Voice of Youth Award Books 2006-2007 7th and 8th grades
Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. 2002.
The year is 1972. Jack Gantos is in prison, incarcerated for a
get-rich-quick drug scam. His escape from the constant violence around him
is a ragged copy of The Brothers Karamazov. Keeping a journal of
his thoughts, ideas, fears, and dreams in the tight spaces between the
lines, it becomes his virtual lifeline to hope. Could this be his way out
of a "gaping hole of misery," his grounds for success?
Grant, K.M. Blood Red Horse. 2005.
Does Will have the three things required for becoming a noble knight?
Hosanna is his "blood red" horse, on the scrawny side and not really your
typical warhorse; Ellie is a fair maiden, but she is expected to wed
Will's brother Gavin; and as for the third element, a just cause, King
Richard I is calling for a Crusade. The knights of England are off to the
Middle East. Read more about Blood Red Horse in Kids' Books We Love!
Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob. 2002.
Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact
that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens
to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent. Read more about Son of the Mob in Kids' Books We Love!
Mead, Alice. Girl of Kosovo. 2001.
Caught in the Balkan war of the late 1990s, 11-year-old Zana struggles
to heed her father's advice not to "let them fill your heart with hate."
Half her family has been killed by Serbian forces, Zana is badly injured
herself, and people she once considered friends are now enemies.
Meyer, L.A. Bloody Jack. 2002.
After her family is killed by the plague in 1797 London, Mary bonds
with a gang of orphans living in the streets. When her friend Charlie is
killed, she does not hesitate: she strips the dead body, puts on Charlie's
clothes, cuts her hair short and renames herself Jack Faber. Jack finds
work on the HMS Dolphin as a ship's boy and soon proves her bravery when
she saves her friend Jamie from pirates. Life is not easy though for
"Bloody Jack" as she is now known. What if someone discovers that she is a
girl?
Oppel, Kenneth. Airborn. 2004.
Matt is a cabin boy on a dirigible--an airship--when the ship
encounters a battered hot-air balloon with a dying man on board. Before he
dies, the man describes the beautiful swarming creatures he has seen
flying over an uncharted island. Matt is then joined by Aurora, the dying
man's granddaughter, in a quest to locate the "cloud cats" -- the
mysterious flying creatures who live hundreds of feet above the Earth's
surface.
Peck, Richard. Fair Weather. 2001.
Lottie, Rosie, and their younger brother, Buster, along with their
eccentric grandfather, experience quite an adventure when they head to
Chicago for the 1893 World's Fair.
Weeks, Sarah. So B It: A Novel. 2004.
"Soof." What could it possibly mean? Thirteen-year-old Heidi's mother,
"So B It," is developmentally disabled and knows exactly 23 words, the
other 22 being simple terms like "hot" or "cold." The two have lived with
Bernie since Heidi was about a week old, mysteriously arriving on Bernie's
doorstep. One day Heidi comes across an old camera with film in it and
after having it developed she is more determined than ever to unravel the
secrets of her past and the meaning of "soof." Read more about So B. It in Kids' Books We Love!
Werlin, Nancy. Double Helix. 2004.
Eli Samuel's mother is institutionalized with Huntington's disease, a
degenerative disease without a cure, the gene of which Eli might carry as
well. It surprises and intrigues him when he is offered a well-paid job at
Wyatt Transgenetics right out of high school. He accepts it despite
intense objections from his father. Is there a connection between his
mother's illness and Dr. Wyatt's research? What does Eli have to do with
it?
Zindel, Paul. The Pigman: A Novel. 1968.
John and Lorraine never meant to become friends with Angelo Pignati.
It was all just a practical joke played by the two high school sophomores.
Now Angelo is dead and it's up to them to tell the story of the Pigman.
