Rebecca Caudill Award 4th-8th

The Rebecca Caudill Award is a student choice award for 4th-8th grade students in Illinois. To vote in February, a student needs to read at least three titles from the current year's list.

Travis and his sister, Corey, can’t resist a good trick—so when they learn that their

grandmother’s sleepy Vermont inn has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a

little “haunting” of their own. Scaring the guests proves to be great fun, and before long,

the inn is filled with tourists and ghost hunters eager for a glimpse of the supernatural.

But Travis and Corey soon find out that they aren’t the only ghosts at Fox Hill Inn. Their

thoughtless games have awakened something dangerous, something that should have

stayed asleep. Restless, spiteful spirits swarm the inn, while a dark and terrifying

presence stalks the halls and the old oak grove on the inn’s grounds. To lay the ghosts

to rest, Travis and Corey must first discover the dark history of Fox Hill and the horrors

visited on its inhabitants years earlier.

Ten-year-old Zoe Elias dreams of playing a baby grand piano at Carnegie Hall. But

when Dad ventures to the music store and ends up with a wheezy organ instead of a

piano, Zoe's dreams hit a sour note. Learning the organ versions of old TV theme songs

just isn't the same as mastering Beethoven on the piano. And the organ isn't the only

part of Zoe's life that's off-kilter, what with Mom constantly at work, Dad afraid to leave

the house, and that odd boy, Wheeler Diggs, following her home from school every day.

Yet when Zoe enters the annual Perform-O-Rama organ competition, she finds that life

is full of surprises--and that perfection may be even better when it's just a little off

center.

When falling crop prices threaten his family with starvation, fifteen-year-old Victor Flores

heads north in an attempt to "cross the wire" from Mexico into the United States so he

can find work and send money home. But with no coyote money to pay the smugglers

who sneak illegal workers across the border, Victor must struggle to survive as he

jumps trains, stows away on trucks, and hikes grueling miles through the Arizona

desert. Victor's journey is fraught with danger, freezing cold, scorching heat, hunger,

and dead ends. It's a gauntlet run by millions attempting to cross the border. Through

Victor's often desperate struggle, Will Hobbs brings to life one of the great human

dramas of our time.

Many stories tell of damsels in distress, who are rescued from the clutches of firebreathing

dragons by knights in shining armor, and swept off to live happily ever after.

Unfortunately, this is not one of those stories. True, when Creel’s aunt suggests

sacrificing her to the local dragon, it is with the hope that the knight will marry Creel and

that everyone (aunt and family included) will benefit handsomely. Yet it’s Creel who

talks her way out of the dragon’s clutches. And it’s Creel who walks for days on end to

seek her fortune in the king’s city with only a bit of embroidery thread and a strange pair

of slippers in her possession. But even Creel could not have guessed the outcome of

this tale. For in a country on the verge of war, Creel unknowingly possesses not just any

pair of shoes, but a tool that could be used to save her kingdom…or destroy it.

In 1941, bombs drop from the night skies of London, demolishing the apartment Nick

Freestone lives in with his mother. Deciding the situation in England is too unstable,

Nick's mother sends him to live with his father in Burma, hoping he will be safer living on

the family's teak plantation. But as soon as Nick arrives, trouble erupts in this remote

Burmese elephant village. Japanese soldiers invade, and Nick's father is taken prisoner.

Nick is stranded on the plantation, forced to work as a servant to the new rulers. As life

in the village grows more dangerous for Nick and his young friend, Mya, they plan their

daring escape. Setting off on elephant back, they will risk their lives to save Nick's father

and Mya's brother from a Japanese POW camp.

Emma-Jean Lazarus is the smartest and strangest girl at William Gladstone Middle

School. Her classmates don't understand her, but that's okay because Emma-Jean

doesn't quite get them either. But one afternoon, all that changes when she sees

Colleen Pomerantz crying in the girl's room. It is through Colleen that Emma-Jean gets

a glimpse into what it is really like to be a seventh grader. And what she finds will send

her tumbling out of a tree and questioning why she ever got involved in the first place.

Peter is thrilled to leave New York City to accompany his parents on an expedition to

Greenland to study global warming. There he has visions of things that should be too far

away for him to see. Generations ago, the people of Thea’s community were hunted for

possessing unusual abilities, so they fled beneath the ice. Thea needs help that only

Peter can give. Their meeting reveals secrets of both their pasts, and changes the

future for them both forever.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus and give up

her seat to a white man. This simple act sparked a nationwide movement for equality.

Award-winning author Russell Freedman puts readers in the midst of a volatile and

uplifting time.

Kek comes from Africa. In America, he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting.

He's never walked on ice, and he fallls. He wonders if the people in this new place will

be like the winter--cold and unkind. In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and

brother. But only he and his mother have survived, and now she's missing. Kek is on his

own. Slowly, he makes friends: a girl who is in foster care, an old woman who owns a

rundown farm, and a cow whose name means "family" in his native language. As Kek

awaits word of his mother's fate, he weathers the tough Minnesota winter by finding

warmth in his new friendships, strength in his memories, and belief in his new country.

In one month Jeremy Fink will turn thirteen. But does he have what it takes to be a

teenager? He collects mutant candy, he won't venture more than four blocks from his

apartment if he can help it, and he definitely doesn't like surprises. On the other hand,

his best friend, Lizzy, isn't afraid of anything, even if that might get her into trouble now

and then. Jeremy's summer takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious wooden box

arrives in the mail. According to the writing on the box, it holds the meaning of life!

Jeremy is supposed to open it on his thirteenth birthday. The problem is, the keys are

missing, and the box is made so that only the keys will open it without destroying what's

inside. Jeremy and Lizzy set off to find the keys, but when one of their efforts goes very

wrong, Jeremy starts to lose hope that he'll ever be able to open the box. But he soon

discovers that when you're meeting people named Oswald Oswald and using a private

limo to deliver unusual objects to strangers all over the city, there might be other ways

of finding out the meaning of life.

Kimchi and calamari. It sounds like a quirky food fusion of Korean and Italian cuisine,

and it's exactly how Joseph Calderaro feels about himself. Why wouldn't an adopted

Korean drummer—comic book junkie feel like a combo platter given:

(1) his face in the mirror

(2) his proud Italian family.

And now Joseph has to write an essay about his ancestors for social studies. All he

knows is that his birth family shipped his diapered butt on a plane to the USA. End of

story. But what he writes leads to a catastrophe messier than a table of shattered

dishes—and self-discovery that Joseph never could have imagined.

Like any young boy, Paolo becomes obsessed with what he can’t have — in his case, a

violin. Hidden away in his parents’ room, it beckons the boy to release the music inside

it. The music leads Paolo to a family secret, a story of World War II that changed the

course of his parents’ lives. But once the truth is told, the family is reunited in a way no

one had thought possible. From Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman comes a story

about sharing the joy of music from one generation to the next and about music’s power

to transform and heal.

When her father begins a long-distance romance with a Washington, D.C. zookeeper,

twelve-year-old Frankie sends fabricated e-mail letters to the zookeeper in an attempt to

end the relationship in this story about family, friendship, and growing up.

On a sunny day in June, at the beach with her mom and brother, fifteen-year-old Jane

Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything — absolutely everything — changed.

Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where

she knows kids will whisper, "That’s her — that’s Shark Girl," as she passes. In the

meantime there are only questions: Why did this happen? Why her? What about her

art? What about her life? In this striking first novel, Kelly Bingham uses poems, letters,

telephone conversations, and newspaper clippings to look unflinchingly at what it’s like

to lose part of yourself - and to summon the courage it takes to find yourself again.

When twelve-year-old Jamie Dexter's brother joins the Army and is sent to Vietnam,

Jamie is plum thrilled. She can't wait to get letters from the front lines describing the

excitement of real-life combat: the sound of helicopters, the smell of gunpowder, the

exhilaration of being right in the thick of it. After all, they've both dreamed of following in

the footsteps of their father, the Colonel. But TJ's first letter isn't a letter at all. It's a roll

of undeveloped film, the first of many. What Jamie sees when she develops TJ's

photographs reveals a whole new side of the war. Slowly the shine begins to fade off of

Army life - and the Colonel. How can someone she's worshipped her entire life be just

as helpless to save her brother as she is?

Will can see his future stretch out before him. It's as clear as the plains that lead to La

Junta and the first-place winnings at the rodeo. He will become a man, a cowboy with a

life of his own. But his twin brother, Denny, follows, bringing with him the memory of that

small white scar. Ahead lies adventure; behind, responsibility. And on the road between,

Will and Denny will travel together—brothers united by blood.

On the night Nazi soldiers come to her home in Czechoslovakia, Milada’s grandmother

says, “Remember, Milada. Remember who you are. Always.” Milada promises, but she

doesn’t understand her grandmother’s words. After all, she is Milada, who lives with her

mama and papa, her brother and sister, and her beloved Babichka. Milada, eleven

years old, the fastest runner in school. How could she ever forget? Then the Nazis take

Milada away from her family and send her to a Lebensborn center in Poland. There, she

is told she fits the Aryan ideal: her blond hair and blue eyes are the right color; her head

and nose, the right size. She is given a new name, Eva, and trained to become the

perfect German citizen, to be the hope of Germany’s future—and to forget she was ever

a Czech girl named Milada.

The thing about poodles is that Georgie Bishop hates to walk them. The thing about

Jeanie the Meanie is that she would rather write on her shoe than help Georgie with

their Abraham Lincoln project. The thing about Georgie's mom is that she's having a

baby—a baby who will probably be taller than Georgie very, very soon. The thing about

Georgie . . . well, what is the thing about Georgie?

Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High, who must spend

Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has

religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like Holling—he’s sure of it. Why else would she

make him read the plays of William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has

bigger things to worry about, like Vietnam. His father wants Holling and his sister to be

on their best behavior: the success of his business depends on it. But how can Holling

stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? A bully demanding cream

puffs; angry rats; and a baseball hero signing autographs the very same night Holling

has to appear in a play in yellow tights! As fate sneaks up on him again and again,

Holling finds Motivation—the Big M—in the most unexpected places and musters up the

courage to embrace his destiny, in spite of himself.

The night Martine Allen turns eleven years old is the night her life changes completely.

Martine's parents are killed in a fire, so she must leave her home to live on an African

wildlife reserve with a grandmother she never even knew she had. When Martine

arrives, she hears tales of a mythical animal living there—a white giraffe. They say no

one has ever seen the animal, but it does leave behind footprints. Her grandmother

insists that the white giraffe is just a legend, but then, one stormy night, Martine looks

out her bedroom window straight into the eyes of the tall silvery animal. Could it be just

Martine's imagination, or is the white giraffe real? And if so, why is everyone keeping its

existence a secret?