The Great Stone Face Book Award is given annually in New Hampshire to an author whose book receives the most votes from students in grades four to six. A committee selects 25 recently published titles for voting during National Library Week each April, with the winner announced in May to promote reading and contemporary writing. The document also lists various nominated books along with a brief description of each story.

1. Great Stone Face Books 2009-2010

2. The Great Stone Face Book Award is sponsored by the Children's Librarians of New Hampshire (CHILIS) and is given each year to an author whose book receives the most votes from fourth through sixth graders throughout the state. Each year a committee chooses 25 recently published titles, which children then use as a guide for voting. The vote takes place every April during National Library Week, and the winner is announced in May. The purpose of the award is to promote reading enjoyment, to increase awareness of contemporary writing, and to allow children to honor their favorite author.

3. Introducing the….. 25 new titles on the Great Stone Face book award list….

4. CURSE OF THE NIGHT WOLF by Paul Stewart Barnaby Grimes, a punctual boy who runs errands around the city, is attacked one night by a huge dog, and gets caught up in a world of corrupt doctors, strange potions, and expensive furs. Listen!

5. THE DRAGONFLY POOL by Eva Ibbotson Tally and her friends at Delderton Boarding School form a dance troupe and travel to Bergania, where she befriends Karil, the crown prince, and helps him flee the Nazis after his father is assassinated. Listen!

6. EVERY SOUL A STAR by Wendy Mass Ally, Bree and Jack meet at Moon Shadow, an isolated campground, to watch a total eclipse of the sun. They begin to learn a great deal about themselves, each other, and the universe. Listen!

7. FEARLESS by Elvira Woodruff In late seventeenth-century England, eleven-year-old Digory and his brother Cubby, are forced to leave their hometown after their father is lost at sea. They become apprentices to the architect Henry Winstanley, who built a lighthouse on the treacherous Eddystone Reef--the very rocks that sank Digory's grandfather's ship years before. Listen!

8. FOUND by Margaret Haddix When thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces, each trying to repair the fabric of time. Listen!

9. THE FUNERAL DIRECTOR’S SON by Coleen Paratore The last thing twelve-year-old Christopher "Kip" Campbell wants is to take over the funeral business that has been in his New England family for generations, but he is the only Campbell heir and seems to be able to help the dead and their survivors in a most unusual way. Listen!

10. THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman The orphan Bod, short for Nobody, is taken in by the inhabitants of a graveyard as a child of eighteen months and raised lovingly and carefully to the age of eighteen years by the community of ghosts and otherworldly creatures. Listen and watch!

11. GREETINGS FROM NOWHERE by Barbara O’Connor In North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains, a troubled boy and his mother, a happy family seeking adventure, a man and his lonely daughter, and the widow who must sell the run-down motel that has been her home for decades, meet and are transformed by their shared experiences. Listen !

12. INTO THE VOLCANO by Don Wood While their parents are away doing research, brothers Duffy and Sumo Pugg go with their cousin, Mister Come-and-Go, to Kocalaha Island, where they meet Aunt Lulu and become trapped in an erupting volcano. Listen!

13. IT’S ONLY TEMPORARY by Sally Warner When Skye's older brother comes home after a devastating car accident, Skye moves from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to California to live with her grandmother and attend middle school. There she somewhat reluctantly makes new friends, learns to stand up for herself and those she cares about, and begins to develop a new relationship with her brain injured brother. Listen!

14. THE MAGIC THIEF by Sarah Prineas Conn's life is changed forever when he tries to pick the pocket of the wizard Nevery and instead gets a strong jolt of magic. Instead of punishing the boy Nevery takes Conn under his wing, teaches him magic, and enlists his help in finding the person responsible for stealing the city's magic supply . Listen!

15. MOSTLY TRUE ADVENTURES OF HOMER P. FIGG by W. Rodman Philbrick Homer P. Figg escapes from his wretched foster home in Pine Swamp, Maine, and sets out to find his beloved older brother, Harold, who has been illegally sold into the Union Army during the American Civil War. Listen!

16. NURK: THE STRANGE, SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF A (SOMEWHAT) BRAVE SHREW by Ursula Vernon Nurk, a sort-of brave shrew, packs up a few pairs of clean socks and sails off on an accidental adventure, guided by wisdom found in the journal of his famously brave and fierce grandmother. Listen!

17. OGGIE COODER by Sarah Weeks Quirky fourth-grader Oggie Cooder goes from being shunned to everyone's best friend when his uncanny ability to chew slices of cheese into the shapes of states wins him a slot on a popular television talent show. He soon learns the perils of being a celebrity--and having a neighbor girl as his manager. Listen!

18. OTTOLINE AND THE YELLOW CAT by Chris Riddell Ottoline and her non-human guardian, Mr. Munroe, investigate a string of burglaries and the disappearance of several lapdogs. Listen!

19. ROBE OF SKULLS by Vivian French The sorceress Lady Lamorna has her heart set on a very expensive new robe that is decorated with skulls and spiders, and she will stop at nothing--including kidnapping and black magic--to get the money to pay for it. Listen!

20. SAVVY by Ingrid Law Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to each member of her family– scarcely has time to figure it out when her father is injured in a terrible accident. Listen!

21. SCAT by Carl Hiaasen Nick and Marta are both suspicious when their biology teacher, the feared Mrs. Bunny Starch, disappears while on a field trip. They try to uncover the truth despite the police and headmaster's insistence that nothing is wrong. Listen!

22. THE SEER OF SHADOWS by Avi Photographer Horace Carpetine is hired to take a family photograph for society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht. When the photos show the image of Von Macht's dead daughter, Eleanora, Horace’s apprentice realizes that she has returned to seek vengeance on those who killed her. Listen!

23. by Tracy Barrett Xena and Xander Holmes, an American brother and sister living in London, discover that Sherlock Holmes was their great-great-great grandfather when they are inducted into the Society for the Preservation of Famous Detectives. They are given his unsolved casebook, from which they attempt to solve the case of a famous missing painting. SHERLOCK FILES: THE 100-YEAR-OLD SECRET Listen!

24. SWINDLE by Gordon Korman After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palomino cons him out of a valuable baseball card, sixth-grader Griffin Bing puts together a band of misfits to break into Palomino's heavily guarded store and steal the card back. Griffin plans to use the money to finance his father's failing invention, the Smart Pick fruit picker but things don’t go as he planned. Listen!

25. A THOUSAND NEVER EVERS by Shana Burg As the civil rights movement in the South gains momentum in 1963 and violence against African-Americans intensifies, residents of the small town of Kuckachoo, Mississippi, including seventh-grader Addie Ann Pickett, begin their own courageous struggle for racial justice after the town leaders refuse to follow the instructions left in a will. Listen!

26. THE TRUTH ABOUT HORSES, FRIENDS, & MY LIFE AS A COWARD by Sarah P. Gibson As she fearfully begins learning to ride and to manage the horses she never wanted her family to own, Sophie also begins to acquire friends on the Maine island she calls home. Listen!

27. WE CAN'T ALL BE RATTLESNAKES by Patrick Jennings When Crusher the gopher snake is captured, her only thought is to escape. As time goes by she befriends the other captured animals and she begins to realize that gaining her freedom also means leaving friends behind. Listen!

28. THE WOODEN MILE by Chris Mould Eleven-year-old Stanley Buggles is happily anticipating a long summer vacation in the house he inherits from his great-uncle. Soon after arriving in the seemingly peaceful village of Crampton Rock he discovers that along with the house, he has also inherited some sinister neighbors, a talking stuffed fish, and a host of mysteries surrounding his great-uncle's death. Listen!

29. … . and that’s 25! now all you have to do is….

30. Elementary Library Services Monadnock Regional School District September 2009 Podcasts courtesy of Nancy Keane http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/nh_2010.htm