Highly Recommended

1. Highly Recommended Mrs. Lopez, Media Specialist Highland Park Middle/High School

2. Fiction Awards • The Newbery Medal • The Pura Belpre award • The Coretta Scott King award • The Michael Printz award

3. The Newbery Medal • Given out by the American Library Association • Juvenile or YA book • Runners up - Honor winners Criteria • Must be in English and published in the U.S. • Must make a “distinguished contribution” to literature for children. • Can be fiction, non-fiction or poetry. • Does not include picture books.

4. Other Prestigious Awards • Coretta Scott King Award • African-American author or illustrator • contribution to children’s literature about African-Americans. • Pura Belpre Award • Latino/a author and illustrator • contributes an outstanding work which has a positive portrayal of Latino cultural experience • Michael Printz Award • Similar to the Newbery award, given only for YA literature

5. Skelligby David Almond • Michael wants his life back the way he dreamed it would be, not clouded now that his new sister is so ill and his parents are so preoccupied. • Mia is the only bright spot is Mina. A girl with strong opinions and many things to teach Michael,. • One day while investigating the garage, he realizes that something or someone is hiding in the far dark corner. He begins a relationship that defies description. • What is Skellig, this creature that Michael and Mina care for? Man? Bird? Angel? What will he mean for their future? • This story guarantees to engage and mystify through to the very last page.

6. Fever 1793by Laurie Halse Anderson • For fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook, the epidemic begins with the news of the sudden and unexpected death of her childhood friend Polly. It is summer 1793, and yellow fever is sweeping through Philadelphia; the death toll will reach five thousand (ten percent of the city's population) before the frost. Mattie, her mother, and grandfather run a coffeehouse on High Street, and when others flee the city, they choose to stay-until Mattie's mother is stricken…. • Discover how Mattie survives this tragic chapter in American history.

7. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyleby Avi • Before I begin relating what happened, you must know that although my name is Charlotte Doyle, I am not the same Charlotte Doyle I once was. • Although I was warned not to board the brig Seahawk on June 16, 1832, no young girl of good upbringing would dare dream of disobeying her father's orders, and so I boarded the ship. I soon found myself caught between the madness of the ship’s master and the rage of a mutinous crew. • Keeping this journal is what enables me to relate now in perfect detail everything that transpired during that fateful voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 1832 and how I came to be accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty.

8. Tangerineby Edward Bloor • Legally blind, Paul Fisher has lived most of his life in the shadow of his football star brother. • Things change when they move to Tangerine County, where bizarre natural disasters are everyday occurrences, and Paul wins an unlikely new crew of friends on the soccer field. • In a climactic ending, Paul finally confronts his parents with the truth about the brother he fears, and readers will cheer for this bright, funny, decent kid.

9. The Pinballsby Betsy Byars One of the greatest opening scenes ever… ``One summer two boys and a girl went to a foster home to live together'‘…chronicles their trials and tribulations in witty and poignant fashion.

10. The Watsons go to Birmingham – 1963by Christopher Paul Curtis • The Watsons are not an ordinary family in Flint, MI.  (The oldest son, Byron, is so in love with himself that he kisses his reflection in the car mirror and gets his lips stuck! ) • When gang influences threaten to change Byron, the Watsons drive 1,000 miles to Birmingham to take him to Grandma Sands, so she can straighten him out.  • The Watson family’s antics will make you laugh like crazy, but what happens when they get to Birmingham is no laughing matter.

11. The Tale of Despereauxby Kate DiCamillo • A Victorian novel starring…a mouse! • Despereaux Tilling is not like the other mice in the castle. He's smaller than average, likes to read books, and is in love with a human being: Princess Pea. When a rat and a young servant kidnap the princess, Despereaux, armed with a needle and a spool of thread, makes a daring rescue.

12. The Conch Bearerby Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni • The kindness of an underappreciated tea-stall owner’s servant shifts this novel from reality to fantasy. • The old man’s miraculous conch that will restore power to the forces of good. • 12 year old Anand finds himself on a mission to return a sacred conch shell to a Himalayan community of Magic Healers.

13. Olive’s Oceanby Kevin Henkes “She is the nicest person in my whole entire class.”  That's what Olive wrote about me in her journal. Her mother gave me that page, then thanked me and walked away. I knew who Olive was, but I didn't really know her.  Now I’ll never get to know her because she’s dead. While I spend my summer at my grandmother’s house on the ocean, I wonder about her. Why would she write about me?  What would she think about if she were here? Would she worry about the same things I do? I wonder. Find out what happens to Olive…and How Martha copes with the loss.

14. Everything on a Waffleby Polly Horvath • Hilarious tale of two amputations, a fire, a recipe for the dubious-sounding "Cherry Pie Pork Chops. • 11-year-old Primrose Squarp is an orphan who shifted from one neglectful caregiver to another, suffers two serious accidents, and is eventually placed in foster care. • Aided by her big-talking dreamer uncle and the friendship of restaurateur Miss Bowzer, Primrose retains an unshakable belief that her parents are castaways and will return.

15. Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard • Based on a true story set during Reconstruction. • The youngest and the only girl in a family with five boys, Virgie works hard to convince everyone she is old enough, strong enough, and smart enough to attend the school set up by the Quakers for recently freed blacks in Jonesborough, TN. • Virgie is a radiant heroine.

16. The Unbreakable Code by Sara Hoagland Hunter • John, a young Navajo, is frightened to leave his lifelong home on the reservation and move to Minnesota with his mother and new stepfather. • Because John is afraid to leave the Navajo Reservation, his grandfather explains to him how the Navajo language, faith, and ingenuity helped win World War II. .

17. Buddha Boy by Kathe Koja • The new student at Rucher High begs for spare change in the cafeteria. • Most of the kids call him Buddha Boy, but he asks to be called by his spiritual name, Jinsen. • When narrator Justin is assigned to work on a school project with his new classmate, he discovers that Jinsen is a gifted artist. • Justin learns that there is more to Jinsen than what is viewed on the surface, and finds himself defending Jinsen from bullying by "the jocks."

18. Number the Starsby Lois Lowry Annemarie and Ellen are friends growing up in Copenhagen during World War II. On the eve of Jewish New Year, most of the Jewish people, including Ellen's parents, flee the city. Ellen hides with Annemarie's family in the city and later goes with them to Uncle Henrik's farm near the sea. Here they become part of an elaborate plan to smuggle the Jews to Sweden, where they will be safe. Annemarie's mother and uncle bravely escort several people to Henrik's boat, where they are hidden below, but Annemarie has an important part to play in the rescue, as well. It is only after the war is over and many lives have been saved that the secrets can be told.

19. Island of the Blue Dolphinsby Scott O’Dell • Karana is the last surviving member of her community, left behind when the group sailed to the east. • All alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.

20. Cuba 15by Norma Fox Mazer • Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday. • Half Cuban American, half Polish American, she feels as though she has a lot of "half talents" but nothing she's really good at. • As the party nears, Violet comes to know more about who she is and more about her Cuban background and her “loco family”.

21. Esperanza Risingby Pam Munoz Ryan "Do not ever be afraid to start over.” This is the advice given to 12-year-old Esperanza by her Abuelita.  Esperanza does not know it, but she will have to follow that advice more than once in the months to come. She is the daughter of a wealthy vineyard owner in Mexico, but everything changes when a tragic accident forces her family to flee to California, where there is discrimination against Mexican immigrants.  Esperanza has to learn to do basic jobs, such as sweeping, that she has never had to do before. The work is hard; the food is simple, and Esperanza must struggle like everyone else. However, like her name implies, perhaps the power of hope for the future can give Esperanza the strength to survive.

22. Missing Mayby Cynthia Rylant • Six-year-old Summer loses her mother. • This orphaned is passed around among her relatives. • No one wants her. • Then Summer meets her Aunt May and Uncle Ob.  May and Ob fall in love with Summer the minute they meet her and give her a real home for the next 6 years.  • When her beloved Aunt May dies, Ob doesn’t seem to want to go on living without her. • Summer must act like the parent and push through her own grief to save her family.

23. Shabanu: Daughter of the Windby Suzanne Fisher Staples I am Shabanu, daughter of the wind. Mama says I have the name of a princess, but my family is nomadic. We roam the Pakistan desert with out camels and other animals. My older sister, Phulan, is 13 and engaged to be married. Next year I will be married to Murad. Mama says both marriages are a good match because both of the men own land. Sometimes Phulan and I are afraid of the future. We have always known our fate, but sometimes we long for the right to choose our destiny. What will become of us?

24. Armageddon Summerby Jane Yolen & Bruce Coville • Fourteen-year-old Marina and sixteen-year-old Jed accompany their parents' religious cult, the Believers, to await the end of the world atop a remote mountain, where they try to decide what they themselves believe. • Alternating chapters from Marina's and Jed's points of view, they are the rock of sanity amid the intriguing, then tragic, chaos.

25. If you don’t see one of these? • Look for a “good” title. • Look for interesting covers and spine stickers. • Look for another title by the same author. • Read the first sentence, paragraph or page. • Check the blurb. • Review the OPAC (Here or at HPPL) • Or…ask your Media Specialist.