After the death of her mother in an automobile accident, seventh grader Serena Shaw, who has gotten the lead role of Dorothy in the school play The Wiz, struggles daily with  caring for herself and her little brother while waiting for their father to pull out of his depression.

Hugo is an orphan who lives in a train station after being abandoned by his uncle. He survives by continuing his uncles job as the clock-keeper. But Hugo has a secret and one day, the toymaker finds out about this secret. Hugo thinks his unsure existence has come to an end. But wait...does the toymaker and his friendly granddaughter want to help? Half text and half illustrations, this novel is sure to delight all. Selznick won the 2008 Caldecott prize for excellence in children's illustrations.

Eleven-year-old Elijas will tell you that his greatest claim to fame is that he once threw up all over Frederick Douglas. Oh, yeah, he's also the first child of the Buxton family to be born with absolute freedom. However, when an injustice is done, Elijah travels into slave-owning territory to right the wrong. Will he be able to get back to the freedom that his parents fought so hard for? Curtis won the 2008 Coretta Scott King award for excellence in children's literature for depiction of the African-American experience. 

"Colors without black, wouldn't sparkle quite so bright." So begins this wonderful book of poetry. The following 13 poems in this beautifully illustrated picture book, celebrate the diversity of African-American beauty. Floyd Cooper won the 2009 Coretta Scott King award for excellence in children's illustrations of the African-American experience.

Nobody Owens, Bod for short, lives in a graveyard. Yes, you read correctly, a graveyard. He lives among tombstones and the ghosts that inhabit the underneath of those stones. He is raised by a lovely elderly couple who never had children when they were alive. Bod also has a guardian, and he's a member of the "undead." All work together to help Bod solve the mystery of what happend to his family. Gaiman won the 2009 Newbery award for excellence in children's literature for this tale of the dead.

Meet the eclectic class of characters that makes up the medieval village of Laura Amy Schlit's Newbery award winning book. Told in wonderful verse form, as well as well-written informative text, this book is guaranteed to please all who love the life of knights, castles and saints, oh my!