2010 Ohioana Book Award Finalist for Best Juvenile Book

by Greg on April 15, 2010

Here is the 2010 Ohioana Book Award Finalist for Best Juvenile Book.

The books eligible for the 2010 Ohioana Book Award were published in either 2008 or 2009 and received by Ohioana by 2009.

Best Juvenile Book

Remember, click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.

	Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World Author: Nelson, Marilyn Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney Format: Poetry Type: Juvenile Book Page Count: 80pp. Pub. Date: October 2009 Publisher: Dial
Nominated for the 2010 Ohioana Book Award for Best Juvenile Book In the 1940s, as the world was at war, a remarkable jazz band performed on the American home front. This all-female band, originating from a boarding school in the heart of Mississippi, found its way to the most famous ballrooms in the country, offering solace during the hard years of the war. They dared to be an interracial group despite the cruelties of Jim Crow laws, and they dared to assert their talents though they were women in a “man’s” profession. Told in thought-provoking poems and arresting images, this unusual look at our nation’s history is deep and inspiring.



	The Cuckoo’s Haiku and Other Birding Poems Author: Rosen, Michael J. Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney Format: Poetry Type: Juvenile Book Page Count: 64pp. Pub. Date: March 2009 Publisher: Candlewick Press
Nominated for the 2010 Ohioana Book Award for Best Juvenile Book A joyful primer on the pleasures of bird-watching merges haiku, notes for identifying species, and exquisite watercolor illustrations. In spare and graceful words, poet and birder Michael J. Rosen captures the forecasting call of the mysterious cuckoo as well as essential characteristics of more than twenty commonly seen North American birds. This artfully compiled field notebook — enriched by the evocative artwork of watercolorist Stan Fellows — captures the excitement of recognizing a bird, whether a darting kingfisher, a wandering wild turkey, or a chirpy house sparrow.



	The Unfinished Angel Author: Creech, Sharon Format: Novel Type: Juvenile Book Page Count: 164pp. Pub. Date: September 2009 Publisher: Harper Collins
Nominated for the 2010 Ohioana Book Award for Best Juvenile Book Peoples are strange! The things they are doing and saying — sometimes they make no sense. Did their brains fall out of their heads? And why so much talking, all those words spilling out of those mouths? Why don’t they be quiet? In a tiny village high in the Swiss Alps, life for one angel has been the same, well, for as long as she (or he?) can remember. Until Zola arrives, a determined American girl who wears three skirts all at once. For neighbors who have been long time enemies, children who have been lost, and villages who have been sleepily living their lives: hold on. Zola and the angel are about to collide. Zola is a girl with a mission. And our angel has been without one — til now. This hilarious and endearing novel by Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech reminds us that magic is found in the most oridinary acts of kindness.



	Imperfections: A Novel Author: Durrant, Lynda Format: Fiction Type: Juvenile Book Page Count: 176pp. Pub. Date: December 2008 Publisher: Clarion
Nominated for the 2010 Ohioana Book Award for Best Juvenile Book Rosemary Elizabeth likes Pleasant Hill. Unlike her former home, the Kentucky Shaker community is serene and full of beautiful things. The food is plentiful and delicious, and she dresses in spotless white garments. Above all, she and her younger siblings are safe there — from their drunken, often violent, father, and from the war between the Union and the Confederacy, which is said to be drawing closer every day. Perfection is the goal at Pleasant Hill, and Rosemary Elizabeth vows to be perfect so she’ll be allowed to stay. As time passes, however, she finds herself more and more at odds with the Shaker path, the rules that are supposed to govern everything she says and does and even what she dreams. If she eliminates all the imperfections the Shakers find in her, will anything remain? Carefully researched, Imperfections takes the reader inside a Shaker community in the 1860s and tells the story of a spirited young woman determined to be herself.



	Little Mouse Gets Ready Author: Smith, Jeff Illustrator: Jeff Smith Format: Cartoon Type: Juvenile Book Page Count: 32pp. Pub. Date: September 2009 Publisher: RAW Junior
Nominated for the 2010 Ohioana Book Award for Best Juvenile Book There is a lot to do before Little Mouse is ready to go visit the barn. Will he master all the intricacies of getting dressed, from snaps and buttons to Velcro and tail holes? Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Jeff Smith (Bone) and his determined Little Mouse reveal all the smallest pleasures of this daily task.



	Say the Word Author: Garsee, Jeannine Format: Novel Type: Juvenile Book Page Count: 368pp. Pub. Date: March 2009 Publisher: Bloomsbury
Nominated for the 2010 Ohioana Book Award for Best Juvenile Book Dredging up the past can knock the present right off balance. The world expects perfection from seventeen-year-old Shawna Gallagher, and for the most part, that’s what they get. She dates the right boys, gets good grades, and follows her father’s every rule. But when her estranged lesbian mother dies, it’s more than perfect Shawna can take. Suddenly, anger from being abandoned ten years ago is resurfacing along with Shawna’s embarrassment over her mother’s other family. As she confronts family secrets and questions from the past, Shawna realizes there’s a difference between doing the perfect thing and doing the right thing. Shawna’s honest and relatable voice will draw readers in and hold them until the last page in this coming-of-age story. Jeannine Garsee has delivered a compulsively readable second novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Laurie Halse Anderson.