Friday, April 30, 2010

2010-2011 Mark Twain Nominees

Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish

Amanda MacLeish might be the only student in Mr. Abrams’s fifth-grade class who doesn’t mind doing her homework. Now that her father has left home and moved into a motel, the only thing that brings Amanda any joy is writing her fictional diary entries about a young girl named Polly who lives amid the chaos of the Civil War. Polly would understand Amanda. With one brother fighting for the North and one fighting for the South, Polly knows just how it feels to have a family split in half. But if the North and the South could find a way to reunite despite their differences, can’t Amanda’s family do the same?



Description from Amazon.com

Stolen Children


When Amy agreed to baby-sit Kendra Edgerton, she had no idea she was stepping into a kidnapping plot. Two men force the girls out of the house and into a cabin in the woods, where they create DVDs to send to the families, in hopes of a large ransom from Kendra’s wealthy parents. Using her wits and imagination, Amy stealthily sends clues to the police through the DVDs, but time is working against her: She has one week until her captors decide to return Kendra and get rid of Amy.

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Seer of Shadows


Horace Carpetine does not believe in ghosts.



Raised to believe in science and reason, Horace Carpetine passes off spirits as superstition. Then he becomes an apprentice photographer and discovers an eerie—and even dangerous—supernatural power in his very own photographs.


When a wealthy lady orders a portrait to place by her daughter's gravesite, Horace's employer, Enoch Middleditch, schemes to sell her more pictures—by convincing her that her daughter's ghost has appeared in the ones he's already taken.


It's Horace's job to create images of the girl. Yet Horace somehow captures the girl's spirit along with her likeness. And when the spirit escapes the photographs, Horace discovers he's released a ghost bent on a deadly revenge. . . .

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School Spirit


All Kat Roberts wants is to be normal, or at least to look that way to students at her new school. But her mother is a medium, and not the kind that fits in between small and large; Kat's mom is the kind of medium who sees spirits and communicates with them. And, even worse, Kat has just discovered that she can see spirits too.



Description from Amazon.com

Safe at Home


Nick Crandall feels like he doesn’t belong anywhere. He doesn’t fit in with his new foster parents. They don’t know the first thing about sports—and he’s not exactly the model student they want him to be. It’s only a matter of time until they realize he’s not the right kid for them. And Nick certainly doesn’t belong playing varsity baseball. He’s only twelve years old! His teammates want a catcher their own age. But Nick needs to prove that he belongs—to his parents, to his team, and to himself.

Description from Amazon.com

Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy


Franny is thrilled when she's accepted by the Allbright Academy, an elite private boarding school designed to train leaders. But she knows she's not as smart as the other kids there—or as beautiful, accomplished, confident, or mature. The fact is, the Allbright students—from their shining teeth and flawless complexions to their sky-high test scores and long lists of honors—are absolutely perfect. Then the Allbright magic begins to rub off on Franny, too. The question is: Is this a good thing?


Can Franny and her friends Cal, Brooklyn, and Prescott un-ravel the Allbright Academy's secret, or will they, too, succumb to its eerie perfection?

Description from Amazon.com

Margret and Flynn, 1875


The year is 1875, and twelve-year-old orphan Margret and her sister, Libby, are living with the kind Mrs. Fredriksen in her sod house in rural Littleton, Colorado. Margret would be happy to stay forever, but she knows that Libby, with her basic distrust of anyone other than Margret, will have them moving soon enough. Then a tornado sweeps through, bringing with it an injured horse. Immediately Margret lays claim to the horse, naming him Flynn, nursing him back to health, and teaching herself to ride. Now more than ever, Margret yearns for some stability in her life. Somehow, she’s got to find a way to convince Libby to stay so she can make Flynn hers.

Description from Amazon.com

Magic Half


Miri is the non-twin child in a family with two sets of them--older brothers and younger sisters. The family has just moved to an old farmhouse in a new town, where the only good thing seems to be Miri's ten-sided attic bedroom. But when Miri gets sent to her room after accidentally bashing her big brother on the head with a shovel, she finds herself in the same room . . . only not quite.


Without meaning to, she has found a way to travel back in time to 1935 where she discovers Molly, a girl her own age very much in need of a loving family. A highly satisfying classic-in-the-making full of spine-tingling moments, this is a delightful time-travel novel for the whole family.
 
Description from Amazon.com

Leanin' Dog


More than anything, Dessa Dean needed a friend. A friend to love and confide in, a friend with whom she could share her heart. A friend who would delight in all the beauty and joy and fun of Christmas, only four days away.


Hope had just about run out, but then . . . there came a scratchin' at the door and Dessa Dean's life was forever changed.


Description from Amazon.com

Go Big or Go Home


A meteorite is hurtling toward the Black Hills of South Dakota. . . .


Brady Steele's love for all things extreme is given a boost when a fireball crashes through the roof of his house. It turns out that Brady's space rock is one of the rarest meteorites ever found. In fact, a professor from a nearby museum wants to study it in search of extraterrestrial bacteria, hoping to discover the first proof of life beyond Earth.


During a wild week of extreme bicycling, fishing, and caving, Brady discovers he's able to do strange and wonderful feats that shouldn't be possible. At the same time, he's developing some frightening symptoms. Could he be infected with long-dormant microbes from space? Is his meteorite a prize . . . or a menace?


Description from Amazon.com

Found


Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adoped, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you."



Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere -- and people who seem to appear and disappear at will. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip's lives.



Description from Amazon.com