Voice of Youth Award Books 2009-2010
7th and 8th grade
Click a title to check the Skokie Public Library catalog for the status of the book in the Youth Services collection. Titles marked with * are also available on audio and/or downloadable digital format.
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- Applegate, Katherine. Home of the Brave. 2007. *
- Kek’s father and brother have been killed and his mother is missing. He has moved from Sudan to Minneapolis and has never experienced snow, or even the cold of winter. He’s never ridden on a bus or had his own desk and books at school. Can he learn to speak a new language and overcome the pressures and prejudices of his new country?
- Cooney, Caroline B. Code Orange. 2005.
- While Mitty is working on his advanced biology project, he discovers, and handles, smallpox scabs. As the research continues, Mitty fears the virus is still active and that he may be infected and spreading the disease. And, as if this isn’t enough, Mitty is kidnapped by terrorists who want to turn him into a biological weapon!
- Dowd, Siobhan. The London Eye Mystery. 2008. *
- Kat and Ted, who has a form of autism, take their cousin, Salim, to the London Eye ferris wheel. They watch him get on, but he never gets off. When the police can’t find Salim, it’s up to Kat and Ted, whose brain “runs on a different operating system,” to solve the mystery.
- Dowell, Frances O’Roark. Shooting the Moon. 2008. *
- Jamie can’t wait to get letters from her older brother who has joined the Army and been sent to Vietnam. But, instead of letters, her brother sends her rolls of film which gradually show her a side of war she never expected to see.
- Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Dairy Queen: A Novel. 2006. *
- While running the family dairy farm practically by herself, 16-year-old D.J. helps train the quarterback from the rival football team. When she discovers that she, too, has a talent for football and decides to try out for the team, the real excitement begins.
- Mass, Wendy. Every Soul a Star: A Novel. 2008. *
- Three very different teens witness a rare total solar eclipse and, while learning many interesting facts about astronomy, discover as much about themselves as they do about each other.
- Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life As We Knew It. 2006. *
- Life dramatically changes for 16-year-old Miranda when a meteor hits the moon and knocks it closer to Earth. Worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, food shortages, and extreme weather changes cause life as she knows it to disappear.
- Shusterman, Neal. The Schwa Was Here. 2004. *
- “Antsy” Bonano’s new friendship with Calvin Schwa takes an interesting turn when they come up with moneymaking schemes to prove that nobody ever notices Schwa, even when he’s standing in a crowded room.
- Scott, Michael. The Alchemyst. 2007. *
- In this riveting struggle between good and evil, 15-year-old twins, Sophie and Josh, are caught between two rival alchemists who struggle over the formula for the secret of everlasting life.
- Smith, Roland. Peak. 2007. *
- Fourteen-year-old Peak ends up in the Himalayas with his father, who plans on Peak being the youngest person to climb Mount Everest. Find out what it’s like to climb the world’s highest mountain in this amazing and informative adventure.