2012-2013SOUTH CAROLINA JUNIOR BOOK AWARDNOMINEES

BAT SCIENTISTSBY MARY KAY CARSON

Describes how scientists are learning more about bats, how they fly, communicate, and hunt, and what dangers they are facing. Explains how researchers are trying to stop the spread of a disease that is killing bats in North America.

Lexile

BOYS WITHOUT NAMESBY KASHNIRA SHETH

Eleven-year-old Gopal and his family leave their rural Indian village to live with his uncle in Mumbai, but when they arrive, his father goes missing and Gopal ends up locked in a sweatshop from which there is no escape.

Lexile 670

CAMO GIRLBY KEKLA MAGOON

Ella has always been friends with a boy known as Z, despite his reputation as the weird kid, but when a new boy, Bailey, moves to town and befriends Ella because they are the only two African American students in the class, she must choose between the popularity Bailey will bring to her life and her lifelong friendship with Z.

Lexile 600

CRUNCHBY LESLIE CONNOR

Dewey never guesses that the gas pumps would run dry the same week he promised to manage the family bicycle-repair business. Suddenly everyone needs a bike repaired, and Dewey is in a crunch.

Lexile 490

DARK LIFEBY KAT FALLS

When fifteen-year-old Ty, who has always lived on the ocean floor, joins Topside girl Gemma in the frontier's underworld to seek and stop outlaws who threaten his home, they learn that the government may pose an even greater threat.

Lexile 690

THE GRIMM LEGACYBY POLLY SHULMAN

New York high school student Elizabeth gets an after-school job as a page at the "New-York Circulating Material Repository.” When she gains coveted access to its Grimm Collection of magical objects, she and the other pages are drawn into a series of frightening adventures involving mythical creatures and stolen goods.

Lexile 600

HEROBY MIKE LUPICA

Fourteen-year-old Zach learns he has the same special abilities as his father, who was the president's globe-trotting troubleshooter until "the Bads" killed him. Now Zach must decide whether to use his powers in the same way at the risk of his own life.

Lexile 730

IS IT NIGHT OR DAY?BY FERN SCHUMER CHAPMAN

Twelve-year-old Edith is sent from her home in Germany in 1938 to live with her aunt and uncle in Chicago, Illinois, and escape Nazi persecution, but as she struggles to assimilate into American society, Edith worries about her parents and mourns the loss of everything she has known. Includes information on an American rescue operation that saved twelve hundred Jewish children between 1934 and 1945.

Lexile 810

A LONG WALK TO WATER: A NOVEL BASED ON A TRUE STORYBY LINDA SUE PARKS

When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.

Lexile 720

MAMBA POINTBY KURTIS SCALETTA

After moving with his family to Liberia, twelve-year-old Linus discovers that he has a mystical connection with the black mamba, one of the deadliest snakes in Africa, which he is told will give him some of the snake's characteristics.

Lexile

MOCKINGBIRDBY KATHRYN ERSKINE

Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a project with her father.

Lexile 630

NINTH WARDBY JEWELL PARKER RHODES

In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.

Lexile 470

ROOTS AND BLUES: A CELEBRATIONBY ARNOLD ADOFF

Lyrical text explores how Blues have been part of everyday life throughout history, from its origins in the sounds of the earth, through slaves' voices singing of freedom, to today's greatest performers--and listeners.

Lexile

SAVING SKYBY DIANE STANLEY

Sky Brightman is living happily off the grid on sixty acres in New Mexico, with no television or Internet to bring her news of the war going on in the United States, until she is forced to face reality when her friend Kareem is unjustly arrested.

Lexile 620

SHOOTING KABULBY N.H. SENZEL

Escaping from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the summer of 2001, eleven-year-old Fadi and his family immigrate to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Fadi schemes to return to the Pakistani refugee camp where his little sister was accidentally left behind.

Lexile 800

SOURCES OF LIGHTBY MARGARET MCMULLAN

It's 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. Samantha is dealing with her soldier father's death, while her mother gets involved in the civil rights movement. This rich tapestry is the backdrop to an eventful year in Sam's life, a year in which she faces death and hate and love. (Hornbook)

Lexile 840

THE STRANGE CASE OF ORIGAMI YODABY TOM ANGLEBERGER

Sixth-grader Tommy and his friends describe their interactions with a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn by their weird classmate Dwight, as they try to figure out whether or not the puppet can really predict the future. Includes instructions for making Origami Yoda.

Lexile 760

THE TOTAL TRAGEDY OF A GIRL NAMED HAMLETBY ERIN DIONNE

Hamlet's attempts to be a "normal" eighth grader become increasingly difficult when her genius seven-year-old sister and her eccentric Shakespeare scholar parents both begin to attend her school.

Lexile 750

WARRIORS IN THE CROSSFIREBY BO FLOOD

Joseph, living on the island of Saipan during World War II, learns what it means to be a warrior as he and his family struggle to survive in the face of impending invasion.

Lexile 560

WOODS RUNNERBY GARY PAULSEN

From his 1776 Pennsylvania homestead, thirteen-year-old Samuel, who is a highly-skilled woodsman, sets out toward New York City to rescue his parents from the band of British soldiers and Native Americans who kidnapped them after slaughtering most of their community.

Lexile 870

CREDITS

PowerPoint produced by Michele Bates

Summaries from Follett-Titlewave and Hornbook (where noted)