publisher: Scholastic, 2010, 272 pp.

Lawn Boy Returns by Gary Paulsen

From the Publisher: "Six weeks and hundred of thousands of dollars later, life got more complicated. You see, the prizefighter I sponsor, Joey Pow, won a big fight. And a TV interview made me famous. As Arnold says, “Capitalism plus publicity equals monster commerce.” Even my best friends wanted a piece of the action. Meanwhile, some scary guys showed up at Joey’s gym. . ."
Publisher: Random House, 2010, 112 pp.

Warriors in the Crossfire by Nancy Bo Flood

From the Publisher: " In the final months of World War II, the tiny South Pacific island of Saipan provided a vital buffer between Japan and the advancing American troops.  Japan vowed to defend thse islands to the last man.  Based on historical events, this story unfolds through the eyes of Joseph and his half-Japnese cousin, Kento. Forced to experience the unimaginable horrors of Suicide Cliff, they discover, within themselves, what it means to become warriors."
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press, 2010, 142 pp.