2008-2009South Carolina

Junior Book Award Nominees

Bella at Midnightby Diane Stanley

Bella's peasant life is changed when her real

father, a knight who abandoned her when

she was a baby, comes and reclaims

her, moving her to his home where she lives

with a resentful stepmother and two horrible stepsisters and learns about a

plot to kill her friend, Prince Julian.

Black Duckby Janet Taylor Lisle

Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the

story of how, in 1929 Newport,

Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were

caught up in the violent competition

among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling

trade.

Blood on the River: Jamestown, 1607

by Elisa Carbone

Traveling to the New World in 1606 as the page to Captain John Smith, twelve-year-old orphan Samuel Collier settles in the new colony of James Town, where he must

quickly learn to distinguish between

friend and foe.

Blueby Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Ann Fay Honeycutt becomes the man of

the house at age thirteen after her

father leaves to fight in World War II,

forcing Ann to give up her childhood and tend to her family, but when a polio

epidemic strikes, Ann faces the most

devastating challenge of her life.

Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam

by Cynthia Kadohata

A young soldier in Vietnam bonds with his bomb-

sniffing dog.

Crossing the Wireby Will Hobbs

Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores

journeys north in a desperate

attempt to cross the Arizona

border and find work in the

United States to support his

family in central Mexico.

Dragon’s Keepby Janet Lee Carey

In 1145 A.D., as foretold by Merlin, fourteen-

year-old Rosalind, who will be the twenty-first Pendragon Queen of

Wilde Island, has much to accomplish to fulfill her destiny, while hiding from her people the dragon's claw she was born

with that reflects only one of her mother's

dark secrets.

Escape!:The Story of the Great

Houdiniby Sid Fleischman

A biography of the magician, ghost

chaser, aviator, and king of escape artists whose amazing feats are remembered long

after his death in 1926.

Green Glass Seaby Ellen Klages

While her father works on the Manhattan

Project, eleven-year-old gadget lover and

outcast Dewey Kerrigan lives in Los Alamos Camp, and

becomes friends with Suze, another young

girl who is shunned by her peers.

Hard Hitby Ann Turner

A rising high school baseball star faces his

most difficult challenge when his father is diagnosed

with pancreatic cancer.

Heatby Mike Lupica

Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball

because rival coaches doubt he is only

twelve years old and he has no parents to

offer them proof.

Jumping the Scratchby Sarah Weeks

After moving with his mother to a trailer park to care for an

injured aunt, eleven-year-old Jamie

Reardon struggles to cope with a deeply

buried secret.

The Mailboxby Audrey Shafer

When twelve-year-old Gabe tries to hide his uncle's death

from the local authorities, he is not

prepared for what happens when this

secret is discovered.

Oh Rats!:The Story of Rats and People

by Albert Marrin

Describes rat behavior and

survival skills and aspects of their relationship with

humans, including disease, rats as

food, rats as pests, and the

training of rats as rescuers.

Sand Dollar Summerby Kimberly Jones

When twelve-year-old Lise spends the

summer on an island in Maine with her self-

reliant mother and bright--but oddly mute--younger

brother, her formerly safe world is

complicated by an aged Indian neighbor, her mother's childhood

friend, and a hurricane.

The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1

by PJ Haarsma

After being orphaned on the seed ship

"Renaissance", thirteen-year-old

Johnny Turnbull and his sister, Ketheria, are forced to work on the Rings of Orbis, where

Johnny learns he is the first human Softwire,

with a gift to enter any computer via his mind.

The Trapby John Smelcer

In alternating chapters, seventeen-year-old

Johnny Least-Weasel, who is better known

for brains than brawn, worries about his

missing grandfather, and the grandfather, Albert Least-Weasel, struggles to survive,

caught in his own steel trap in the Alaskan

winter.

Victoryby Susan Cooper

Molly, upset by her family's move from

London to the U.S., is strangely drawn to an old book about the life

of Admiral Lord Nelson, and soon finds

her life intertwined with that of Sam, a boy her age who

served with Nelson aboard the HMS

"Victory" a century earlier.

The Wright 3by Blue Balliett

In the midst of a series of unexplained accidents and

mysterious coincidences, sixth-

graders Calder, Petra, and Tommy lead their

classmates in an attempt to keep Frank Lloyd Wright's famous

Robie House from being demolished.

Worldweavers: Gift of Unmage

by Alma Alexander

While attending a school for children without

magical powers, fourteen-year-old

Thea, with the guidance of the mage

Cheveyo, tries to strengthen her

abilities and discovers her true identity.