Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice – Part Deaux – 6th-8th Grade

The LYRCA sponsored by the Louisiana State Library Center for the Book gives awards in two age categories. Yesterday I highlighted the 3rd through 5th grade ballot. Today it’s the 6th through 8th grade turn. My two favorite so far are Schooled and Peak – but I haven’t read the entire list yet. I’m anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winner this weekend at the Louisiana Library Association State Conference.

Here they are:

Chaos Code by Richards, Justin.  388 pages.  Bloomsbury Publishing 2007. Join Matt on an action packed modern-day treasure hunt that takes him across the globe in search of a code fabled to have brought down Atlantis.

Cracker:  The Best Dog in Vietnam by Kadohata, Cynthia. 312 pages. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing 2007. Cracker is a female German shepherd who is trained to sniff out booby traps and other dangers to the US troops in the Vietnam War.  The story is told in alternating viewpoints between Cracker and her handler.

Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Hahn, Mary Downing.  187 pages.  Houghton Mifflin Company 2007. In this chilling ghost story Ali goes to spend the summer with her aunt and learns about a girl who disappeared and was presumed dead thirty years earlier.

Diamonds in the Shadow by Cooney, Caroline.  228 pages.  Random House,  2007.  Jared’s family takes in a refugee family fleeing a   war in Africa.  Unfortunately, there was one more person that made it to America from Africa.  He is looking for something the refugees have and will stop at nothing to get it.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A Novel in Cartoons by Kinney, Jeff.  217 pages.  Harry N. Abrams , Incorporated 2007. Through both text and pictures, Greg chronicles his hilarious first year of middle school.  Greg would like to be cool, popular and impress girls but nothing ever seems to work out the way he wants. (This is book 1 in the series, red cover)

Dragon Slippers by George, Jessica Day.  324 pages.  Bloomsbury Publishing 2007.  All Creel wants to do is move to the big city and become a seamstress.  Her fortunes change when she meets her first dragon and is given a magical pair of blue slippers.

Elijah of Buxton by Curtis, Christopher Paul.  395 pages. Scholastic Incorporated 2007.   Eleven-year-old Elijah was born into freedom in Canada but witnesses the cruelties of slavery when he takes a perilous mission into the United States.

Fire From the Rock by Draper, Sharon.  240 pages.  Penguin Group 2007. Sylvia is chosen to be one of the first black students to integrate Little Rock’s all white Central High School, chronicling first hand one of the most volatile moments of the civil rights movement’s history.

Football Genius by Green, Tim.  256 pages.  HarperCollins Publishers 2007.  Troy has the amazing ability to predict football plays before they happen.  If he can get anyone to listen to him perhaps he can help his favorite NRL team pull themselves out of their loosing streak.

Gabriel’s Horses by Hart, Alison.  224 pages.  Peachtree Publishers 2007. Gabriel, a slave on a Kentucky plantation that breeds and trains thoroughbreds, is determined to do whatever it takes to protect his beloved horses while the Civil War raging around him. 

Kimchi and Calamari by Kent, Rose.  220 pages. HarperCollins Publishers 2007.  Joseph is bewildered when he is given a family ancestry assignment.  Ethnically Joseph is Korean but he has been raised Italian by his adoptive Italian family.  This is the beginning of a quest in which ultimately Joseph comes to reconcile and accept his various ancestries and establish his own identity.

Night of the Howling Dogs by Salisbury, Graham.  191 pages.  Random House Children’s Books 2007.  Taken off guard while camping on a remote beach in Hawaii, Dylan’s Boy Scout troop struggles to survive after they are separated by a tsunami.  This account is based on a true story.

Peak by Smith, Roland.  246 pages.  Harcourt Children’s Books 2007.  Peak Marcello loves to climb, it’s in his blood, but unfortunately he lives in Manhattan.  When Peak is sent to live with his father, who runs a climbing business in Asia, he takes on the challenge to become the youngest person to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Schooled by Korman, Gordon.  208 pages.  Hyperion Press 2007.  Capricorn has lived a completely isolated and sheltered life on a commune with his grandmother Rain.  When Rain ends up in the hospital a local social worker takes Capricorn in and sends him to Middle School.

So Totally Emily Ebers by Yee, Lisa.  280 pages. Scholastic 2007.  Following her parent’s divorce, Emily moves to California with her mom and befriends Millicent Min and Stanford Wong over the summer.

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