2008-2009 Golden Sower Nominees

Key: IL=Interest Level; RL=Reading level; p=pages; Fic=Fiction

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

Anna's blizzard - Hart, Alison. {IL 3-6, -Fic-} -- Peachtree, c2005., RL 4, 141p
Having never excelled at schoolwork, twelve-year-old Anna discovers that she may know a few things about survival when she and her classmates become trapped in their Nebraska schoolhouse in a storm that comes to be known as the Children's Blizzard of 1888.

Each little bird that sings - Wiles, Deborah. {IL 3-6, -Fic-} -- Harcourt, 2006, c2005., RL 4, 259p
Comfort Snowberger is well acquainted with death since her family runs the funeral parlor in their small southern town, but even so the ten-year-old is unprepared for the series of heart-wrenching events that begins on the first day of Easter vacation with the sudden death of her beloved great-uncle Edisto.
Lexile: 760

Gossamer - Lowry, Lois. {IL 5-8, -Fic-} -- Houghton Mifflin, c2006., RL 4.9, 140p
While learning to bestow dreams, a young dream giver tries to save an eight-year-old boy from the effects of both his abusive past and the nightmares inflicted on him by the frightening Sinisteeds.
Lexile: 660 Fantasy

Listening for lions - Whelan, Gloria. {IL 5-8, -Fic-} -- HarperTrophy, 2006, c2005., RL 6, 194p
Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1919, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.
Lexile: 900 Historical Fiction

Out of order - Hicks, Betty. {IL 3-6, -Fic-} -- Roaring Brook Press, 2005., RL 4.2, 169p
Four youngsters, ages nine to fifteen, narrate one side of the story of their newly blended family's adjustment, interwoven with grief and loss.
Lexile: 680 Realistic Fiction

Room one : a mystery or two - Clements, Andrew, 1949-{IL 3-6,-Fic-} -- Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2006., RL 5.1, 162p
Ted Hammond, the only sixth grader in his small Nebraska town's one-room schoolhouse, searches for clues to the disappearance of a homeless family.
Lexile: 840

Rules - Lord, Cynthia. {IL 3-6, -Fic-} -- Scholastic Press, 2006., RL 3.5, 200p
Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a friendship with an young paraplegic.
Lexile: 780 Realistic Fiction

Satch & me : a baseball card adventure - Gutman, Dan. {IL 5-8, -Fic-} -- HarperCollins, c2006., RL 4.1, 175p
With his ability to travel through time using vintage baseball cards, Joe takes Flip with him to find out whether Satchel Paige really was the fastest pitcher ever.
Lexile: 660

Whittington - Armstrong, Alan W., 1939-{IL 3-6, -Fic-} -- Yearling, 2006, c2005., RL 4.4, 191p
Whittington, a feline descendant of Dick Whittington's famous cat of English folklore, appears at a rundown barnyard plagued by rats and restores harmony while telling his ancestor's story.
Lexile: 760

Wing nut - Auch, Mary Jane. {IL 5-8, -Fic-} -- H. Holt, 2005., RL 6.3, 231p
Twelve-year-old Grady and his mother relocate yet again, this time finding work taking care of an elderly man, who teaches Grady about cars, birds, and what it means to have a home.
Lexile: 740 Realistic Fiction

YOUNG ADULT LEVEL

Crossing the wire - Hobbs, Will. {IL 3-6, -Fic-} -- HarperTrophy, 2007, c2006., RL 4.4, 216p
Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support his family in central Mexico. Lexile: 670 Realistic Fiction

Dragon's keep - Carey, Janet Lee. {IL YA, -Fic-} -- Harcourt, c2007., 302p
In 1145 A.D., as foretold by Merlin, fourteen-year-old Rosalind, who will be the twenty-first Pendragon Queen of Wilde Island, has much to accomplish to fulfill her destiny, while hiding from her people the dragon's claw she was born with that reflects only one of her mother's dark secrets. Lexile: 830 Fantasy

A friend at midnight - Cooney, Caroline B. {IL YA, -Fic-} -- Delacorte Press, c2006., 183p
After rescuing her younger brother abandoned at a busy airport by their divorced father, fifteen-year-old Lily finds her faith in God sorely tested as she struggles to rescue herself from the bitterness and anger she feels. Realistic Fiction
Lexile: 760

Heat- Lupica, Mike. {IL 5-8, -Fic-} -- Puffin Books, 2007, c2006., RL 5.6, 220p
Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.Lexile: 940 Realistic Fiction

The legend of Bass Reeves : being the true account of the most valiant marshal in the West - Paulsen, Gary. {IL 5-8, -Fic-} -- Wendy Lamb Books, c2006., RL 5.8, 137p
The story of Bass Reeves who was born a slave and later became one of the most respected federal marshals in Oklahoma and Texas. Historical Fiction
Lexile: 950

Life as we knew it - Pfeffer, Susan Beth, 1948- {IL YA, -Fic-} -- Harcourt, c2006., 337p
Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
Lexile: 770

Shakespeare's secret - Broach, Elise. {IL 5-8, -Fic-} -- Holt, 2005., RL 6.1, 250p
Named after a character in a Shakespeare play, misfit sixth-grader Hero becomes interested in exploring this unusual connection because of a valuable diamond supposedly hidden in her new house, an intriguing neighbor, and the unexpected attention of the most popular boy in school.
Lexile: 620 Realistic Fiction

A summer of Kings - Nolan, Han. {IL YA, -Fic-} -- Harcourt, c2006., 334p
Over the course of the summer of 1963, fourteen-year-old Esther Young discovers the passion within her when eighteen-year-old King-Roy Johnson, accused of murdering a white man in Alabama, comes to live with her family.
Lexile: 950 Historical Fiction

Tomorrow, the river - Gray, Dianne E. IL 5-8, -Fic-} -- Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006., RL 5.5, 233p
In 1896, fourteen-year-old Megan joins her sister and family on their steamboat for the summer riding up the Mississippi River towards St. Paul, Minnesota, and through all of their adventures, Megan realizes what is her "true calling."
Lexile: 990 Historical Fiction

Twilight - Meyer, Stephenie, 1973- {IL YA, -Fic-} -- Little, Brown, 2005., 498p
Seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, where she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
Lexile: 720 Fantasy