2020 Tween Nominees
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Bookmarks
Everland by Wendy Spinale (2016)
IL: YA Lexile: 730
Subjects: steampunk, family, diseases, adventure, survival
A steampunk version of Peter Pan where London has been destroyed in a blitz of bombs and disease. Unsure if the virus has spread outside of England, but desperate to leave, Captain Hook is on the hunt for a cure, which he thinks can be found in one of the surviving children. He and his Marauders stalk the streets grabbing up children for experimentation. None ever return. Until the day they grab Joanna. Gwen will stop at nothing to get her sister back – even accepting the assistance of Peter and his gang of Lost Boys and the sharpshooter Bella. But help always has a steep price to pay and every promise is bound by blood. Will this promise cost Gwen more than she bargained for.
“Gwen: Outside my window, plumes of gray smoke and steam rise from the decimated city into the polluted midnight sky. There they linger like ghosts of those who once walked the streets of London before the arrival of the Marauders.”
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2018)
IL: 5-8 RL: 5.9 Lexile: HL360L
Subjects: culture, police killings, ghosts
Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes the toy gun he borrowed from his friend as the real thing. As a ghost observing the after effects, he is helped by the ghost of Emmett Till to understand what happened to him and the devastation unleased on his family and on the community. It is a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life. On this journey, he meets Sarah, the daughter of the police officer, who is grappling with her own emotions over her father’s actions. All are striving towards understanding and acceptance.
“How small I look. Laid out flat, my stomach touching ground. My right knee bent and my brand-new Nikes stained with blood. I stoop and stare at my face, my right cheek flattened on concrete. My eyes are wide open. My mouth, too.”
Gutless by Carl Deuker (2016)
IL: YA Lexile: HL730L
Subjects: sports, football
“Standing up to a bully requires courage. Taking on the Hunters of the world is a revolutionary act – it is turning the established order upside down.” (Carl Deuker) Wide receiver Brock Ripley should be a natural for the varsity football team; he has the speed and the hands. He has made friends with Hunter Gates, the star quarterback and the two share a connection setting up a successful partnership and complicated relationship. But Brock also has an aversion to any physical contact. He freezes at the worst time and is called “gutless” by others. Brock is cut from varsity and loses Hunter’s friendship. But when Hunter begins lashing out at Brock’s friend Richie Fang, Brock wants to stand up for Richie, but doesn’t know if he can face his fears and prove to himself that he is brave enough.
“I don’t know what it is, but I do know that Hunter Gates had it.”
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling (2017)
IL: 5-8 RS: 5.6 Lexile: 700L
Subjects: mystery, disabilities, friendship
Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms wrestling alligators or in a fire in Tanzania, but truth is, she was born without them. But a move to Arizona when her adoptive parents get a job managing Stagecoach Pass, a rundown Western theme park, forces the thirteen-year-old to leave her familiar life and friends behind. Knowing she will have to start all over, enduring stares and endless questions, she makes friends with Connor who also feels isolated because of his Tourette’s and sets out to solve the mystery at Stagecoach Pass.
“When I was little, a kid pointed at me on the playground and shouted, “Her arms fell off” and then ran away screaming in terror to his mom, who had to cuddle him on her lap and rub his head for like ten minutes to get him to calm down.”
The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz (2016)
IL: 5-8 RL: 5.1 Lexile: 830L
Twelve-year-old Jaime makes the treacherous journey from his home in Guatemala to his older brother in New Mexico after his cousin is murdered by a drug cartel.
Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson (2017)
IL: YA Lexile: 680
Subjects: African-Americans, school, race, gender
High school junior, Jade is considered an “at risk” student from a rough neighborhood on Portland, Oregon. She is also a talented collage artist who attends an elite private school on a scholarship where she feels like an outsider. Her dream is to go abroad to study; instead she is given an invitation to join Woman to Woman, a mentorship program for young women like her – poor and black. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity out there. But her mentor, Maxine, is not like Jade – she is from a more privileged background – and she graduated from the same high school. But that doesn’t mean that she understands where Jade is coming from. Jade is tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone to fix. Jade wants to create, to express her joys and sorrows and hope. And just maybe, there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real and to make a difference. (Newbery Honor Book)
“I am learning to speak. To give myself a way out. A way in.”
Refugee by Alan Gratz (2017)
IL: 5-8 RL: 6.1 Lexile: 800
Subjects: refugees, immigration
Josef, 1930s Nazi Germany, Isabel, 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud, 2015 Syria. Three kids from three different times and different places. But all three going on harrowing journeys searching for refuge. All face unimaginable dangers – drownings, bombings, betrayals. But for each of them, there is always the hope of tomorrow.
“Crack! Bang! Josef Landau shot straight up in bed, his heart racing.”
See You In The Cosmos by Jack Cheng (2017)
IL:5-8 RL: 5.4 Lexile: 1120
Subjects: space, family, humor
Eleven-year-old Alex Petroski loves space, rockets, his mom, his brother, and his dog Carl Sagan. All he wants is to launch his golden iPod into space the same way Carl Sagan (the man) launched his Golden Record on the Voyager in 1977. On his journey from Colorado to New Mexico, Las Vegas to Los Angeles, Alex posts on his iPod what life on his earth is like for any possible extraterrestrials who might find his recordings on day. He meets funny, lost, remarkable people as his destination keeps changing; they help him prepare for the secrets he’ll uncover – the truth about his long-dead dad, his troubled mother, and a distant brother – and realize that he has way more family than he ever knew.
“NEW RECORDING 1 6M 19S ‘Who are you? What do you look like? Do you have one head
or two?’
The Truth As Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor (2018)
IL: 5-8 RL: 3.1 Lexile 310
Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason's learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason's best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family's orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can't understand why Lieutenant Baird won't believe the story Mason has told about that day. Both Mason and his new friend, tiny Calvin Chumsky, are relentlessly bullied by the other boys in their neighborhood, so they create an underground club space for themselves. When Calvin goes missing, Mason finds himself in trouble again. He's desperate to figure out what happened to Calvin, and eventually, Benny. But will anyone believe him?
Wild Bird (2017)
IL: YA Lexile 680
Subjects: survival, social issues, adventure, drugs, wilderness survival camp
3:47 am. That’s when they came for Wren Clemmens. She’s hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and finally taken on a forced march into the Utah desert. This is what happens to kids who have gone so far off the path that their parents don’t know what to do with them anymore. This is tough-love. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camp; eight weeks to turn your life around. Wren is angry, bitter, and blaming everyone but herself for her problems. But angry can’t put up a tent and bitter won’t start a fire. Sooner or later, Wren will need to admit to herself that she needs help if she’s going to survive.
“Wren…My name is floating around me. Bouncing on the clouds is my mind.”
