Books in BCCB BLUE RIBBON FICTION BOOKS series

Hi! Hi there!I am Jack! Big dog Jack. WAG TAIL. I live with a big Pack. This is my Packleader. I love him HUGE amounts! More than steak, even. YUMYUM. My Packleader has a Pack Lady and three children. I love them BIG amounts, too. And this is Petra; she lives next door. Isn't she Gorgeous? This is my story. It's SO EXCITING! Find out how I become friends with Petra, brave the FIERCE garage dog, and save Packleader from Huge Scary Metal Monsters. ARROOOF ARROOOF!

The award-winning Wilborn Hampton recounts one horrifying day in history through the eyes of several people who experienced it firsthand.A blind man and his dog struggling to escape from the burning North Tower, a company of firefighters risking their lives to help with the evacuation, an ordinary citizen turned rescue worker sifting through debris after the towers collapsed - each of these individuals endured a personal nightmare, and each carries a separate memory.In SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: ATTACK ON NEW YORK CITY, Wilborn Hampton captures an unprecedented piece of history through interviews and accounts of survivors, heroes, and terrorists. In addition, the seasoned reporter tells his own story, thus bringing to readers the grieving, compassionate voice of a fellow New Yorker who was close to Ground Zero. Amplifying the narrative are fifty-four black-and-white photographs, indelible images of horror and heroism unfolding. The panorama of views Wilborn Hampton presents, following several individuals through September 11 and its aftermath, creates an intimate portrait of life and loss, and a deeper understanding of the events of that tragic day.Back matter includes a bibliography, a filmography, and an index.

As twins with special gifts, one for keeping secrets and one for telling the truth, sisters Adele and Edela are important figures in the town of Merendon, thus when they turn seventeen and a dancing-master and his apprentice come to stay at their father’s inn, flirtatious acts and mistaken identity result in unexpected relationships amongst the group.

I See a Kookaburra! lets readers search for an oystercatcher, an elephant shrew, and a fierce snapping turtle in the places where they live. Learn how these animals and many others grow and thrive in very different environments.Incorporated into the book is an interactive element. Hidden in the illustrations are animals camouflaged in their surroundings. Turn the page to see if you were able to find them all!

The blues aren't all sad. There's joy in the blues as well as heartbreak. Love discovered. Love lost. Love just around the corner. In this beautiful tribute to the poetry and art of the blues, renowned author Walter Dean Myers collaborates with his son, award-winning illustrator Christopher Myers, in a true masterpiece of picture book creation filled with struggle, grief, hope, joy, and love. Each original blues-style verse on a page calls out a response from the artist in striking tones of brown, black, white, and blue. Together, father and son weave an enchanting story of the creation of the blues through the experiences of African Americans from the end of slavery through the beginning of the civil rights movement. This book is for older children who love music and their parents who will appreciate the layered sophistication of the striking artwork and interplay between art and text. Includes an author's note explaining the birth and development of the blues, a timeline of blues milestones, and an explanatory glossary of terms in the blues. Together this content deepens the appreciation for the blues as a truly original art form. A Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor book An ALA Notable bookHorn Book Fanfare SelectionKirkus Reviews Editor's ChoiceNew York Public Library Book for the Teen AgeA Children's Book of the Year, Child Study Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College

Starting high school is never easy. Seniors take your lunch money. Girls you’ve known forever are suddenly beautiful and unattainable.The guys you grew up with are drifting away.And you can never get enough sleep. Could there be a worse time for Scott’s mother to announce she’s pregnant? Scott decides high school would be a lot less overwhelming if it came with a survival manual, so he begins to write down tips for his new sibling. Scott’s chronicle of his first year of bullies, romance, honors classes, and brotherhood is both laugh-out-loud funny and touchingly wise.

How to survive being goodLike a flashback memory, he’s there in my mind: skimming up the stairs at school, his sloppy old T-shirt big as a sail, red tie-dyed dragon T-shirt, who wears stuff like that? No one. Jinsen.The kids at Edward Rucher High School call Jinsen “Buddha Boy” and condemn him as a freak. With his shaved head and perpetual smile, Jinsen certainly doesn’t help matters when he starts begging for lunch money in the cafeteria. So when Justin is paired with Jinsen for a class project, he plans to get done with it as soon as possible, and climb right back into his safe social niche. Then Justin discovers Jinsen’s incredible artistic talent and becomes curious about his beliefs. But being friends with Buddha Boy isn’t simple, and Justin is forced into a cruel contest with the jocks who just can’t seem to leave Jinsen, or his artwork, alone. Kathe Koja introduces an unforgettable young man who will remind readers of the true meaning of friendship and demonstrate how to draw strength from the little gods inside each of them.

He got into nails, of course, because He'd always loved hands -- hands were some of the best things He'd ever done. In God Went to Beauty School Cynthia Rylant imagines a God whose curiosities about the world He created inspire Him to go out and experience human things. But what would God do if He could live in a human world? Would He write a fan letter? Get a dog? Make spaghetti? God Went to Beauty School celebrates the simple things in life while taking a long, hard look at what it means to be human. Rylant's soft, reflective, and often humorous verse glimpses everyday life through wide and wondering eyes and blends the familiar with the profoundly spiritual.

Winner of the Printz HonorAward-winning biographer Elizabeth Partridge dives into Lennon’s life from the night he was born in 1940 during a World War II air raid on Liverpool, deftly taking us through his turbulent childhood and his rebellious rock’n’roll teens to his celebrated life writing, recording, and performing music with the Beatles. She sheds light on the years after the Beatles, with Yoko Ono, as he struggled to make sense of his own artistic life—one that had turned from youthful angst to suffocating fame in almost a split second.Partridge chronicles the emotional highs and paralyzing lows Lennon transformed into brilliant, evocative songs. With striking black-andwhite photographs spanning his entire life, John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth is the unforgettable story of one of rock’s biggest legends.

As a young man, Rudyard Kipling was devastated when his military application was rejected because of poor eyesight. Although Rudyard would go on to win England’s highest accolades, he never got over this lost opportunity to serve his country. When World War I broke out, John, like his father before him, wanted to fight for his country. When his military application was threatened for the same reason as his father’s—poor eyesight—Rudyard took matters into his own hands. Determined not to let history repeat itself, the elder Kipling applied all his influence to get his son a commission. The teenager who had lived his life in comfort and whose greatest concern had been pleasing his father now faced a much greater challenge—staying alive in his first battle.Geert Spillebeen’s moving fictionalized account follows the true story of John Kipling, a young man whose desire to live up to the family name threatens his very survival. It also draws attention to the senseless suffering and loss of life in this and every war.