UWSSLEC LibGuides: Find Me a Good Book!: Award Winners

Award Winners

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. ~James Bryce

Caldecott Award

Randolph Caldecott was an English children's book illustrator from the nineteenth century. The Association for Library Services to Children awards an American children's book illustrator each year in honor of Mr. Caldecott.

Interrupting Chicken

Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
ISBN: 9780763641689
Reading Level 2.1
Interest Level K-3
Daddy Chicken is trying to read his daughter a favorite bedtime story reminding Little Red Chicken to not interrupt. But the excitement is too much for her and she can't help but warn Hansel and Gretel not to go into the gingerbread house or tell Henny Penny that it's just an acorn. She continually interrupts until her father asks her to tell him a story. This was a very fun story to read aloud, and the illustrations helped differentiate the story that the father was reading with the interruptions from Little Red Chicken.

Interrupting Chicken Book Trailer

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Reading Level: 5.6
Interest Level: 3-6
Hugo Cabret is an orphan that lives in the walls of a Paris train station tending to the clocks and stealing what he needs to survive. Hugo's life is built on secrets, the secret book of drawings from his father, the automaton he took from the ashes of the museum his father died in, and the mystery of what message the automaton will write when it is fixed. Hugo has a run in with a young girl who appears to have as many secrets as he does. Why does she have a key that looks like it fits in the back of his automaton? Who is her very mysterious uncle?

Brian Selznick

Henry's Freedom Box

Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
ISBN: 9780439777339
Reading level: 1.9
Interest level: grades 3-5

A true story, the author recounts the journey of Henry Brown. Henry was a slave who witnessed, first hand, his wife and children being taken from him and sold - never to be seen again.
The trauma of this event in Henry's life sparked him into planning a daring escape from slavery by having himself nailed into a wooden shipping crate and nocked around until he arrived in the parlor of friends in Pennsylvania, where he would be a free man.

How does a book become a Newberry winner?

The Newberry Award was the first book award ever and was named after John Newberry, an English book seller from the 1700s. The Newberry medal is awarded each year to authors from the previous year for original creative work in the field of children's literature. Newberry medal candidate books can be poetry, nonfiction, or fiction, and are judged solely on their written material. Each year, there is one medal winner and the runners-up are considered to be Newberry Honor books.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
ISBN: 9780439353793
Reading level: 7.8
Interest level: grades 8-12

Imagine growing up during Hitler's regime in World War II. What was it like supporting Hitler? What was it like being excluded from joining the Hitler Youth? And what was it like living among life and death? Find out how children become part of Hitler's Final Solution through interviews and primary sources. How far were these kids willing to go, and how far are you willing to go?

Meet Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Rules

Rules by Cynthia Lord
ISBN: 0439443830
Reading Level 3.9
Interest Level 3-6
Rules. Outline social norms, keep us safe, help us, restrict us, teach us, and act as general guidelines for most of us. If you are a twelve year old, like Catherine, with an autistic brother, rules head of unwanted or embarrassing behavior. Catherine spends a summer with her best friend gone, hoping the new girl moving in next door will become the neighborhood friend she's always wanted. But a surprising new friend is made, changing Cynthia's ideas about what is normal.

Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
ISBN: 9780312659301
Reading Level 5.3
Interest Level 5-8
Eleven year old Calpurnia Tate is the only girl of 7 boys living on a Texas pecan farm. Calpurnia is a lover of science and spends much of her time with her eccentric grandfather studying the world around her. Much to Calpurnia's dismay, her mother has plans of Calpurnia becoming a "lady of the house" and wants her to learn to stitch and cook taking her away from the precious time she could be spending with her grandfather studying science. All the while, Calpurnia and her grandfather are awaiting news of whether the plant they discovered is a new species.