Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records Braille and Talking Books Division
Link to Agency Home Link to Agency Home Link to Braille and Talking Book Library Division
image of logo to yreader

NUMBER 1spaceWINTER 2001-2002
Arizona Young Readers Award
2002 Nominations

Each year students across Arizona read and vote for their favorite book for the Arizona young readers' award. The books are divided into groups; intermediate for 3rd - 6th grades and young adult for junior high - high school.

Here are the books nominated for the 2001-2002 school year. These books can be found in the fiction section of the children's department or in the fiction (ya fic) section of the young adult department of public libraries or check with your school media center or library. You can order them on tape from the Arizona Braille and Talking Book Library. To vote for your favorite book see your school's media specialist or librarian.

ARIZONA YOUNG READER INTERMEDIATE BOOKS

Carbone, Elisa
Stealing Freedom
RC 49079
Maryland, 1850s. Young slave girl Ann Maria suffers many hardships, including separation from her family. An abolitionist helps her escape to Canada on the Underground railroad. Based on a true case.

Dicamillo, Kate
Because of Winn-Dixie
RC 50679
10-year-old India Opal and her preacher dad move to a new town in Florida during the summer. Opal is lonely until she adopts a big stray dog she names Winn-Dixie. The 2 soon make friends with the local librarian, the pet store manager, and a nearly-blind elderly neighbor.

Rocklin, Joanne
Strudel Stories
RC 49331
Lori is upset after her grandpa Willy's death, but her sister, Jessica, finds the right way to help Lori. They make apple strudel using grandpa's recipe, and they tell the family stories he told about their jewish relatives who made the same strudel in other times and places.

Creech, Sharon
The Wanderer
RC 50785
13-year-old Sophie and her cousin Cody record their transatlantic voyage by sailboat to visit Bompie, their grandfather in England. Also on board are 3 uncles and another cousin. The journey of discovery for all 5 becomes especially important for Sophie, who was adopted into the family only 3 years ago.

Defelice, Cynthia
The Ghost of Fossil Glen
RC 47637
Stuck on the face of a cliff while looking for fossils, 6th-grader Allie is guided to safety by a mysterious voice. Other strange happenings lead Allie to believe she is dealing with a ghost - of a girl not unlike herself.

Petersen, P. J.
White Water
RC 45782
While taking a white-water rafting trip with his father and stepbrother, Greg faces the greatest challenge of his young life when his father is bitten by a rattlesnake. The 2 boys must navigate the rough rapids in a race against time to get medical care.

Vandevelde, Vivian
Smart Dog
RC 49623
5th-grader Amy meets a polite talking dog on her way to school. Sherlock turns out to be a science experiment, fleeing from the lab that planned to dissect him. Amy gets into trouble for lying to keep Sherlock, but in the end he protects her from the class bully.

The Girl with 500 Middle Names
by Margaret Haddix

Judy Moody
by Megan McDonald

The Graduation of Jake Moon
by Barbara Park

ARIZONA YOUNG READER TEEN BOOKS

Curtis, Christopher Paul
Bud, Not Buddy
RC 49311
During the great depression, 10-year-old Bud, a motherless boy, runs away from his latest (bad) foster home in Flint, Michigan. He sets out to walk to grand rapids in search of the man he believes to be his father - the renowned bandleader Herman E. Calloway. Coretta Scott King and Newbery awards.

Fletcher, Susan
Shadow Spinner
RC 49550
13-year-old Marjan, a crippled persian servant girl, is a gifted storyteller.because of her talent, she is ordered to join the sultan's harem but soon escapes to search for the perfect story to melt the sultan's heart and to save the life of his wife, Shahrazad.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds
Sang Spell
RC 48996
Recently orphaned, Josh Vardy is hitchhiking from Boston to Dallas to live with an aunt. After being beaten and robbed in the Appalachians, Josh is rescued by a community of ginseng gatherers who live without 20th-century conveniences. Once in Melungeon territory, no one will help him leave.

Peck, Richard
A Long Way From Chicago (#1): A Novel In Stories
RC 50305
In 8 short stories an old man reminisces about the week each summer he and his little sister spent with his grandmother. Joey likes the train ride and his feisty, independent grandmother, who tells 'whoppers,' fishes, and shoots a shotgun.

Blackwood, Gary
The Shakespeare Stealer
RC 48421
14-year-old widge is an orphan in Elizabethan England, trained to use shorthand to help an unprincipled clergyman steal sermons. Widge goes to London to purloin plays from William Shakespeare's company, but instead he is welcomed by the troupe and becomes part of the theater family.

Fleischman, Paul
Whirligig
RC 46874
Brent Bishop tries to kill himself by driving drunk but causes the death of a teenage girl instead. The dead girl's mother asks him, as restitution, to make 4 whirligigs with her daughter's face on them and to place them in the 4 corners of the country. During his summer of travel, Bishop finds that someone in each region takes comfort from the sight of his whirligig.

Paulsen, Gary
The Transall Saga
RC 47218
When 13-year-old Mark Harrison persuades his parents to allow him to camp alone for a week, he feels he is well prepared. The 4th night out, however, he falls into a strange tube of blue light and awakens in a world of red foliage. There he needs all his skills to survive the terrain and the hunter/warrior society he encounters.

Ritter, John H.
Choosing Up Sides
RC 46935
In 1921 Luke Bledsoe, 13, and his family relocate to an Ohio river town where his father is the new fundamentalist preacher. To his dad's dismay, Luke discovers he has a natural skill for playing baseball. After he sees the famed Babe Ruth play for charity, Luke decides to defy his father for a place on the diamond. No one is prepared for the consequences.

Bauer, Joan
Rules Of The Road
BR 11821
16-year-old Jenna loves selling shoes for the Chicago Gladstone shoe store. But when her drunken father arrives in town, Jenna jumps at the opportunity to drive ornery Mrs. Gladstone to Texas. Jenna and the elderly woman fret over the future of the store chain, now in Gladstone's son's unscrupulous hands.

Myers, Walter Dean
Monster
BR 12515
16-year-old Steve Harmon sits in jail accused of being a lookout in a deadly robbery. An aspiring filmmaker, Steve reviews his time in jail as a movie script. He wonders if he has become the monster that the prosecutor has made him out to be.

To order one of these books, you may call your librarian at 602-255-5578 or 1-800-255-5578 outside the Phoenix area. This publication is available in alternative format upon request by contacting the library.

YREADER

YREADER is published bi-annually by the Arizona State Braille and Talking Book Library Division, Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. Director: Linda Montgomery and editor: Jim Lovell

1030 N. 32nd Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85008
1-800-255-5578

Any mention of products and services in YREADER is for information only and does not imply endorsement.

YREADER is also available in braille, on cassette as part of newsletters unlimited, and on our web site at www.lib.az.us/braille/just/just.cfm. If you would like to receive this newsletter on cassette or in braille, please call 602-255-5578 or 1-800-255-5578.

ARIZONA SUMMER READING PROGRAM

This coming year’s Arizona summer reading program focuses on books & pets: our friends for life. All young readers will be receiving further information and promotional materials through the mail for the summer reading program.

17TH ANNUAL SPECIAL DAY FOR SPECIAL KIDS

Sponsored by:

Scottsdale Sunrise Rotary Club
Scottsdale Unified School District
Service Learning Classes

Come join us for free train rides, carnival activities, carousel rides, balloons, activity booths (by organizations such as the Boy Scouts, the Scottsdale Unified School District Service Learning Classes, Hallmark), clowns, face painting, petting zoo, and lots of food and ice cream-all for free!!!!!!!

Don’t miss Ronald McDonald, the Phoenix Suns Gorilla, Rural Metro Hook and Ladder #11, Scottsdale Police and Billy Club, AZ Cardinal Cheerleaders, The Phoenix Suns Dance Squad, AZ Diamondbacks and Suns players.

This free event is for the Valley’s special needs children and their families only.

Saturday, April 13, 2002 10am – 2pm McCormick Stillman Railroad Park, located on Indian Bend Rd. Scottsdale, AZ

No need to register. Hope to see you there.

Questions? Contact David Lewis 480-451-9500.

BORROWING AND RETURNING REMINDERS:

Books checked out should be returned in 30 days. You need to order at least one book a year to stay active.

CASSETTE MAGAZINES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE:

CRICKET a monthly literary magazine for ages 6-12; on one cassette with National Geographic World.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WORLD a monthly about people, places, custom, animals, and plant life, on one cassette with cricket.

SEVENTEEN a monthly beauty and fashion magazine for young women; careers, education, social relations, and diet.

SPIDER: THE MAGAZINE FOR CHILDREN stories, poems, and informational articles geared to readers ages 6-9, published monthly.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED FOR KIDS A monthly kids' version of the well-known sports magazine.

TEEN PEOPLE 10 issues in a year people magazine format directed to teens.

YOUNG ADULT MAGAZINE OF THE MONTH A different magazine each month.

Other magazines on cassette that teens might enjoy are Arizona Highways, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Smart Computing, Family Circle, National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Newsweek, Popular Science, and Reader’s Digest.

 

top of page

Updated:  10/02/2006

E-mail website
comments to:
webedits@lib.az.us