William Allen White Children's Book Awards
Winners and Honor Books
from the Emporia State Library2012-2013 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
Guinea DogBook Description
Rufus has been dreaming of getting a dog. His best friend has one. His worst friend has one. But his dad has a few objections: They whine. They gnaw. They bark. They scratch. They beg. They drool.
Rufus pays no attention when his mom offers her think-outside-the-box suggestion, because she can't be serious. She can't be.
She can be. And she actually comes home with a guinea pig. And if Rufus's dad thinks dogs are a problem, he won't know what hit him when he meets the Guinea Pig that Thinks She's a Dog. She barks. She bites. She'll eat your homework.
2012-2013 6th - 8th Grade Winner
Ghost Dog SecretsBook Description
Sixth-grader Rusty, determined to help an injured dog that is chained outdoors in frigid weather, calls animal control then takes matters into his own hands, aided by his best friend and a ghost collie that leads Rusty to an even deeper secret. Includes instructions for knitting cat blankets.
2012-2013 3rd - 5th Grade Honor Books |
2012-2013 6th - 8th Grade Honor BooksMockingbird Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot" |
2011-2012 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
11 birthdaysBook Description
After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately but peculiar things begin to happen as the day of their birthday begins to repeat itself over and over again.
2011-2012 6th - 8th Grade Winner
Confetti girlBook Description
After the death of her mother, Texas sixth-grader Lina's grades and mood drop as she watches her father lose himself more and more in books, while her best friend uses Lina as an excuse to secretly meet her boyfriend.
2010-2011 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
Book Description
When Sam, who can barely read, discovers an old newspaper clipping just before his eleventh birthday, it brings forth memories from his past, and, with the help of a new friend at school and the castle they are building for a school project, his questions are eventually answered.
2010-2011 6th - 8th Grade Winner
The Boy Who Dared: a Novel Based on the True Story of Hitler Youth
Book Description
Bartoletti has taken one episode from her Newbery Honor Book, HITLER YOUTH, and fleshed it out into thought-provoking novel. When 16-year-old Helmuth Hübener listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he's tried for treason. Sentenced to death and waiting in a jail cell, Helmuth's story emerges in a series of flashbacks that show his growth from a naive child caught up in the patriotism of the times, to a sensitive and mature young man who thinks for himself.
About the Author
Susan Campbell Bartoletti encountered Helmuth Hübener's amazing story while writing Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow. She was so moved by his heroic actions that she wanted to flesh out his story into a fictional form. She also wanted to provide a dramatic meditation on the meaning of his short life that raises questions about moral courage, nationalism, and the responsibility of the individual. Ms. Bartoletti is the author of many award-winning books for young people. She lives in Moscow, PA, with her husband. They have two children.
2010-2011 3rd - 5th Grade Honor Books The adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great Planting the trees of Kenya : the story of Wangari Maathai
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2010-2011 6th - 8th Grade Honor BooksThe boy who dared |
2009-2010 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
Book Description
Living in the family car in their small North Carolina town after their father leaves them virtually penniless, Georgina, desperate to improve their situation and unwilling to accept her overworked mother's calls for patience, persuades her younger brother to help her in an elaborate scheme to get money by stealing a dog and then claiming the reward that the owners are bound to offer.
2009-2010 6th - 8th Grade Winner
Cracker! : the best dog in Vietnam
Book Description
Cracker is one of the United States Army's most valuable weapons: a German shepherd trained to sniff out bombs, traps, and the enemy. The fate of entire platoons rests on her keen sense of smell. She's a Big Deal, and she likes it that way. Sometimes Cracker remembers when she was younger, and her previous owner would feed her hot dogs and let her sleep in his bed. That was nice, too.
Rick Hanski is headed to Vietnam. There, he's going to whip the world and prove to his family and his sergeant -- and everyone else who didn't think he was cut out for war -- wrong. But sometimes Rick can't help but wonder that maybe everyone else is right. Maybe he should have just stayed at home and worked in his dad's hardware store.
When Cracker is paired with Rick, she isn't so sure about this new owner. He's going to have to prove himself to her before she's going to prove herself to him. They need to be friends before they can be a team, and they have to be a team if they want to get home alive.
Told in part through the uncanny point of view of a German shepherd, Cracker! is an action-packed glimpse into the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of a dog and her handler. It's an utterly unique powerhouse of a book by the Newbery Medal-winning author of Kira-Kira.
About the Author
Cynthia Kadohata is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning book Kira-Kira, Weedflower, and several critically acclaimed adult novels, including The Floating World. She has published numerous short stories in such literary journals as the New Yorker, Ploughshares, Grand Street, and the Mississippi Review. She lives with her son and dog in West Covina, California.
2009-2010 3rd - 5th Grade Honor Books One thousand tracings; healing the wounds of World War II
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2009-2010 6th - 8th Grade Honor BooksIron thunder; the battle between the Monitor & the Merrimac: a Civil War Novel Cracker! The best dog in Viet Nam Miss Spitfire; reaching Helen Keller Leepike Ridge |
2008-2009 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
Book Description
Clementine is having not so good of a week.
- On Monday she's sent to the principal's office for cutting off Margaret's hair.
- Tuesday, Margaret's mother is mad at her.
- Wednesday, she's sent to the principal.again.
- Thursday, Margaret stops speaking to her.
- Friday starts with yucky eggs and gets worse.
- And by Saturday, even her mother is mad at her.
2008-2009 6th - 8th Grade Winner
Book Description
From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation.
2008-2009 3rd - 5th Grade Honor Books |
2008-2009 6th - 8th Grade Honor Books |
2007-2008 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
A dog's life; the autobiography of a stray
Book Description
Squirrel and her brother Bone begin their lives in a toolshed behind someone's summer house. Their mother nurtures them and teaches them the many skills they will need to survive as stray dogs.
But when their mother is taken from them suddenly and too soon, the puppies are forced to make their own way in the world, facing humans both gentle and brutal, busy highways, other animals, and the changing seasons.
When Bone and Squirrel become separated, Squirrel must fend for herself, and in the process makes two friends who in very different ways define her fate.
2007-2008 6th - 8th Grade Winner
Book Description
Kirby Nickel loves basketball. The only problem is he can't play basketball. But when an opportunity to meet NBA star Brett McGrew comes up, Kirby knows he has to take a chance and try out for the basketball team.
Getting on the team turns out to be easy-the rest of the boys are as supremely untalented as Kirby-but winning in order to be eligible to meet McGrew is a whole different problem. Different and embarrassing. The coach's radical new plan for success involves the boys playing in their underwear. But if this crazy idea works, Kirby will get to meet his hero-who he secretly also hopes is his long-lost father.
About the Author
L.D. Harkrader never played underwear basketball, but did have a recurring nightmare about walking into the school cafeteria wearing nothing but pajamas. "I'm sure the dream meant I was afraid people would see who I really was," says L.D. "In telling Kirby's story, I hope I show readers they shouldn't be afraid to let people see who they are. Who they are is okay." L.D. lives in a small town in Kansas and, like Kirby, is a rabid Jayhawks basketball fan.
2006-2007 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
Book Description
True or False?
Fifth grader Nora Rose Rowley is really a genius.
True.
But don't tell anyone.
Nora always gets average grades so she can forgo the pressure-cooker gifted program or Brainiac Academy.
But when Nora gets one hundred percent fed up over testing and the fuss everyone makes about grades, she brings home a terrible report card just to prove a point.
Pretty soon her teachers, parents, and the principal are launching a massive effort to find out what's wrong. But can Nora convince them that tests alone are a stupid way to measure intelligence?
About the Author
Andrew Clements is the celebrated author of the Christopher Award-winning novel Frindle, The Landry News, The Janitor's Boy , the Jake Drake series, The School Story, A Week in the Woods , and many other books for children. He lives in Westborough, Massachusetts, with his wife and four children.
2006-2007 6th - 8th Grade Winner
Book Description
You couldn't really tell about Mama's brain just from looking at her, but it was obvious as soon as she spoke. She had a high voice, like a little girl's, and she only knew 23 words. I know this for a fact, because we kept a list of the things Mama said tacked to the inside of the kitchen cabinet. Most of the words were common ones, like good and more and hot, but there was one word only my mother said: soof.
Although she lives an unconventional lifestyle with her mentally disabled mother and their doting neighbour, Bernadette, Heidi has a lucky streak that has a way of pointing her in the right direction. When a mysterious word in her mother's vocabulary begins to haunt her, Heidi's thirst for the truth leads her on a cross-country journey in search of the secrets of her past.
About the AuthorSarah Weeks is an award-winning author of many books for children. Her most recent novel, So B. It , was named an ALA Notable Children's Book and a Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults. She has also written the popular Guy series, including Regular Guy, Guy Wire, Guy Time , and My Guy , which is soon to be a feature film by Disney. Sarah Weeks grew up in Michigan and now lives in New York City with her two teenaged sons.
2006-2007 3rd - 5th Grade Honor Books Ida B.and Her Plans to Maximize Fun S is for Sunflower: a Kansas Alphabet
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2006-2007 6th - 8th Grade Honor Books Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930's |
2005-2006 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
Donuthead
Book Description
Franklin Delano Donuthead is a fifth grader with a lot of problems. His last name is Donuthead and he considers himself handicapped because one arm and leg are shorter than the other (by less than half an inch).
His mother tries to poison him with non-organic foods (like salami), he doesn't have a father, and Sarah Kervick, the new girl, who's mean and totally unhygienic, is attached to him like glue.
This novel features a scared boy and a tough girl who each help the other in more ways than they can imagine.
2005-2006 6th - 8th Grade Winner
The City of Ember
Book Description
Duprau's The City of Ember is about a city where it is always night. There is no moon and no stars. The only light during the regular twelve hours of "day" comes from flood lamps that cast a yellowish glow over the streets of the city. Beyond are the pitch-black Unknown Regions, which no one has ever explored because an understanding of fire and electricity has been lost, and with it the idea of a Moveable Light. "Besides," they tell each other, "there is nowhere but here".
Among the many other things the people of Ember have forgotten is their past and a direction for their future. For 250 years they have lived pleasantly, because there has been plenty of everything in the vast storerooms. But now there are more and more empty shelves--and more and more times when the lights flicker and go out, leaving them in terrifying blackness for long minutes. No one seems to wonder what happens when the generator finally fails, but twelve-year-old Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet.
They have just been assigned their life jobs--Lina as a messenger, which leads her to knowledge of some unsettling secrets, and Doon as a Pipeworker, repairing the plumbing in the tunnels under the city where a river roars through the darkness. But when Lina finds a very old paper with enigmatic "Instructions for Egress," they use the advantages of their jobs to begin to puzzle out the frightening and dangerous way to the city of light of which Lina has dreamed.
2005-2006 3rd - 5th Grade Honor Books The Berry-Picking Man
Hill Hawk Hattie Sahara Special Where I'd Like To Be My brother Martin; A Sister Remembers Boxes for Katje The Gorillas of Gill Park Animal House and Iz Gifts From the Sea Harvesting Hope; The Story of Cesar Chavez Bicycle Madness Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia A Simple Gift Donuthead |
2005-2006 6th - 8th Grade Honor Books Macaroni Boy Gregor the Overlander Rodzina Under the Same Sky The City of Ember Aleutian Sparrow Jackie's Wild Seattle Interference Powder An American Plague: The True and Terrifying How Angel Peterson Got His Name Ghost Girl It Only Looks Easy Tadpole The Ravenmaster's Secret Locomotion |
2004-2005 3rd - 5th Grade Winner
Loser
Book Description
Just like other kids, Zinkoff rides his bike, hopes for snow days, and wants to be like his dad when he grows up. But Zinkoff also raises his hand with all the wrong answers, trips over his own feet, and falls down with laughter over a word like "Jabip."
Other kids have their own word to describe him, but Zinkoff is too busy to hear it. He doesn't know he's not like everyone else. And one winter night, Zinkoff's differences show that any name can someday become "hero."
About the Author
Jerry Spinelli is the author of Maniac Magee, winner of the 1991 Newbery Medal, and Wringer, named a Newbery Honor book in 1998. He went to Gettysburg College and John Hopkins University. He and his wife, Eileen, also a writer of children's books, have seven children. Jerry Spinelli's books are funny and true to life. Whenever students ask him where he gets his ideas, he replies, "From you. You're the funny ones." Spinelli enjoys writing about the adventure in the typical experiences of children and young people.
2004-2005 6th - 8th Grade Winner
Surviving the Applewhites
Book Description
Will anyone take on Jake Semple?
Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he burned down his old school and got kicked out of every school in his home state.
Only one place will take him now, and that's a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists. The only one who doesn't fit the Applewhite mold is E.D. -- a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the unruly Jake.
Jake thinks surviving this one will be a breeze . . . but is he really as tough or as bad as he seems?
From the Author
School Library Journal Best Book Book Links Lasting Connection Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book for Children Newbery Honor Book ALA Notable Children's Book ALA Best Book for Young Adults ALA Booklist Editors' Choice New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Masterlist (Vermont) New York Public Library's "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing"
2004-2005 3rd - 5th Grade Honor Books Keeper of the Doves The Beloved Dearly Ruby Holler Darby Pictures of Hollis Woods Pioneer Summer Lumber Camp Library The Victory Garden Splash! Poems of Our Watery World How I Became a Writer and Oggie Learned to Drive Scranimals When Marion Sang |
2004-2005 6th - 8th Grade Honor Books Crispin: the Cross of Lead Stand Tall The Winter People Wenny Has Wings Double Dutch Once Upon a Marigold Phineas Gage What Would Joey Do? Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems Hoot Wild Man Island A Corner of the Universe Red Midnight The Same Stuff as Stars Grasslands Brothers Below Zero |