Posted on: Sunday, July 3, 2005
Seven among Nene Award nominees
By Jolie Jean Cotton
This summer Hawai'i's elementary and middle-school students can get a jump-start on reading to help select the next Nene Award winner. The 2006 Nene Recommended Book List is available at state libraries.
My favorite nominees for Hawai'i's next Nene Award are:
"AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS" by Gennifer Choldenko
It is 1935 when Moose Flanagan's family moves to the Bay area so that his autistic sister can attend a special school in San Francisco. Moose's dad takes a job as a prison guard on Alacrataz Island and Moose finds warden's irresistible daughter to be big trouble. A Newbery Honor book.
"KIRA-KIRA" by Cynthia Kadohata
This book, the name of which means "glittering" in Japanese, won the 2005 Newbery Medal. When the Takeshima family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to southern Georgia in 1956, young Katie and her older sister Lynn must contend with a new baby brother, their parents' long work hours, racial discrimination and near poverty. Yet nothing seems too difficult for Lynn, and Katie struggles to live up to her sister's example. When Lynn becomes gravely ill, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind the family that there is always something glittering, or kira-kira, in the future.
"CHASING VERMEER" by Blue Balliett
Eleven-year-old classmates Petra and Calder attempt to unravel an international art scandal when a Vermeer painting disappears en route to Chicago, their hometown. Newsweek calls this book "A 'Da Vinci Code' for tweens." Winner of the 2005 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery.
"PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS" by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
A prequel to Peter Pan, an orphan boy and his mysterious new friend, Molly, fend off pirates and thieves on a quest to keep a secret safe and save the world from evil. And, yes, the authors are THE Dave Barry, humor writer, and THE Ridley Pearson, award-winning author of mystery and suspense best-sellers.
"SHREDDERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY" by Wendelin Van Draanen
Bully Bubba Bixby has been nerdy Nolan Byrd's worst nightmare for five years. Inspired by a class assignment, Nolan creates a secret identity for himself on the Internet and launches shredderman.com, "where truth and justice prevail!" to chronicle Bubba's misdeeds. "SO B. IT" by Sarah Weeks
Thirteen-year-old Heidi leads an unusual life with her mentally disabled mother, So B. It, and their agoraphobic neighbor, Bernadette, who takes care of them. Because her mother's vocabulary consists of only 23 words, Heidi's past has always been a mystery. When a strange word in So B. It's vocabulary begins to haunt her, Heidi sets out alone on a cross-country journey to learn the secrets of her past.
"THE STAR OF KAZAN" by Eva Ibbotson
Growing up in early-20th-century Vienna, Annika is happy baking and cleaning along with servants Ellie and Sigrid, who found and adopted her as a baby. One day a stranger arrives claiming to be the girl's mother. Annika is no servant, she learns, but an aristocrat whose true home is an ancient castle in Germany.
All 30 titles on the 2006 Nene Recommended Book List can also be found at www.librarieshawaii.org/information/nene.htm.
Each year, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students in public and private schools, and in public libraries, read and vote for their favorite work of fiction. Official voting takes place in February and March, with the winner announced in May. The author of the winning book is presented with the Nene Award.
