Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award

A Night Divided

With the rise of the 9780545682428Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?

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The Nest

nestFor some kids summer is a sun-soaked season of fun. But for Steve, it’s just another season of worries. Worries about his sick newborn baby brother who is fighting to survive, worries about his parents who are struggling to cope, even worries about the wasp’s nest looming ominously from the eaves. So when a mysterious wasp queen invades his dreams, offering to “fix” the baby, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered.

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Lost in the Sun

{4C66983A-1237-405B-B3F1-EF7D23923F3C}Img400When Trent is involved in a horrible accident that results in another boy’s death, he must find a way to overcome his guilt and rage in this touching story of acceptance and forgiveness.

 

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Echo

9780439874021Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.

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Full Cicada Moon

9780525428756

In 1969, twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi’s mixed-race background and interest in “boyish” topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.

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Night on Fire

ibg.common.titledetail.imageloaderA nuanced and many-layered journey of self-awakening through the eyes of a white girl in small town Alabama in the 1960’s. When Billie hears that the Freedom Riders will be traveling through her town on the way to Montgomery, she begins to question her own beliefs and has to decide whether to remain silent or stand up to her family and speak out against the racism she discovers around her.

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Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

9780385755528Sophie Brown’s family has just moved from Los Angeles to the farm they’ve inherited from a great-uncle. Farm life gets suddenly more interesting when their cranky chicken moves objects with only her brain: jam jars, the latch to her henhouse, the entire henhouse…. This quirky, clucky classic is told in letters to Sophie’s abuela, quizzes, a chicken-care correspondence course, to-do lists, and more.

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Boys Who Challenged Hitler, The: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club

9781250104236At the outset of World War II, Denmark did not resist German occupation. Fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen resolved with a handful of schoolmates to take action against the Nazis if the adults would not, and committed countless acts of sabotage. They eventually were arrested, but their exploits helped spark a full-blown Danish resistance.

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Orphan Army, The (Nightsiders #1)

9781481415750In a futuristic world where earth is under attack from alien bug invaders, Milo Silk is not a hero. Does Milo have what it takes join wolf-girl, Evangelyne, and the mysterious Nightsiders in the battle to save earth and themselves?

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The Seventh Most Important Thing

9780553497281After throwing a brick at the neighborhood “Junk Man”, Arthur is sentenced to 180 days community service helping out his victim. It isn’t long before his preconceptions about the Junk Man are blown apart, and his journey of redemption truly begins.

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I am Princess X

Two girls become 9780545620857inseparable friends as they bond over art and storytelling. Together they create Princess X. After a tragic accident, one girl mourns and eventually discovers that Princess X may not have died with her friend.

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Waiting for Unicorns

Twelve-year-old Talia 9780439874021just lost her mother to cancer, and as if that wasn’t hard enough to cope with, now her father is about to bring her to the Arctic for her whole summer vacation and leave her with a mysterious Inuit woman that she’s never even met. While Talia’s dad is out researching whales on the dangerous tundra, will she somehow find hope and friendship in this barren place or will she be left alone, wishing for impossible things?

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Somewhere There is Still a Sun

{4C66983A-1237-405B-B3F1-EF7D23923F3C}Img400Michael “Misha” Gruenbaum enjoyed a carefree childhood playing games and taking walks through Prague with his beloved father. All of that changed forever when the Nazis invaded Prague. The Gruenbaum family was forced to move into the Jewish Ghetto in Prague. Then, after a devastating loss, Michael, his mother and sister were deported to the Terezin concentration camp.

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The Lightning Queen

Combining history, magic 9780316381321and folklore, this colorful tale offers a glimpse into an encounter between two fascinating but marginalized cultures–the Rom and the Mixtec Indians–while telling the heart-warming story of an unlikely friendship that spans generations.

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George

9780316381321George is a typical 4th grader who wants a part in the school play.  But George has a secret.  She is a girl in a boy’s body.  She and her best friend hatch a plan to get George the coveted girl’s role in the play and convince everyone to accept her as she is.

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The Doldrums

9780316381321Archer B. Hemsley wants nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of his adventurous grandparents, who have unfortunately now vanished in the Arctic. A real adventure will be no easy feat for a young dreamer like Archer, especially as his mother does not allow him to leave the house. With the help of his odd and wonderful new friends, Oliver and Adelaide, Archer sets a plan in motion.

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Stella by Starlight

When the Ku Klux Klan’s 9780316381321unwelcome reappearance rattles Stella’s segregated southern town, bravery battles prejudice in this Depression-era story story.  Stella’s community—her world—is upended as she begins to see people in a different light.

 

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Awkward

9780316381321Peppi  is the new kid and just wants to fit in, but in an effort to keep from being bullied, she’s managed to hurt the one person who tried to be nice to her on her first day of school- a boy named Jaimie. Can Jaimie and Peppi still become friends and join forces to help their school… or is it just all too awkward?

 

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Goodbye Stranger

Back in grade five, Bridge,Tabitha and Emily made a pact. Never to fight, ever. Now, two years later, they’re still best friends, but other things are changing. Bridge meets Sherm, and is soon excited and confused by her new, strange feelings. And when Emily starts texting pictures of herself to Patrick, Bridge and Tab find themselves complicit in a naïve plan that quickly spirals out of control.

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The Blackthorn Key

The year is 1665 and fourteen-year-old Christopher Rowe is the apprentice of an apothecary in London. With death and danger around every corner, he and his best friend Tom must untangle the web of clues and codes to discover the truth behind a series of murders that are being blamed on a secretive cult, before it’s too late!

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Nimona

9780062278234In this captivating graphic novel, Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc.

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Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans

9780544157774This is a journalistic look at the disastrous hurricane that leveled New Orleans in August 2005, brought to grim life through graphic novel style illustrations. A dramatic tale with text that ranges from simple, factual sentences to quotations from an extensive collection of books and media.

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The War that Saved my Life

9780803740815A determined and willful handicapped girl escapes a brutal life in 1940’s London with her younger brother when air raids begin in the city. As Ada must learn to trust someone other than herself, her sense of self-worth grows. Their journey to discover a sense of home and family is both dangerous and beautiful.

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28 Comments »

Escape from Baxters’ Barn

baxtersBurdock the barn cat hears some terrible news and shares it with the barn animals. The brave and charming group of farm animals works together once they learn that their lives are threatened. A delightful story of perseverance, friendship, and teamwork, peppered with the author’s own pen and ink drawings.

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Like a River: A Civil War Novel

like a riverLeander and Polly are two teenage Union soldiers who carry deep, dangerous secrets and survive incredible odds. Leander is underage when he enlists, and Polly follows her father into war disguised as his son. As the lives of these young, brave soldiers intersect, readers will be transported to the homes, waterways, camps, hospitals, and prisons of the Civil–War era.

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19 Comments »

The Nest

nestFor some kids summer is a sun-soaked season of fun. But for Steve, it’s just another season of worries. Worries about his sick newborn baby brother who is fighting to survive, worries about his parents who are struggling to cope, even worries about the wasp’s nest looming ominously from the eaves. So when a mysterious wasp queen invades his dreams, offering to “fix” the baby, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered.

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Shadows of Sherwood

sherwood

The night her parents disappear, twelve-year-old Robyn Loxley must learn to fend for herself. Her home, Nott City, has been taken over by a harsh governor, Ignomus Crown. After fleeing for her life, Robyn has no choice but to join a band of misfit kids, each with their own special talent for mischief.

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The Thing about Jellyfish

After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting—things don’t just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory–even if it means traveling the globe, alone.

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Roller Girl

In this graphic novel adventure, twelve-year-old Astrid discovers roller derby right as she and her best friend are growing apart.

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Circus Mirandus

indexDo you believe in magic? Micah Tuttle sets out on a quest to visit the magical circus of his Grandfather Ephraim’s stories. Will he find the Lightbender and have his grandfather’s wish granted?

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The Terrible Two

r8UuBAAAQBAJMiles Murphy is not happy to be moving to Yawnee Valley, a sleepy town that’s famous for one thing only: cows. In his old school, everyone knew him as the town’s best prankster, but Miles quickly discovers that Yawnee Valley already has a prankster, and a great one. If Miles is going to take the title from this mystery kid, he is going to have to raise his game.

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