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Books in Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award series

  • The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club

    Phillip Hoose

    Hardcover (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), May 12, 2015)
    A Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor WinnerAt the outset of World War II, Denmark did not resist German occupation. Deeply ashamed of his nation's leaders, fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen resolved with his brother and a handful of schoolmates to take action against the Nazis if the adults would not. Naming their secret club after the fiery British leader, the young patriots in the Churchill Club committed countless acts of sabotage, infuriating the Germans, who eventually had the boys tracked down and arrested. But their efforts were not in vain: the boys' exploits and eventual imprisonment helped spark a full-blown Danish resistance. Interweaving his own narrative with the recollections of Knud himself, The Boys Who Challenged Hitler is National Book Award winner Phillip Hoose's inspiring story of these young war heroes.This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum.
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  • Remember: The Journey to School Integration

    Toni Morrison

    Hardcover (HMH Books for Young Readers, May 3, 2004)
    Toni Morrison has collected a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. These unforgettable images serve as the inspiration for Ms. Morrison’s text—a fictional account of the dialogue and emotions of the children who lived during the era of “separate but equal” schooling. Remember is a unique pictorial and narrative journey that introduces children to a watershed period in American history and its relevance to us today.
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  • Actual Size

    Steve Jenkins

    Hardcover (HMH Books for Young Readers, May 25, 2004)
    How big is a crocodile? What about a tiger, or the world’s largest spider? Can you imagine a tongue that is two feet long or an eye that’s bigger than your head? Sometimes facts and figures don’t tell the whole story. Sometimes you need to see things for yourself—at their actual size.
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  • Thunder Boy Jr.

    Sherman Alexie, Yuyi Morales

    Hardcover (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, May 10, 2016)
    From New York Times bestselling author Sherman Alexie and Caldecott Honor winning Yuyi Morales comes a striking and beautifully illustrated picture book celebrating the special relationship between father and son. Thunder Boy Jr. wants a normal name...one that's all his own. Dad is known as big Thunder, but little thunder doesn't want to share a name. He wants a name that celebrates something cool he's done like Touch the Clouds, Not Afraid of Ten Thousand Teeth, or Full of Wonder. But just when Little Thunder thinks all hope is lost, dad picks the best name...Lightning! Their love will be loud and bright, and together they will light up the sky.
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  • Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War

    Steve Sheinkin

    Hardcover (Roaring Brook Press, Sept. 22, 2015)
    Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War is New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin's award-winning nonfiction account of an ordinary man who wielded the most dangerous weapon: the truth. “Easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers.”―Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award winnerA National Book Award finalistA Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon bookA Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature finalistSelected for the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List In 1964, Daniel Ellsberg was a U.S. government analyst, helping to plan a war in Vietnam. It was the height of the Cold War, and the government would do anything to stop the spread of communism―with or without the consent of the American people. As the fighting in Vietnam escalated, Ellsberg turned against the war. He had access a top-secret government report known as the Pentagon Papers, and he knew it could blow the lid off of years of government lies. But did he have the right to expose decades of presidential secrets? And what would happen to him if he did it? A lively book that interrogates the meanings of patriotism, freedom, and integrity, the National Book Award finalist Most Dangerous further establishes Steve Sheinkin―author of Newbery Honor book Bomb as a leader in children's nonfiction.This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum.“Gripping.”―New York Times Book Review“A master of fast-paced histories...[this] is Sheinkin’s most compelling one yet. ”―Washington PostAlso by Steve Sheinkin:Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World's Most Dangerous WeaponThe Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & TreacheryUndefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football TeamThe Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil RightsWhich Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward ExpansionKing George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American RevolutionTwo Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil WarBorn to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America
  • The Dark

    Lemony Snicket, Jon Klassen

    Hardcover (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, April 2, 2013)
    Laszlo is afraid of the dark. The dark lives in the same house as Laszlo. Mostly, though, the dark stays in the basement and doesn't come into Lazslo's room. But one night, it does.This is the story of how Laszlo stops being afraid of the dark. With emotional insight and poetic economy, two award-winning talents team up to conquer a universal childhood fear.
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  • How the Amazon Queen Fought the Prince of Egypt

    Tamara Bower

    Hardcover (Atheneum, March 22, 2005)
    Serpot, ruler of a land where women live free, without men, leads her Amazon warriors in battle against Prince Pedikhons of Egypt, who has come to see for himself if women can equal men, even in battle.
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  • Invisible Allies: Microbes That Shape Our Lives

    Jeanette Farrell

    Hardcover (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), April 12, 2005)
    Mmm-mmm, microbes!Although we are accustomed to equating the presence of microbes with disease, in fact most microbes play a vital "friendly" role in shaping our lives. It is not just that one hundred million microbes can populate a thimbleful of fertile soil, or that many millions live happily in as much of our saliva. Microbes are everywhere, and we could not survive without them. To emphasize their amazing ubiquity, Jeanette Farrell considers the invisible bugs essential to an everyday event: the eating of a light lunch consisting of a cheese sandwich and a chocolate bar. Microbes create such a lunch, digest it, and, through the alchemy of decomposition, transform it so that the cycle can start all over again. In the course of her eye-opening narrative, Dr. Farrell relates the historical significance of using microbes to preserve foods, our long-standing ambivalence about the microbes that live on and in us, and our growing understanding of their importance.Interspersed with fascinating anecdotes and illustrations, Invisible Allies will transform the reader's perception of the microcosmic world - around and inside us.
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  • Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable

    Nicola Davies, Neal Layton

    Hardcover (Candlewick, Aug. 3, 2004)
    A noted zoologist teams up with a playful illustrator to present a fun, fact-filled guide to the fascinating (if not fragrant) world of poop across species.Hippos navigate by it, sloths keep in touch through it, dung beetles eat it . . . and most grownups would rather not to mention it. Meanwhile, scientists who study animal feces find out all sorts of things, such as how many insects a bat eats or just what technique a T. rex used to devour a triceratops 70 million years ago. However you look at it, poop is the quintessential prototype for recycling and probably the most useful stuff on earth. Take a peek at POOP and find out all you need to know — what it's for, where it goes, and how much we can learn from it.
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  • The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students

    Suzanne Jurmain

    Hardcover (HMH Books for Young Readers, Oct. 24, 2005)
    They threw rocks and rotten eggs at the school windows. Villagers refused to sell Miss Crandall groceries or let her students attend the town church. Mysteriously, her schoolhouse was set on fire—by whom and how remains a mystery. The town authorities dragged her to jail and put her on trial for breaking the law.Her crime? Trying to teach African American girls geography, history, reading, philosophy, and chemistry. Trying to open and maintain one of the first African American schools in America.Exciting and eye-opening, this account of the heroine of Canterbury, Connecticut, and her elegant white schoolhouse at the center of town will give readers a glimpse of what it is like to try to change the world when few agree with you.
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  • September 11, 2001: Attack on New York City

    Wilborn Hampton

    Hardcover (Candlewick, July 14, 2003)
    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.
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  • I See a Kookaburra!: Discovering Animal Habitats Around the World

    Steve Jenkins, Robin Page

    Hardcover (HMH Books for Young Readers, May 30, 2005)
    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!
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