Prairie Pasque Nominees 2009-2010

Kate Banks

Nine-year-old Lenny Brewster is captivated by the world — the mysteries of machines, the magic of snow, the pure joy of a perfect ride down a slippery slide. He knows a lot, but not how to share it with others. Of course, it doesn't help having an absent father, a preoccupied mother, and a teacher and peers who don't like him. Lenny spends much of his time in the principal's office or alone, absorbed in his ideas. Then he meets Van, a kindred spirit, and Muriel, the canny school therapist. Their simple acceptance of Lenny helps him find his place at last.

Grade Level: 3-5
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Nic Bishop

Spiders are fascinating and suitably gruesome, especially when looked at in EXTREME close-up. Amazing images show the beauty and otherworldliness of spiders. Simple, engaging text conveys basic information about spiders as well as cool and quirky facts. One stop-action montage shows a spider leaping twenty times its body length!

Grade Level: 3-5
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.

Andrew Clements

The fifth-grade girls and the fifth-grade boys at Laketon Elementary don't get along very well. But the real problem is that these kids are loud and disorderly. That's why the principal uses her red plastic bullhorn. A lot. Then one day Dave Packer, a certified loudmouth, bumps into an idea — a big one that makes him try to keep quiet for a whole day. But what does Dave hear during lunch? A girl, Lynsey Burgess, jabbering away. So Dave breaks his silence and lobs an insult. And those words spark a contest: Which team can say the fewest words during two whole days? And it's the boys against the girls. How do the teachers react to the silence? What happens when the principal feels she's losing control? And will Dave and Lynsey plunge the whole school into chaos?

Grade Level: 3-5
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Peggy Gifford

It wasn't as if Moxy Maxwell hadn't tried to do her summer reading. She and Stuart Little had been inseparable all summer, like best friends. If Stuart Little wasn't in her backpack, it was in her lap… or holding up the coffee table… or getting splashed when Moxy went swimming. But now it's the end of August — the day before fourth grade. And if Moxy doesn't read all of Stuart Little immediately, there are going to be “consequences.” It may look like Moxy is doing nothing, but actually she is very busy with a zillion highly crucial things — like cleaning up her room (sort of) and training her dog and taking a much-needed rest in the hammock. Just look at the pictures her twin brother Mark takes to document it all — they're scattered throughout — and you'll see why it's so difficult to make time for a book about a mouse.

Grade Level: 3-5
Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Kimberly Willis Holt

“When a man joins the navy, his family joins the navy,” or so nine-year-old Piper Reed's dad always explains to his family when they pack up and move every couple of years because of his job as a Navy airplane mechanic. This most recent move, however, from San Diego to Pensacola, takes place in the middle of the school year and is especially trying for the whole bunch. Fortunately, not much gets Piper down for long, even the prospect of her dad's upcoming six-month deployment away from his family. Piper soon recreates her San Diego band of pals, the Gypsy Club, with new friends and decides she may even grow up to join the Blue Angels flight team, which practices nearby.

Grade Level: 3-5
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)