CLAU

My sister in law, Nikki, told me about the Children's Literature Association of Utah. They are and association that awards the Beehive Award each year for Children's books. Each year there are several good books nominated in several categories. There is a voting process, and one book in each category wins the coveted Beehive award.

We have been on the road a lot this month, and so I wanted to bring a bunch of books that my kids might enjoy that were outside of the normal series and genera that they might normally choose. I took a look at the website and was able to see lists of past years' nominations and winners. I figure this would be a pretty good resource to get some reading recommendations for me and my kids. I have read several books from that list that I was impressed with:

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver.

This is the first in a series called "Chronicles of Darkness." We actually listened to this one in the car on our trip to St. George. The reading was done by Ian McKellen (Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies). It was amazing. Ian McKellen did such an incredible job reading this story. Several times I wondered if I would enjoy it as much if I just read it myself. We loved this one so much we are listening to the next one in the series called "Spirit Walker."

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

I read the whole Shadow Children series written by this same author and loved those. She has such a great writing style that makes you want to keep turning the pages. I love how she comes up with a plot that I've never thought of before and so it's really hard to predict what might happen in a situation like that. The end takes a twist that I would have never guessed.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This is another one of those books that has a plot that is so creative. Essentially, there is a meteor that hits the moon and bumps it out of it's orbit closer to the earth. The book is written as diary entries from a 15 year old girl as she documents the events that take place in the world and to hear family after this global crisis. This one was in the Young Adult section and has a bit of language in it, so I would only recommend it for older children or adults. I'm thinking this one would be good for my book club that's been taking a break for way too long (This is a heads-up, girls!)

The Liberation of Gabriel King by K.L. Going

This one is set in the South in the early 70's (I think)

when there is still some racism. It's a story of a white boy in 5th grade whose best friend is a black girl. Gabriel is a scaredy cat and his courageous and determined friend tries to help him overcome his fears and in the process we find out about her fears as well. This is a very easy read that I found very entertaining.

I'm not done with my stack of books to read, but these are the ones I loved so far. My goal is to read all the 2009 nominations for Children's Fiction and Young Adult Fiction and VOTE! If you live in Utah, you can vote at your library and voting will probably start in January.