Prairie Pasque Nominees 2012-2013

Demarest, Chris

AMERICA'S RESTING PLACE. The story of the national cemetery-from the Revolutionary War to the present.

Arlington recounts the complicated history of one of the nation's most famous and most-visited national monuments and its fascinating daily life. Carefully researched and documented, Chris Demarest's watercolor paintings capture the spirit and pathos of the last resting place of more than 300,000 Americans who have served their country.

Grade Level: 1-5
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Draper, Sharon M

Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. 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, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows…but she can't, because Melody 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.

From multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon M. Draper comes a story full of heartache and hope. Get ready to meet a girl whose voice you'll never, ever forget.

Grade Level: 5+
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

George, Jean Craighead

The buffalo, an American icon once nearly extinct, has made a comeback. This stirring picture book tells the dramatic story, following bison from the Plains Indians to the cowboys, Teddy Roosevelt to the Dust Bowl, and from the brink of extinction to the majestic herds that now roam our national parks. Paired with gorgeous paintings by landscape artist Wendell Minor, Jean Craighead George's engaging text will inspire a new generation to understand and protect nature's delicate balance.

Grade Level: 4+
Publisher: Penguin Group Inc.

Golio, Gary

Jimi Hendrix was many things: a superstar, a rebel, a hero, an innovator. But first, he was a boy named Jimmy who loved to draw and paint and listen to records. A boy who played air guitar with a broomstick and longed for a real guitar of his own. A boy who asked himself a question: Could someone paint pictures with sound?

This is a story of a talented child who learns to see, hear, and interpret the world around him in his own unique way. It is also a story of a determined kid with a vision, who worked hard to become a devoted and masterful artist. Jimi Hendrix—a groundbreaking performer whose music shook the very foundations of rock 'n' roll.

Grade Level: 1+
Publisher: Clarion Books

Grant, Katy

When a teenage boy on a high-tech treasure hunt inadvertently stumbles into the middle of a crime, he finds himself in a dangerous situation that could turn deadly.

After a summer cooped up in his family's store selling bait, tackle, and soft drinks to tourists, fourteen-year-old Chase finally gets a chance to go on his first solo geocaching adventure. Using his GPS, he uncovers the geocache—a small metal box—hidden deep in the woods in some undergrowth. Inside, with a few plastic army men and a log book, is a troubling message for help in a child's handwriting. When Chase returns later, he finds another message in the geocache box, this time asking for food. He is curious—and worried—about the mysterious individuals leaving the messages. What if they are hopelessly lost or hiding from something-or someone? Before he can turn to the adults around him for help, Chase is pulled into a complex, dangerous drama and a chilling confrontation with an unstable father who will stop at nothing to hold on to his children.

Young readers will learn all about the high-tech adventure game of geocaching in Katy Grant's exciting novel that features heart-pounding action and surprising plot twists.

Grade Level: 5+
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers