Category: Award Winners

cover of Alone
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Alone

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Alone (Aladdin, 2021) by Megan E. Freeman is a fascinating near future novel-in-verse that shouldn’t be missed.

Twelve-year-old Maddie wakes up in her small Colorado town and finds herself completely alone. No family. No friends. No neighbors. Not even strangers. Maddie discovers a rottweiler named George, and must keep them both alive without electricity, running water, or anyone to help.

This was a hard to put down story. I love that we along with Maddie don’t know what happened.

And it has won many awards:
Alone is a “New York Times bestseller, winner of the Colorado Book Award, the High Plains Book Award, the California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Japan, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Vermont Children’s Book Awards, an NCTE Notable Verse Novel, and named on dozens of ‘best of’ book lists.” Wow!

Just this month, a companion book set in the same story universe, has come out. It’s called Away. I’m really looking forward to it.

Read about Megan here.

cover of Light-and-Air
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Light and Air

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Light and Air (Holiday House, 2024) by Mindy Nichols Wendell is fascinating historical novel from 1935 about a disease we don’t worry about much–tuberculosis.

First, Halle’s mother comes down with TB and even though Halle doesn’t have it, classmates are shunning her. When she gets it too, she joins her mother at J. N. Adam Tuberculosis Hospital in upstate New York–although they are in separate buildings and can’t see each other. There Halle makes friends and risks sneaking out to see her mother. But when her mother has a lung hemorrhage, could it be Halle’s fault?

This book is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and is the author’s debut novel.

Read about Mindy here. And here’s a link to the inspiration for the book.

cover of Hot Dog
Posted in Award Winners, PB, Read-aloud, So Many Good Books

Hot Dog

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Perfect Picture Book Friday

Hot Dog (Alfred A. Knopf, 2022) by Doug Salati is such a delight. Simple words evoke the feeling of summer in a city, which are emphasized by the hectic illustrations.

A small dachshund is dragging behind his owner in the hot city. It’s so hot, he “can’t sit or sniff or wait.” In the middle of a crosswalk, he finally rebels against his owner pulling on his leash. What will happen next? Will they escape the heat?

This day in the life of a little dog is so fun and relatable. We’ve all had too much and needed to escape.

This adorable book received a Caldecott medal and an Ezra Jack Keats award.

Read about the author/illustrator here and check out some of his illustrations here. See Doug’s books here.

cover of Amari and the Night Brothers
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Amari and the Night Brothers

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations, #1) (Balzer & Bray, 2021) by B. B. Alston is like a cross between Men in Black and Harry Potter at summer camp.

13-year-old Amari Peters struggles with anger against those who think she doesn’t fit in since she’s a scholarship student and black. It’s worse since her older brother Quinton has been missing. Many believe he is dead, but Amari knows he’s alive. A chance to tryout for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs this summer may help her find out where Quinton is. But again in a world of magic, there are those who don’t think she belongs. Amari must stand up for herself and learn all she can about this new world to have any chance of finding her brother.

This was B.B.’s debut novel. The books have been published in over 30 countries and a movie is in the works! Wow! Here’s the Spanish version, Amari y Los Hermanos de la Noche. The third book in this trilogy is expected out this summer.

Awards:

  • ALSC Notable Children’s Books, 1995-2024. Commended, 2022. (Association of Library Services for Children)
  • Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Award, 1997-2023. Selection, 2022. (Children’s Literary Assembly)
  • Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 1997-2024. Commended, 2022. (YALSA)
  • Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2011-2024. Selection, 2022. (YALSA)
  • SLJ Best Books of the Year, 2010 – 2023. Selection, 2021. (School Library Journal)

Read about this NY Times bestselling author here.

cover of Can Make This Promise
Posted in Award Winners, MG Novels, So Many Good Books

I Can Make this Promise

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

To start out the year I have the wonderful I Can Make this Promise (Heartdrum, 2019) by Christine Day. I was hooked right from the beginning. Plus I learned some horrible practices that happened in the past.

12-year-old Edie always gets questions such as “What are you? Where are you from?” She has no good answer. She knows her mother is Native American but due to an adoption by a white family doesn’t know from where or what tribe. And her father’s white American. One day Edie and her friends find a box hidden in the attic that has an old photo of a woman who looks just like Edie. There are letters too. Why have her parents been keeping her ancestry a secret?

This book is an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book and has been chosen for a number of lists. It was also the author’s debut novel.

Read about Christine here and check out her other books here.