Sunshine State Young Readers
If you don't live in Florida, you probably don't know about this award sponsored through the librarians association of Florida (FAME). The committee picks 15 books for grades 3-5 and grades 6-8 from a list of about 250. The limits are that the books have to be for pleasure reading, they have to be written within the last 4 years and they have to be written by an American author. The kids of Florida read the books and vote on which one is their favorite. So, since I'm a school librarian in Florida, I've been reading the new SSYRA books and like even a really great box of chocolates, there are some you like better than others. One that completely took me by surprise was 8 class pets + 1 squirrel divided by 1 dog = chaos by Vivian Vande Velde. It's a pretty skinny little chapter book and has a funny cover but I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it (really? Judging a book by it's cover? Shame on you!). Well, wow, was I wrong. ...