This document appears to be presenting nominees for the Massachusetts Children's Book Award for 2013-2014. It provides short summaries of 12 books nominated for the award, with each summary being 1-2 paragraphs in length. The summaries highlight the central characters, plots and themes of each nominated book.

1. Presenting………..
This year’s
nominees
for…..

2. Massachusetts
Children’s
Book Award
2013-2014
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3. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes
By Jonathan Auxier
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Peter Nimble is a blind orphan who, in
order to survive, has learned to be a really
good thief. One day, he steals a box that
contains 3 magical pairs of eyes. When
he tries the first pair, he is instantly
transported to a hidden island where he is
presented with a special quest: to travel to
the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and
rescue a people in need. Along with his
loyal sidekick—a knight who has been
turned into an unfortunate combination of
horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he
goes on an unforgettable adventure to
discover his true destiny.

4. Tango: The Tale of an Island Dog,
By Eileen Beha
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Tango is used to the good life. He has a
silver heart charm for his dog collar, a
luxurious doggy bed—even speciallymade booties for taking walks in Central
Park. But then disaster strikes when
Tango’s owners sail into stormy waters off
the coast of Nova Scotia and the little
Yorkie is swept overboard. Washed
ashore on Prince Edward Island, Tango
waits for his owners to come for him, but
when they don’t appear, he decides to do
something about it himself. Tango's tale is
told in alternating chapters by three
animals and two human characters.

5. The Red Blazer Girls: the Vanishing
Violin, by Michael D. Beil
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys have
nothing on this detective team of 7th
graders. They find themselves in the
middle of not 1, not 2, but 3 mysteries
that they must solve before it’s too late.
Who’s breaking into their school?
Who’s stealing things, and who do they
have to “out-connive” to find out? In the
meantime, they are forming a rock band
and learning the ins and outs of middle
school.

6. Perfect Game,
By Fred Bowen
Isaac is obsessed with pitching the perfect
game. His father’s emphasis on the need to
be perfect doesn’t help either. Isaac’s
obsession with perfection makes him forget
his role as a team player and even as a good
sport. All he cares about is being drafted onto
the Thunderbolts all-star team. But then,
Isaac's coach asks him to help out with a
basketball team he coaches, a very special
team. This book includes a section on MLB
pitchers who have pitched perfect games -interestingly, very few had winning seasons at
the same time. The stats are good to
underscore the messages in the book.
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7. World Cup,
By Matt Christopher
World Cup relates the history of soccer from its
beginnings in 1930 to 2006. There are
highlights of each tournament and fascinating
details about players and games. There’s
history about how world events affected the
athletic competition, as in the rivalry between
Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini at the 1938
World Cup. The last chapter offers an overview
of Women's World Cup from 1991 to 2007,
including the United States team's incredible
win over China in 1999. The narration is
enthusiastic. Has short chapters and loads of
action.

8. We the Children (Benjamin Pratt and the
Keepers of the School), by Andrew
Clements
This first book in the “The Keepers of the
School" series introduces the reader to
middle-schoolers Ben and Jill. In a few
weeks, their school will be destroyed and
replaced by an historical amusement park,
but there’s something more going on,
something dangerous. A janitor suddenly
dies, entrusting Ben with an antique gold
coin, a secret, and a warning to promise to
protect the school, no matter what. The
cliff-hanger ending will have you anxiously
awaiting the next installment of this series.

9. The Lost Children, by Carolyn Cohagan
A world away, the children of Gulm have been
taken. No one knows where they might be,
except the mysterious and terrifying leader of
the land: The Master. He rules with an iron
fist, using two grotesque creatures to enforce
his terrible reign. When a peculiar boy named
Fargus shows up on Josephine's property and
then disappears soon after, she follows him
without a second thought and finds herself
magically transported to Gulm, a land from
which children never return. This gently
creepy fantasy has everything: villains,
laughs, frights, and a great surprise twist at
the end.
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10. The Trouble with Chickens,
by Doreen Cronin
J.J. Tully is a former search-and-rescue dog
who is trying to enjoy his retirement after
years of performing daring missions saving
lives. So he's not terribly impressed when
two chicks named Dirt and Sugar (who look
like popcorn on legs) and their chicken mom
show up demanding his help to track down
their missing siblings. Driven by the promise
of a cheeseburger, J.J. begins to track down
clues. Is Vince the Funnel hiding
something? Are there dark forces at work or is J.J. not smelling the evidence that's
right in front of him?
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11. The Mighty Miss Malone,
by Christopher Paul Curtis
The motto of Deza’s family is :“We are a
family on a journey to a place called
wonderful.”
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Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary,
Indiana, singled out by teachers for a special
path in life. When the Great Depression hits
her town hard, and there are no jobs for
black men, Deza’s beloved father has to
leave home to find work. When no one hears
from him for way too long, Deza, Mother, and
older brother Jimmie go in search of him, and
end up experiencing the highs and lows of
life, from living in a homeless camp in
Michigan to a successful singing career.
Their separate journeys to find father, reveal
the devastation of the Great Depression and
prove that Deza truly is the Mighty Miss
Malone

12. The Total Tragedy of a Girl named Hamlet,
By Erin Dionne
Hamlet Kennedy just wants to be your average,
happy, vanilla eighth grader, but it’s not easy with
parents who are Shakespearean scholars who dress
in costume and go about in public as if it were the
1500’s. And having a 7-year-old genius sister who is
smart enough to go to her school isn’t bad enough,
but things get even worse when they make her the
math tutor! Then her teacher announces a
Shakespeare project, and Hamlet’s talents take away
any chance of her ever being normal again. Funny
and unique, this book will resonate with every girl
currently suffering through middle school.

13. Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper
Eleven-year-old Melody has a
photographic memory, like a video camera
that is always recording. Always. She’s the
smartest kid in her whole school—but NO
ONE knows it.
Most people—her teachers and doctors
included—don’t think she’s capable of
learning. If only she could speak up, if only
she could tell people what she thinks and
knows. But she can’t. She can’t talk. She
can’t walk. She can’t write.
Being stuck inside her head is making
Melody go out of her mind—that is, until
she discovers something that will allow her
to speak for the first time ever. At last
Melody has a voice . . . but not everyone
around her is ready to hear it.
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14. 90 Miles to Havana,
by Enrique Flores-Galbis
90 Miles to Havana takes place in Cuba
right after the revolution in the 1950’s.
Life becomes very hard for the people
of Cuba, and families try to leave the
country together, but they are not
allowed. Julian's parents make the
heartbreaking decision to send him and
his two brothers away from Cuba to
Miami via the Pedro Pan (Peter Pan)
operation. In Miami, the boys are thrust
into a new world where bullies run
rampant and it's not always clear how
best to protect themselves.
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15. The Other Half of my Heart,
By Sundee Frazier
The day Minerva and Keira King were born, they
made news around the world. Keira was born
black like Mama, but Minni was white like Daddy.
Now the twins are eleven, and while Minni knows
that the family looks like a chessboard row
walking down the street, in their own eyes,
they're the close-knit King family.
Then Grandmother Johnson calls and sweeps
the twins off on a ten-day trip to the South where
they will compete for the title of Miss Black Pearl
Preteen of America. Minni is mortified, but Keira
assures her that together they'll make it through
the experience. Living with their grandmother is
not easy, however, and the sisters' relationship
begins to buckle under the strain.
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Minni has always believed that no matter how
different she and Keira look to the world, they
share a bond of the heart that goes deeper. Now
she'll find out if that's true.

16. CHOMP, by Carl Hiaasen
Wahoo Cray lives in a zoo. His father is an
animal wrangler, so he's grown up with
gators, snakes, parrots, rats, and monkeys
in his backyard. The critters he can handle.
His father is the unpredictable one.
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When his dad takes a job with a reality TV
show called "Expedition Survival!", Wahoo
figures he'll have to do a bit of wrangling
himself—to keep his dad from killing Derek
Badger, the show's boneheaded star,
before the shoot is over. But the job keeps
getting more complicated. They've only
been on location in the Everglades for a
day before Derek gets bitten by a bat and
goes missing in a storm. Search parties
head out and promptly get lost themselves.
And then the show’s sidekick’s dad shows
up with a gun...
It's anyone's guess who will actually survive
"Expedition Survival"...

17. Small as an Elephant,
By Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Ever since Jack can remember, his mom
has been unpredictable, but Jack never
thought his mom would take off during the
night and leave him at a campground in
Acadia National Park. With no way to
reach her and barely enough money for
food, any other kid would report his mom
gone, but Jack knows by now that he
needs to figure things out for himself starting with how to get from the
backwoods of Maine to his home in
Boston… before DSS catches on. With
nothing but a small toy elephant to keep
him company, Jack begins the long
journey south, a journey that will test his
smarts and his loyalties.

18. Inside Out and Back Again,
By Thanha Lai
For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only
known her home in Vietnam, the city of
Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of
its traditions, the warmth of her friends close
by . . . and the beauty of her very own
papaya tree.
But now the Vietnam War has reached her
home. Hà and her family are forced to flee
as Saigon falls, and they board a ship
headed toward hope. In America, Hà
discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the
coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its
food, the strange shape of its landscape . . .
and the strength of her very own family.
This is the moving story of one girl's year of
change, dreams, grief, and healing as she
journeys from one country to another, one
life to the next.
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19. Hero, by Mike Lupica
Fourteen-year-old Zach Harriman can
feel the changes: the sharpening of
his senses, the incredible strength.,
super speed, the confidence and the
strange need to patrol Central Park at
night. His dad had been a hero, a
savior to America and a confidante of
the president. Then he died, and the
changes began in Zach. What Zach
never knew was that his father was no
ordinary man-he was a superhero,
battling the world's evil.
And now it's Zach's turn to take on the
fight. It's Zach's turn to become a
hero.
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20. The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann
Every year in Quill, thirteen-year-olds are sorted
into categories: the strong, intelligent Wanteds go
to university, and the artistic Unwanteds are sent
to their deaths. 13-year-old Alex tries his hardest
to be stoic when he is announced as Unwanted,
while leaving behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted.
Upon arrival at the destination where he expected
to be killed, however, Alex discovers a stunning
secret: behind the mirage of the "death farm"
there is instead a place called Artime.
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In Artime, each child is taught to nurture his
creative abilities and learn how to use them
magically, weaving spells through paintbrushes
and musical instruments. It’s a wondrous
transformation.
But it's a rare, unique occurrence for twins to be
separated between Wanted and Unwanted, and
as Alex and Aaron's bond stretches across their
separation, a threat arises for the survival of
Artime that will pit brother against brother in an
ultimate, magical battle.

21. Summer of the Gypsy Moths,
by Sara Pennypacker
If you’re looking for a wonderful story, you probably
wouldn’t consider one in which two twelve-year-old
girls bury an old lady in the garden and lie about her
death so they don’t have to be shipped off into foster
care. But that’s just what Stella and Angel do. Ever
since her mom left her again, Aunt Louise took her in,
along with a second foster girl named Angel who mixes
with Stella like oil and water. But Aunt Louise never
mentioned her bad heart. When she dies, both girls
need to buy a little time. Stella is sure her mom is
going to come for her by the end of summer, and
Angel is waiting for her own aunt to get approval from
the state to become her legal guardian. And George
and the summer cottages where Aunt Louise worked
are right next door. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to hide the
truth for just a little while, would it?

22. The Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered What
Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out
Where They Went, and Went There, by
Daniel Pinkwater
Iggy is the child of an old-time movie star
and a psychiatrist who believes in letting
kids do whatever they like. She lives in an
old Hollywood hotel that is full of ghosts.
When the kids notice the ghosts are all
disappearing they follow a ghostly bunny
into an alternate universe , complete with
evil witches, a mean dictator, and lots of
information about life in Hollywood. With
the help of the main characters from the
Neddiad (Neddie and Seamus), this
adventure is funny, not at all straightforward, and full of general craziness.
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23. The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan
Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything
before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl,
Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all
students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for
“bad kids.” What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—
except that everything seems very wrong.
Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three
days, and her nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger.
Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak
storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip,
she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called
Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?
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Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp HalfBlood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats
Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training,
monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse
everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone
missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—
including Leo—related to a god.
The first book in the sequel series to The Percy
Jackson and the Olympians series.

24. Emma on Thin Icing (Cupcake
Diaries),
by Coco Simon
When Mia asks the girls in the
Cupcake Club to be junior
bridesmaids in her mother's wedding,
everyone is superexcited about the
idea...especially when they find the
perfect dress for the occasion!
Unfortunately, it’s also superexpensive, and with her mother out of
a job, Emma decides to take on a few
more jobs and chores around the
house to help cover the cost. Between
babysitting her bratty brother, a dogwalking business, flute practice, the
Cupcake Club, Emma may have bitten
off more than she can chew. Can she
handle it all?
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25. Jake and Lily,
By Jerry Spinelli
Jake and Lily are twins. Even though they seem
pretty different—they feel exactly the same,
almost like two halves of one person. Jake is the
calm one and Lily has a temper; Lily is obsessed
with trains and Jake collects cool rocks. When
one of them gets hurt, the other can feel it. They
communicate without words. And mysteriously,
every year on their birthday, they sleepwalk to a
train station in the middle of the night.
But the year they turn eleven, everything
changes. Jake starts hanging out with a pack of
boys on the block. Lily is devastated—not to
mention really, really mad. And as she struggles
to make friends and get a life apart from her twin,
Jake finds himself dealing with a neighborhood
bully and has to decide what kind of person he
really is.
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26. I Survived…Hurricane Katrina, 2005,
by Lauren Tarshis
The horror of Hurricane Katrina is
brought to life in this fictional account of
a boy, a dog, and the storm of the
century.
Barry's family tries to evacuate before
Hurricane Katrina hits their home in New
Orleans. But when Barry's little sister
gets terribly sick, they're forced to stay
home and wait out the storm.
At first, Katrina doesn't seem to be as
bad as predicted. But overnight the
levees break, and Barry's world is
literally torn apart. He's swept away by
the floodwaters, away from his family.
Can he survive the storm of the century
– alone?
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27. Dragonbreath, by Ursula Vernon
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Danny Dragonbreath feels like a loser.
No matter how hard he tries, he can't
muster up even one lukewarm
dragon's breath. Now he's in trouble
with his teacher at his school for
reptiles and amphibians. He handed in
a poorly written paper on the ocean
and received a well-deserved F. Now
he must rewrite the paper. To research
the topic he talks to his cousin, a sea
serpent. Along with Danny's iguana
friend, Wendell, Edward takes them on
an underwater adventure to the
Sargasso Sea. The adventure
becomes life-threatening when Danny
and Wendell are attacked by a giant
squid. Danny must save his friend, but
he can’t even breath like a dragon,
how can he manage this heroic task?

28. Read and enjoy!!!!!
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