Please note that I have included the call numbers of the books
we have in the John D. Verdery Library! - Mrs. W.

2007 The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron  On Order
Lucky, age ten, doesn't expect running away to be so complicated. A large cast of magnanimous surprises awaits her when she plans to hide from her guardian in the Mojave Desert. 

2006 Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins  YA F PER
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.

2005 Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata  YA F KAD
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

2004 The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo  JF DIC
"The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin."

2003 Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi  YA F AVI
"Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret."

2002 A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park  YA F PAR
"Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself."

2001 A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck YA F PEC
"During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman."

2000 Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis  JF CUR
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

1999 Holes by Louis Sachar  YA F SAC
As futher evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

1998 Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse  YA F HES
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

1997 The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg  YA F KON
Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.

1996 The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman  YA F CUS
"Summary: In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife and, in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart and a place in the world."

1995 Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech  YA F CRE & JF CRE
"After her mother leaves home suddenly thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left."

1994 The Giver by Lois Lowry  YA F LOW
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

1993 Missing May by Cynthia Rylant  JF RYL
After the death of the aunt who has raised her, 12-year-old Summer and her uncle leave their W. Va. trailer in search of the strength to go on living.

1992 Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor JF NAY
When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.

1991 Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli JF SPI
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.

1990 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry JF LOW
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

1989 Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman J 811 FLE
A collection of poems describing the characteristics and activities of a variety of insects.

1988 Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman JB LIN
Photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War President.

1987 The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman   JF FLE
A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they
inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.

1986 Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia Maclachlan JF MAC
"When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay."

1985 The Hero and the Crown by Robin Mckinley YA F MCK
"Prequel to: The Blue Sword. Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the Blue Sword, wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North."

1984 Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary  JF CLE
In his letters to his favorite author, ten-year-old Leigh reveals his problems in coping with his parents' divorce, being the new boy in school, and generally finding his own place in the world.

1983 Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt JF VOI
Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey must decide what she wants for her siblings and herself.


1982 A Visit To William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard J 811 WIL
A collection of poems describing the curious menagerie of guests who arrive at William Blake's inn.

1981 Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson JF PAT
Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.

1980 A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos  JF BLO
The journal of a 14-year-old farm girl records daily events in her small New Hampshire town.

1979 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin  YA F RAS
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment or heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.

1978 Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson JF PAT
The life of a 10-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.

1977 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor JF TAY & YA F TAY
A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.

1976 The Grey King by Susan Cooper
In this fourth book of The Dark Is Rising sequence, Will Stanton, visiting in Wales, is swept into a desperate quest to find the golden harp and to awaken the ancient Sleepers.

1975 M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton YA F HAM
As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M. C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love.

1974 The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox YA F FOX
Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.

1973 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George  JF GEO
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a 13-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

1972 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh  by Robert C. O'brien JF OBR
Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long lived.

1971 The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Cromer Byars  JF BYA
A teen-age girl gains new insight into herself and her family when her mentally retarded brother gets lost.

1970 Sounder by William H. Armstrong JF ARM
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and with the help of the devoted dog Sounder.

1969 The High King by Lloyd Alexander JF ALE
In this final part of the chronicle of Prydain the forces of good and evil meet in an ultimate confrontation, which determines the fate of Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper who wanted to be a hero.

1968 From the Mixed-up File of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg JF KON
Two runaway children make their home in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

1967 Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt YA F HUN
Raised in a loving, strict, old-fashioned way, Julie grows to womanhood through trial, virtuous example, headstrong conflict, to beauty and strength.

1966 I, Juan De Pareja by Elizabeth Borton De Trevino
Juan de Pareja, the slave who prepares the paints and canvases of the artist Velázquez, describes his work with his master and the climate of Spanish court life.

1965 Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska YA F WOJ
Manolo Olivar has to make a decision: to become a bullfighter like his father or to become a doctor.

1964 It's Like This Cat by Emily Cheney Neville YA F Nev
A large print edition of the story of a fourteen-year-old New York boy and his relationships with a stray tomcat, an eccentric old woman, a troubled older boy, the first girl with whom he has been friends, and his father.

1963 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle JF LEN
Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who disappeared while working for the government.

1962 The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare JF SPE
Daniel bar Jamin hates the Romans and vows to avenge his father's death but comes to realize that love may be a more powerful weapon than hate.

1961 Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'dell JF ODE
Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the California coast, an Indian girl spends eighteen years, surviving through her courage and self-reliance, and even finding a kind of happiness in her solitary life.

1960 Onion John by Joseph Krumgold JF KRU
His friendship with the town odd-jobs man, Onion John, causes a conflict between Andy and his father.

1959 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare JF SPE
A young girl rebels against bigotry which culminates in a witch hunt and a breathtaking trial.

1958 Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith YA F KEI
The story of Jeff Bussey, a farm boy living in 1861,, who joins the Union army an goes on an important mission to discover how Stand Watie and his Confederate Cherokee Rebels are receiving repeating rifles from northern manufacturers.

1957 Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Eggertsen Sorensen
Marly and her family share many adventures when they move from the city to a farmhouse on Maple Hill.

1956 Carry on Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham YA F BOW
A fictionalized biography of the mathematician and astronomer who realized his childhood desire to become a ship's captain and authored The American Practical Navigator.

1955 The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong
The school children of a small fishing village in Holland search for a wheel to put on the roof of their school so that storks will nest there and bring good luck to the town.

1954 And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold
"A memorable and deeply moving story of a family of New Mexican sheepherders, in which Miguel, neither child nor man, tells of his great longing to accompany men and sheep to summer pasture, and expresses his need to be recognized as a maturing individual."

1953 Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
An Indian boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his Inca ancestors.

1952 Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes  JF EST
When the Pye family's puppy, Ginger, disappears on Thanksgiving Day, the children are convinced that he has been abducted by a stranger in a yellow hat.

1951 Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates JB FOR
The life of the eighteenth-century Afican prince who, after being captured by slave traders, was brought to Massachusetts where he was a slave until he was able to buy his freedom at the age of sixty.

1950 The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli  JF DEA
A crippled boy in fourteenth-century England proves his courage and earns recognition from the King.

1949 King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry JF HEN
The story of the Arabian stallion who became a founding sire of the Thoroughbred breed, and of the mute Arabian boy who tended him as long as he lived.

1948 The Twenty-one Balloons by William Paene Du Bois  JF DUB
Relates the adventures of a professor on an incredible balloon trip.

1947 Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey JF BAI
Relates the adventures of a country doll made of an apple-wood twig with a hickory nut for a head.

1946 Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
Ten-year-old Birdie can not wait to pick the strawberries her family has planted at their new home in the Florida backwoods.

1945 Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson JF LAW
New folks are coming to live in the Big House, and  the animals of Rabbit Hill wonder if they will plant a garden and thus be good providers.

1944 Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes YA F FOR
After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution.

1943 Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray  JF GRA
The adventures of eleven-year-old Adam as he travels the open roads of thirteenth-century England searching for his missing father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel, Nick.

1942 The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds  JF EDM
In 1756, during the French and Indian War in upper New York state, ten-year-old Edward is determined to protect his home and family with the ancient, and much too heavy, Spanish gun that his father had given him before leaving home to fight the enemy.

1941 Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry JF SPE
A youth overcomes his fear of the sea and proves his courage to himself and his tribe.

1940 Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
In a nonfictionalized text and bold illustrations, the author not only portrays the famous American trailblazer, but provides an authentic picture of pioneer life at the beginning of the great Westward movement. The biography begins with Boone's youth in Pennsylvania and closes on the day he died in Missouri at the age of eighty-six.

1939 Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright  JF ENR
9 1/2-year old Garnet Linden lives on a Wisconsin farm with her parents, older brother Jay and younger brother Donald and enjoys the typical pleasures of childhood near a small midwest town: swimming in the river, hitching a ride into town, and the county fair. The night that Garnet finds a silver thimble in the river bed the drought breaks and the crops are saved, so her father is kept from financial ruin.

1938 The White Stag by Kate Seredy
The story arc pits the Magor tribe against the followers of a man we come to know Atilla the Hun.

1937 Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
The discoveries and adventures of ten-year-old Lucinda, who spends a wonderful year exploring the New York City of the 1890's.

1936 Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink  JF BRI
The adventures of an 11-year-old tomboy growing up on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.

1935 Dobry by Monica. Shannon
A Bulgarian peasant boy must convince his mother that he is destined to be a sculptor, not a farmer.

1934 Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs JB ALC
A biography of Louisa May Alcott, the author who based her most popular novel, Little women, on the people and events of her own life.

1933 Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
In the 1920's a Chinese youth from the country comes to Chungking with his mother where the bustling city offers adventure and his apprenticeship to a coppersmith brings good fortune.

1932 Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
Younger Brother, a Navaho Indian boy, undergoes eight years of training in the ancient religion of his people and the practical knowledge of material existence.

1931 The Cat Who Went To Heaven by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth
A little cat comes to the home of a poor Japanese artist and, by humility and devotion, brings him good fortune.

1930 Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
Hitty is a very special doll who belongs to Phoebe. Phoebe is proud of her beautiful doll and brings Hitty everywhere she goes. This is thrilling for Hitty, who finds herself involved in the most wonderful adventures both on land and at sea. She meets many people and makes new friends.

1929 The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
A Polish family in the Middle Ages guards a great secret treasure and a boy's memory of an earlier trumpeter of Krakow makes it possible for him to save his father.

1928 Gay Neck: the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
The story of a carrier pigeon raised in India who is used by a Bengal Regiment in France during World War I.

1927 Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James
The experiences of a mouse-colored horse from his birth in the wild, through his capture by humans and his work in the rodeo and on the range, to his eventual old age.

1926 Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
This book was a collection of Chinese folk tales for children.

1925 Tales From the Silver Lands by Charles Finger
A collection of nineteen folk tales collected and retold by the author from his travels throughout Central and South America.

1924 The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes
Wherein is told the story of Philip Marsham who lived in the time of King Charles and was bred a sailor but came home to England after many hazards by sea and land and fought for the King at Newbury and lost a great inheritance and departed for Barbados in the same ship, by curious chance, in which he had long before adventured with the pirates.

1923 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting JF LOF
Presents the story of the good doctor who learned the language of animals and made adventurous voyages.

1922 The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon  909 VAN
This classic history, first published in 1921 and winner of the first Newbery Medal, was illustrated in pen and ink by the author. This version has incorporated recent events.