Minnesota Student
Choice Book Award
2005-2006
Maud Hart Lovelace
• 1892 – 1980
• Grew up near
Mankato, Minnesota
• Famous for Betsy-
Tacy books
Guidelines for
Nominees
• Nominated by students, teachers,
and librarians
• Author is living and resides in
North America
• Available in paperback
• Published in the past 5 years
• Cannot be part of a series
Guidelines for
students
• Be in 3rd – 8th grade
• Read at least 3 of the
nominated books by
March 21
2005-2006 Maud
Hart Lovelace
Nominations
• Ernie, 12 years
old, is a business
tycoon
• Starts a pet funeral
business
• Hires friends to
help: Dusty –
decorates burial
boxes; Tony – digs
holes; Swimming
Pool – cries on cue
• Humorous story
with lesson on
friendship
• Lina and Doon – 12
year olds who have
finished school and
now have been
assigned jobs as a
Messenger and a
Pipeworker
• Feel their city is
dying and seek to
find a way out
• Mystery and
adventure story
which takes place in
the year 241
• Gooney Bird Greene,
2nd grader, loves to
be center of
attention
• New student at
Watertower
Elementary School
• Entertains her
teacher and
classmates with
“absolutely true”
stories about
herself
• Very humorous
• Rosie, 12 years old,
needs help in
working out
problems with her
best friend, Bailey
• Bailey is nearly blind
and lives next door
to Rosie
• Granny helps Rosie
and Bailey make
things right by
telling stories and
sharing family
recipes
• Miguel, 10 years old, has
just moved to Vermont
from New York City
with his mother and
younger sister
• Embarrassed when his
aunt from the Dominican
Republic, Tia Lola, moves
in with them
• Tia Lola doesn’t speak
English; dresses and
acts in strange ways
• In time, she has way of
winning his love through
her special treats and
influence to help him
make the baseball team
• Ruby, oldest of 10
children, wants to be
teacher
• When her father
dies in lumberjack
accident, she must
quit school and stay
home to help with
younger brothers
and sisters
• Ruby struggles to
accept her father’s
death and her dream
of being a teacher
• Hank Zipzer, 4th grader,
has learning disability
• Acts as class clown to
hide his academic
difficulties
• Hates to write, so
decides instead of
writing an essay on
Niagara Falls, he will
make a model
• Unfortunately things
don’t go quite as planned
when he presents it and
he finds himself in
detention for a week
• Hollis Woods is 12 year
old orphan
• Has lived in many foster
homes – most were not
good experiences
• Strongly desires to be
adopted by one of her
former foster families
• Finally placed in a foster
home with a retired art
teacher who needs
Hollis as much as Hollis
needs her
• Learns to give as well as
receive
• Runt – smallest wolf
cub in pack
• His father is
embarrassed by him,
so Runt continually
tries to prove
himself
• In doing so, always
makes mistakes
which only earn his
father’s disapproval
• Can he finally do
something worthy of
his father’s love??
• William, 11 years old,
gets to adopt a dog,
Riley
• Riley helps William
get over his
grandfather’s death
• Riley is taken away
to be killed because
he chases and
attacks neighbor’s
horse
• Can William save
Riley?
• Roscoe, 10 years old,
eats at same fast
food restaurant
every day for 10
days
• Begins to turn into
giant bug
• Lots of humor and
adventure as he
tries to discover why
• Tyler, 12 years old,
wants to be TV star
• While visiting his
uncle, a writer on
the most popular TV
show, he auditions
for a part
• His dream just might
come true, but he
learns that the road
to fame is full of
surprises
• Adam, living near
Honolulu, is excited to
be going fishing with his
friends one Sunday
morning
• While out on the boat,
the boys witness
Japanese planes flying
overhead and attaching
the U.S. Navy on
12/7/41
• Adam searches for
answers about his
friends and war as he
searches for his father
who was a Navy
Lieutenant on the
Arizona
• Blake, 16 years old,
afraid of roller
coasters
• Quinn, Blake’s fearless
brother who
sometimes goes too
far
• Blake has to enter
bizarre phantom
carnival to save Quinn
• In order to escape,
Blake must survive 7
deadly rides in one
night
• Scary fantasy which
moves along at a fast
pace
• Roy is new kid at
middle school in
Florida
• Joins up with teenage
runaway, Mullet
Fingers, and his sister,
Beatrice, to protect
nesting ground of
burrowing owls
• Mystery/adventure
story which includes
greedy developers,
corrupt politicians,
clueless cops, and
wacky middle-
schoolers
• Matt is young clone of
El Patron, a 142 year old
leader of a corrupt drug
empire in Mexico
• Most clones are
despised by humans, but
Matt enjoys special
status
• That status is because
Matt is to be the heart
donor when El Patron
needs a new heart to
continue living
• Can Matt avoid his own
death?
• Hiram, 16 years
old, loves living in
Mississippi
• Can’t understand why
his dad refuses to have
a relationship with
Hiram’s grandfather and
wants to move his family
out of the South
• During a summer visit
back in
Mississippi, Hiram finds
himself disagreeing with
his grandfather over
the murder of a 14 year
old African American
boy
• Christian, who loves to
invent things, is being
raised by a troll
• Observes beautiful
princess from afar and
falls in love
• Leaves home to try and
meet the princess, but
discovers plot against
her and her father
• Can Christian outwit the
evil Queen Olympia?
• Molly’s parents
disappear one night
• She is turned over
to the custody of a
great uncle who
tries to sedate and
poison her
• She dreams an old
Mohawk story of a
Skeleton Man
• Through her dreams
she finds a way to
save her own life
Voting
• Takes place March 21
• Rush Creek winner announced on
March 23
• State-wide winner announced April
25th (Maud-Hart Lovelace’s
birthday)
Previous Winners
Include:
• 2005 – Doll People / Zach’s Lie
• 2004 – Touching Spirit Bear / In the Stone Circle
• 2003 – Dovey Coe / Ghost of Fossil Glen
• 2002 - Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun /
Silverwing
• 2001 - Among the Hidden / Million Dollar Shot
• 2000 – Tangerine / Danger in the Desert
• 1999 – Crash / Frindle
• 1998 - Mick Harte was Here
• 1997 - The Devil’s Arithmetic / Summer I Shrank My
Grandmother