Here they are! The Golden Sower nominees for 2014-2015. Remember, you must read at least four from the list in order to be eligible to vote next spring. I included both the intermediate and the young adult list.
Happy Reading!
Intermediate List:
Beck, W.H. Malcolm at Midnight.
Illustrated by Brian Lies. Houghton Mifflin, 2012. ISBN 9780547681009
Malcolm, a smaller than average rat, loves life at McKenna School and the secret society of classroom pets that keep children out of trouble, but when Aggy the iguana disappears Malcolm must use all of his ratty persistence to prove his innocence and save her.
Fitzmaurice, Kathryn. A Diamond in the Desert.
Viking, 2012. ISBN 9780670012923 [paperback: Puffin, 2013. ISBN 9780142424377]
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, thirteen-year-old Tetsu and his family are sent to the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona where a fellow prisoner starts a baseball team, but when Tetsu’s sister becomes ill and he feels responsible, he stops playing.
George, Jessica Day. Tuesdays at the Castle.
Bloomsbury, 2011. ISBN 9781599906447 [paperback: Bloomsbury, 2012. ISBN 9781599909172]
Eleven-year-old Princess Celie lives with her parents, the king and queen, and her brothers and sister at Castle Glower, which adds rooms or stairways or secret passageways most every Tuesday. When the king and queen are ambushed while travelling, it is up to Celie–the castle’s favorite–with her secret knowledge of its never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom. Page 4 Nebraska Golden Sower Award Nominee Titles 2014-2015 Sponsored by Nebraska Library Association’s School, Children’s, and Young People’s Section www.goldensower.org
Harkrader, Lisa. The Adventures of Beanboy.
Houghton Mifflin, 2012. ISBN 9780547550787
Wheaton, Kansas, seventh-grader Tucker MacBean loves comic books, so when his favorite comic has a contest to create a sidekick, he is hopeful that he can win, thereby fixing his struggling family.
LaFleur, Suzanne. Eight Keys.
Wendy Lamb Books, 2011. ISBN 9780385740302 [paperback: Yearling, 2012. ISBN 9780375872136]
When twelve-year-old Elise, orphaned since age three, becomes disheartened by middle school, with its bullies, changing relationships, and higher expectations, keys to long-locked rooms and messages from her late father help her cope.
Lupica, Mike. The Underdogs.
Philomel, 2011. ISBN 9780399250019 [paperback: Puffin, 2012. ISBN 9780142421390]
Small but fast twelve-year-old Will Tyler, an avid football player in the down-and-out town of Forbes, Pennsylvania, takes matters into his own hands to try and finance the city’s football team, giving the whole community hope in the process.
MacLachlan, Patricia. Kindred Souls.
Katherine Tegen Books, 2012. ISBN 9780060522971 [paperback: Katherine Tegen Books, 2013. ISBN 9780060522995]
Ten-year-old Jake shares a special bond with his grandfather, Billy, but when Billy asks Jake to build him a sod house, Jake is not sure he wants to do it.
Nielsen, Jennifer A. The False Prince.
Scholastic, 2012. ISBN 9780545284134 [paperback: Scholastic, 2013. ISBN 9780545284141]
In the country of Carthya, a devious nobleman engages four orphans in a brutal competition to be selected to impersonate the king’s long-missing son in an effort to avoid a civil war.
Spinelli, Jerry. Jake and Lily.
Balzer + Bray, 2012. ISBN 9780060281359 [paperback: Balzer + Bray, 2013. ISBN 9780064471985]
Jake and Lily are twins and have always felt the same–like two halves of one person–but the year they turn eleven and Jake begins hanging out with Bump Stubbins, everything changes.
Turnage, Sheila. Three Times Lucky.
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012. ISBN 9780803736702
Washed ashore as a baby in tiny Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, Mo LoBeau, now eleven, and her best friend Dale turn detective when the amnesiac Colonel, owner of a café and co-parent of Mo with his cook, Miss Lana, seems implicated in a murder.
Young Adult List:
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. Jefferson’s Sons. Dial, 2011. ISBN 9780803734999 [paperback: Puffin, January 2013. ISBN 9780142421840] A fictionalized look at the last twenty years of Thomas Jefferson’s life at Monticello through the eyes of three of his slaves, two of whom were his sons by his slave, Sally Hemings.
Condie, Ally. Matched. Dutton Books, 2010. ISBN 9780525423645 [paperback: Speak, 2011. ISBN 9780142419779] All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, who to marry. When she is Matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn’t be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky’s face show up on her match disk as well?
Deuker, Carl. Payback Time. Houghton Mifflin, 2011. ISBN 9780547279817 [paperback: Graphia, 2012. ISBN 9780547577333] Overweight, somewhat timid Mitch reluctantly agrees to be the sports reporter for the high school newspaper because he is determined to be a writer. He senses a real story in Angel, a talented football player who refuses to stand out on the field or to discuss his past.
Evans, Richard Paul. Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25. Simon Pulse, 2011. ISBN 9781451656503 [paperback: Simon Pulse, 2012. ISBN 9781442468122] Fourteen-year-old Michael Vey has electric powers. Michael thinks that he is unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor has the same mysterious powers. With the help of his friend, Ostin, the three teens set out to discover how they came by these abilities, and their investigation leads them
Falls, Kat. Dark Life. Scholastic, 2010. ISBN 9780545178143 [paperback: Scholastic, 2011. ISBN 9780545178150] When fifteen-year-old Ty, who has always lived on the ocean floor, joins Topside girl Gemma in the frontier’s underworld to seek and stop outlaws who threaten his home, they learn that the government may pose an even greater threat.
Kalkowski, John. Red Cell. iUniverse, 2010. ISBN 9781450212090 [paperback: iUniverse, 2010. ISBN 9781450212076] After winning a baseball game with an innovative toss of a rosin bag, Will Conlan catches the interest of a chief operative of the Homeland Security’s Analytic Red Cell.
Lu, Marie. Legend. Putnam Juvenile, 2011. ISBN 9780399256752 [paperback: Speak, January 2013. ISBN 9780142422076] In a dark future, when North American has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.
Patneaude, David. Epitaph Road. EgmontUSA, 2010. ISBN 9781606840559 [paperback: EgmontUSA, 2011. ISBN 9781606841891] In 2097, men are a small and controlled minority in a utopian world ruled by women, and fourteen-year-old Kellen must fight to save his father from an outbreak of the virus that killed ninety-seven percent of the male population thirty years earlier.
Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. Philomel Books, 2011. ISBN 9780399254123 [paperback: Speak, 2012. ISBN 9780142420591] In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil.
Sonnenblick, Jordan. After Ever After. Scholastic Press, 2010. ISBN 9780439837064 [paperback: Scholastic, 2011. ISBN 9780439837088] Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.