2008-2009 GSF BOOKS NH Students Vote in the Spring! The Great Stone Face Book Award is sponsored by the Children's Librarians of New Hampshire (CHILIS)and is given each year to an author whose book receives the most votes from fourth through sixth graders throughout the state. Each year a committee chooses 25 recently published titles, which children then use as a guide for voting. The vote takes place every April during National Library Week, and the winner is announced in May. The purpose of the award is to promote reading enjoyment, to increase awareness of contemporary writing, and to allow children to honor their favorite author. All information came from the Dover Public Library website. Check out the illustrated covers of all the books, with annotations on this site Link to Annotated 2008-2009 GSF List

2008-2009 DCF BOOKS VT Students Vote in the Spring! The Dorothy Canfield Children's Book Award was first given in 1957. It is co-sponsored by the Vermont State PTA and the Vermont Department of Libraries. These books, to be read during the school year, comprise the master list for the award. Students vote each spring for their favorite book. All information below came from the DCF website. Link to Collage of DCF Book Covers & Check List Applegate, Katherine.  Home of the Brave. Kek, an African refugee, is confronted by many strange things at the Minneapolis home of his aunt and cousin, as well as in his fifth grade classroom, and longs for his missing mother, but finds comfort in the company of a cow and her owner.   Avi. The Traitorsí Gate. When his father is arrested as a debtor in 1849 London, fourteen-year-old John Huffman must take on unexpected responsibilities, from asking a distant relative for help to determining why people are spying on him and his family.   Babbitt, Natalie. Jack Plank Tells Tales. Pirate Jack Plank is unable to get a job and he spends his evenings telling stories to the other boarders at Mrs. DeFresno boarding house.   Barakat, Ibtisam. Tasting the Sky. A memoir of a Palestinian woman's childhood experiences during the Six-Day War and its aftermath.   Burns, Loree Griffin. Tracking Trash. Describes the work of a man who tracks trash as it travels great distances by way of ocean currents.   Clements, Andrew. No Talking. The noisy fifth-grade boys of Laketon Elementary School challenge the equally loud fifth-grade girls to a ìno talkingî contest. ** ALSO ON GSF LIST   Curtis, Christopher Paul. Elijah of Buxton. In 1860, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a familyís freedom.   Freedman, Russell. Who Was First? Examines the debate over who really discovered America, looking at Columbus, the Vikings, the Chinese and the native peoples who came many thousands of years earlier.   Grandits, John. Blue Lipstick. A teenaged girl named Jessie voices typical and not so typical teenage concerns in this unique, hilarious collection of concrete poems.   Haas, Jessie. Chase. In the coal mining region of mid-nineteenth-century eastern Pennsylvania, Phin witnesses a murder and runs for his life, pursued by a mysterious man and a horse with the instincts of a bloodhound.   Hale, Shannon. Book of a Thousand Days. Fifteen-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her sixteen-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren, shares Sarenís years of punishment locked in a tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her true love, where both Dashti and Saren must hide their identities as they work as kitchen maids.   Hill, Kirkpatrick. Do Not Pass Go. When Deetís father is jailed for using drugs, Deet learns that prison is not what he expected, nor are other people necessarily the way he thought they were.   Holm, Jennifer. Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf. Ginnyís first year of middle school is told through ìstuffî: IMs, notes, appointment cards, cartoons and report cards.   Hulme, John & Michael Wexler. The Seems: the Glitch in Sleep. When twelve-year-old Becker Drane is recruited by The Seems, a parallel universe that runs everything in The World, he must fix a disastrous glitch in the Department of Sleep that threatens the ability of everyone to ever fall asleep again.   Jonell, Lynne. Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat. When Emmy discovers that she and her formerly loving parents are being drugged by their evil nanny, who has access to rodent potions that can change people in frightening ways, she and some new friends must try everything possible to return things to normal.** ALSO ON GSF LIST   Kadohata, Cynthia. Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam. A young soldier in Vietnam bonds with his German Shepherd whom he trains to sniff out booby traps.   Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Greg records his experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.** ALSO ON GSF LIST   Home schooled by his hippie grandmother, Capricorn (Cap) Anderson has never watched television, tasted a pizza, or even heard of a wedgie. But when his grandmother lands in the hospital, Cap is forced to move in with a social worker and attend the local middle school. While Cap knows a lot about tie-dyeing and Zen Buddhism, no education could prepare him for the politics of public school.** ALSO ON GSF LIST   Rex, Adam. The True Meaning of Smekday. When her mother is abducted by aliens on Christmas Eve (or "Smekday" Eve since the Boov invasion), 11 year-old Tip hops in the family car and heads south to find her and meets an alien Boov mechanic who agrees to help her and save the planet from disaster.   Rumford, James. Beowulf. An illustrated retelling of the exploits of the Anglo-Saxon warrior, Beowulf, and how he came to defeat the monster Grendel, Grendelís mother, and a dragon that threatened the kingdom.   Schlitz, Laura Amy. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! A collection of short one-person plays featuring characters between ten and fifteen years old who live in or near a thirteenth-century English manor.   Schmidt, Gary. The Wednesday Wars. During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Bakerís classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.   Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.   Smith, Roland. Elephant Run. Nick endures servitude, beatings, and more after his British fatherís plantation in Burma is invaded by the Japanese in 1941, and when his father and others are taken prisoner and Nick is stranded with his friend Mya, they plan a daring escape on elephants, risking their lives to save Nickís father and Myaís brother from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.   Sturm, James & Rich Tommaso. Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow. A graphic novel telling of how Satchel Paige, one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived, inspired other African Americans to believe they could make a difference.   Thomson, Sarah L. Dragonís Egg. Mella, a young girl trained as a dragon keeper, learns that the legends of old are true when she is entrusted with carrying a dragonís egg to the fabled Hatching Grounds, a dangerous journey on which she is assisted by a knightís squire.   Urban, Linda. A Crooked Kind of Perfect. Ten-year-old Zoe Elias, who longs to play the piano but must resign herself to learning the organ, instead, finds that her musicianship has a positive impact on her workaholic mother, her jittery father, and her school social life.   Varon, Sara. Robot Dreams. A dog and a robot search for friendship in this wordless graphic novel.   Wells, Rosemary. Red Moon at Sharpsburg. As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didnít know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known.   White, Ruth. Way Down Deep. In the West Virginia town of Way Down Deep in the 1950s, a foundling called Ruby June is happily living with Miss Arbutus at the local boarding house when suddenly, after the arrival of a family of outsiders, the mystery of Rubyís past begins to unravel.