2006 Nominees

Fiction Grades 6-8

Allen, Will. Swords for Hire.

In the ancient kingdom of Parmall , sixteen-year-old farm boy Sam Hatcher sets out with Rigby Skeet, an unconventional Royal Guard to rescue the rightful monarch, whose wicked brother is holding him captive in a faraway dungeon.

Asai, Carrie. The Book of the Sword.

After learning that her entire life is based on falsehoods and the people she has always trusted are bent on her destruction, nineteen-year-old Heaven Kogo becomes Samurai Girl, determined to avenge her brother's cruel death.

Brennan, Herbie. Faerie Wars.

Distraught over his parent's pending separation, Henry Atherton rescues Prince Pyrgus Malvae from the faerie realm and then works with him in an attempt to overcome the treacherous Faeries of the Night.

DuPrau, Jeanne. City of Ember .

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina and her friend Doon Harrow trade jobs on Assignment Day in an attempt to decode a secret message and save the post-holocaust city of Ember from its accelerating decay.

Hale, Shannon. The Goose Girl.

Seventeen-year-old Crown Princess Anidori of Kildenree is betrayed by her entourage en route to her wedding and becomes a goose girl until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim her crown.

Henkes, Kevin. Olive's Ocean.

After receiving a page of her shy, and recently deceased, classmate Olive's diary, twelve-year-old Martha struggles to understand Olive's written admiration for her while coming to grips with her relationship with her aging grandmother and feelings of romance for an older boy.

Horowitz, Anthony . Skeleton Key.

Fourteen-year-old Alex Rider, reluctant teenage-spy, is sent to check out suspicious events at the Wimbledon tennis championships and finds himself ensnared in Chinese gangs, a uranium-yielding Russian general and a ticking nuclear bomb.

Horvath, Polly. The Canning Season.

When thirteen-year-old Ratchet is sent by her hardhearted mother to spend the summer in Maine with her eccentric and elderly great-aunts Tilly and Penpen, she finds herself hearing animated and grotesque stories from the past and finds Glen Rosa an unexpected, and welcome, haven.

Juby, Susan. Alice, I Think.

Through journal entries, fifteen-year-old self-proclaimed misfit Alice deals with re-entry into public school after years of homeschooling, the embarrassments of ex-hippie parents, a budding romance, and her life goals.

Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy.

Sophomore Justin befriends Michael (or Jinsen, his spiritual name) , the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.

Orlev, Uri. Run, Boy, Run: A Novel.

The true survival story of orphaned eight-year-old Jewish Srulik Frydman who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and survives the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Polish countryside.

Osa, Nancy. Cuba 15.

Just turned fifteen, Violet Paz reluctantly prepares to observe her quinceañera, a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday, in order to satisfy her Cuban granrmother's wishes.

Pratchett, Terry. The Wee Free Men.

Tiffany, a young witch-in-training, enters Fairyland and teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue pixies, to rescue her kidnapped baby brother and to ward off a sinister invasion from the Queen of the Elves.

Schreiber, Ellen. Vampire Kisses.

When misfit sixteen-year-old Raven, a Goth girl with aspirations of becoming a vampire, meets the mysterious new boy who has moved into the town's abandoned mansion, she is sure he is the answer to her dreams.

Shusterman, Neal. Full Tilt: A Novel.

Sixteen-year-old, responsible Blake is invited to a mysterious, invitation-only carnival by the older, beautiful Cassandra; however, his reckless younger brother Quinn steals the invitation. When Quinn is later discovered in a coma, it is up to Blake to save his brother and battle Cassandra to the defeat of her surreal game for her victims' souls.

Slade, Arthur G. Dust.

It is a bone-dry summer in his Saskatchewan farm town home and eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, while the town's children begin to disappear.

Spinelli, Jerry. Milkweed: A Novel.

A young orphan boy with no name or background struggles to survive and remain hopeful during the Nazi occupation in Warsaw .

Stroud, Jonathan. The Amulet of Samarkand.

Set in modern-day London , Nathaniel, a young magician's apprentice stirs up a tumult of magical espionage, murder, and revenge by summoning up the magical djinni Bartimaeus and instructing him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Vande Velde, Vivian. Heir Apparent.

While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the game quickly or be damaged herself.

Woodson, Jacqueline. Locomotion.

In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie C. Motion writes about his life and the pain of the death of his parents in a house fire, his separation from his beloved younger sister who is a foster home, being poor and bullied, and finding his poetic voice through the aid of an insightful and caring teacher.