Massachusetts Children's Book Award Nominees for 2005-2006

Here are summaries of the 25 titles nominated for this year's award, along with links to author sites, when available.

The Secret School, by Avi
In 1925, fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson secretly takes over as the teacher when the one-room schoolhouse in her remote Colorado area closes unexpectedly.
AVI web site:
http://www.avi-writer.com/

Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett
When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.
Interview with author BLUE BALLIETT:
http://www.bookpage.com/0406bp/blue_balliett.html

Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism, by Georgia Byng
Unlucky and unloved, Molly Moon, living in a dreary orphanage in a small English town, discovers a hidden talent for hypnotism and hypnotizes her way to stardom in New York City.
GEORGIA BYNG web site:
http://www.harperchildrens.com/authorintro/index.asp?authorid=24912
Meet MOLLY MOON web site:
http://www.meetmollymoon.com/

Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving men, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.
Biography of SUZANNE COLLLINS:
http://www2.scholastic.com/teachers/authorsandbooks/authorstudies/authorhome.jhtml?authorID=6004&collateralID=12653&displayName=Biography

Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, by Sharon Creech
With the help of her wise old grandmother, twelve-year-old Rosie manages to work out some problems in her relationship with her best friend, Bailey, the boy next door.
SHARON CREECH web site:
http://www.sharoncreech.com/index.html

United Tates of America, by Paula Danziger
Eleven-year-old aspiring artist Skate experiences many changes in her life when she enters middle school. She finds her best friend drifing away from her, and she loses her beloved great uncle.
ABOUT PAULA DANZIGER:
http://www.scholastic.com/titles/paula/index.htm
AUTHOR PROFILE: PAULA DANZIGER:
http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-danziger-paula.asp

Once Upon a Marigold, by Jean Ferris
A young man with a mysterious past and a penchant for inventing things leaves the troll who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and discovers a plot against her and her father.
JEAN FERRIS web site:
http://www.jeanferris.com/bio.htm

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.
NEIL GAIMAN web site:
http://www.neilgaiman.com/
REVIEW of CORALINE:
http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/0380977788.asp

All the Way Home, by Patricia Reilly Giff
In 1941, circumstances bring together Brick, a boy from New York's apple country, and Mariel, a young girl made shy by her bout with polio, and the two make a journey from Brooklyn back to help Brick's elderly neighbors save their apple crop and to help Mariel learn about her past.
PATRICIA REILLY GIFF web site:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/patriciareillygiff/

Working Like a Dog: the Story of Working Dogs Through History, by Gena K. Gorrell
ABOUT THE BOOK:
http://www.tundrabooks.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780887765896#bio

Because of Anya, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
While ten-year-old Anya faces the difficulties of losing her hair to alopecia, her classmate Keely learns how to stand up for what she knows is right.

Hana's Suitcase: a True Story, by Karen Levine
A biography of a Czech girl who died in the Holocaust, told in alternating chapters with an account of how the curator of a Japanese Holocaust center learned about her life after Hana's suitcase was sent to her.

Travel Team, by Mike Lupica
After he is cut from his travel basketball team--the very same team that his father once led to national prominence--twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory.
REVIEW of TRAVEL TEAM:
http://aol.teenreads.com/reviews/0399241507.asp

Belle Teal, by Ann M. Martin
Belle Teal Harper is from a poor family in the country, and beginning fifth-grade is a challenge as her grandmother's memory is slipping away, her brother and father are fighting again, and she becomes involved with the two new children in her class.
About ANN M. MARTIN:
http://www.scholastic.com/annmartin/bio.htm

Half and Half, by Lensey Namioka
At Seattle's annual Folk Fest, twelve-year-old Fiona and her older brother are torn between trying to please their Chinese grandmother and making their Scottish grandparents happy.
LENSEY NAMIOKA web site:
http://www.lensey.com/home.html

Ruby Electric, Theresa Nelson
Twelve-year-old Ruby Miller, movie buff and aspiring screen writer, tries to resolve the mysteries surrounding her little brother's stuffed woolly mammoth and their father's five year absence.
THERESA NELSON web site:
http://www.theresanelson.net/

Storm-Blast, by Curtis Parkinson
A day of snorkeling turns to horror as a sudden storm strands three teenagers in the Caribbean.

Trouble Don't Last, by Shelley Pearsall
Samuel, an eleven-year-old Kentucky slave, and Harrison, the elderly slave who helped raise him, attempt to escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Eleven-year-old Samuel was born as Master Hackler's slave, and working the Kentucky farm is the only life he's ever known, until one dark night in 1859, that is. With no warning, cranky old Harrison, a fellow slave, pulls Samuel from his bed and, together, they run. The journey north seems much more frightening than Master Hackler ever was, and Samuel's not sure what freedom means aside from running, hiding, and starving. But as they move from one refuge to the next on the Underground Railroad, Samuel uncovers the secret of his own past, and future. And old Harrison begins to see past a whole lifetime of hurt to the promise of a new life7and a poignant reunion, in Canada. In a heartbreaking and hopeful first novel, Shelley Pearsall tells a suspenseful, emotionally charged story of freedom and family. Trouble Don't Last includes a historical note and map.
SHELLEY PEARSALL web site:
http://www.shelleypearsall.com/

Stuart's Cape, by Sara Pennypacker
Bored because there is nothing to do in the house to which his family has just moved and worried about starting third grade in a new school, Stuart makes a magical cape out of his uncle's ties and has a series of adventures.

I, Freddy: Book One in the Golden Hamster Saga, by by Dietlof Reiche ; translated by John Brownjohn ; illustrated by Joe Cepeda
Freddy is dissatisfied with his monotonous treadmill life at the pet store. He endures countless indignities in order to get himself adopted so he can lead a more civilized life--a life befitting a golden hamster. After encountering a tomcat and two guinea pigs who speak in Shakespearean couplets, Freddy teaches himself to read and write on a computer. He then pens an autobiography about his journey out of captivity and towards self-improvement.

The Boy Who Saved Baseball, by John H. Ritter
The fate of a small California town rests on the outcome of one baseball game, and Tom Gallagher hopes to lead his team to victory with the secrets of the now disgraced player, Dante Del Gato.
JOHN H. RITTER web site:
http://www.johnhritter.com/

The Freedom Trail Mystery, by Nancy Speck
While at summer field hockey camp in Boston, Maine natives Serena Marlowe and Carly Heiser stumble upon an unusual thief who is stealing historical artifacts from Boston's Revolutionary War days. Their pointed guidebook and a map of Boston are included.

Loser, by Jerry Spinelli
Even though his classmates from first grade on have considered him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff's optimism and exuberance and the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.
About JERRY SPINELLI
http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-spinelli-jerry.asp

Niagara Falls, or Does It?, by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver
Fourth-graders Hank, Ashley, and Frankie are excitedly preparing for a magic show at the Rock 'N Bowl when Hank's creative alternative to an English essay lands him in detention and grounded the week of the show.

Locomotion, by Jacqueline Woodson
In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his life, after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.
JACQUELINE WOODSON web site:
http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/