Youth All Stars 2006: For All Ages

The list includes both fiction and nonfiction books. Titles are arranged alphabetically by author. The edition listed is the trade book, library bindings are not listed unless that is the only available format.

Titles received starred reviews from Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, School Library Journal, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Horn Book. The theme information is derived from cataloging information and is not comprehensive.

Grade & age designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used. Not all books are suitable for all readers/listeners.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine or the Library of Congress CIP description.

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• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party
  Author: Anderson, M.T.
  Publisher: Candlewick $ 17.99 ISBN: 0763624020 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ | National Book Award Finalist
  Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age 16, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
  Ages: 14-17 Category: Fiction | Historical
• Crispin: At the Edge of the World
  Author: Avi
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 16.99 ISBN: 078685152x Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  In this riveting sequel to the Newbery Award-winning Crispin: The Cross of Lead--the second book in a planned trilogy--Avi explores themes of war, religion, and family as he continues the adventures of Crispin and Bear.
  Ages: 10-14 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure
• Framed
  Author: Boyce, Frank Cottrell
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 16.99 ISBN: 0060734027 Date: 2006
  Booklist PW SLJ
  A few things to know about Dylan -He is the only boy in his entire town-so forget about playing soccer. His best friends are two pet chickens. His family owns the world's only gas station/coffee house-their pies are to die for, but profits are in the hole. Criminal instincts run in his family-his sister is a mastermind-in-training, and the tax men are after his father for questioning. And one more small thing about nine-year-old Dylan-the crime of the century has just fallen into his lap. With the same easy mix of wit, warmth, and wonder that made his debut novel, Millions, an award-winning international bestseller, Frank Cottrell Boyce tells the story of a boy who reminds an entire town of the power of art. - Publisher Marketing
  Ages: 8-12 Category: Fiction | Humorous
• Monster Blood Tatoo: Foundling
  Author: Cornish, D.M.
  Publisher: Putnam $ 18.99 ISBN: 039924628x Date: 2006
  Booklist PW SLJ
  The orphan Rossamund--a boy with a girl's name--begins his journey through the perilous Half-Continent where the human race lives in perpetual conflict withmonsters of every shape and description.
  Ages: 9-12 Category: Fiction | Speculative
• The Loud Silence of Francine Green
  Author: Cushman, Karen
  Publisher: Clarion $ 16 ISBN: 0618504559 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  Once again, Newbery Medalist Cushman (The Midwife's Apprentice) follows a young woman's progress toward her true self, this time exploring the nature of friendship and the experience of growing up Catholic in an era that is both fascinating and relevant to today's young people.
  Ages: 10-14 Category: Fiction | Historical
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
  Author: DiCamillo, Kate
  Publisher: Candlewick $ 18.99 ISBN: 0763625892 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  Parents' Choice Award (Spring) | Winner Quill Awards | Nominee
  The Newbery Medal-winning author of The Tale of Despereaux returns with this story about a toy china rabbit named Edward Tulane. When he becomes lost, Edward takes an extraordinary journey and shows readers a true miracle.
  Ages: 7-12 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure
• Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini
  Author: Fleischman, Sid
  Publisher: Greenwillow $ 18.99 ISBN: 0060850949 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW SLJ
  In this passionate biography, the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Whipping Boy turns his eye to the greatest magician of them all: Harry Houdini.
  Ages: 9+ Category: Biography
• Stay With Me
  Author: Freymann-Weyr, Garret
  Publisher: Houghton $ 16 ISBN: 0618605711 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  Sixteen-year-old Leila Abranel loves her older half-sisters--from her father's first marriage--but does not know them well. When her sister Rebecca commits suicide, Leila wants to know why and begins navigating her family's breakdown.
  Ages: 12-17 Category: Fiction
• The Braid
  Author: Frost, Helen
  Publisher: FSG $ 16 ISBN: 0374309620 Date: 2006
  Booklist PW SLJ
  In this unforgettable novel, award-winning poet Helen Frost eloquently twists strand over strand of language, braiding the words at the edges of the poems to bring new poetic forms to life while intertwining the destinies of two young girls and the people who cross their paths.
  Ages: 12+ Category: Fiction | Historical | Poetry
• River Secrets
  Author: Hale, Shannon
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 17.95 ISBN: 1582349010 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  Newbery-Honor winner Shannon Hale returns the reader to the intrigue and magic of Bayern, first introduced in her critically acclaimed novel, The Goose Girl. Enter a world where even those with no special magical skills find in themselves something they never imagined. - Publisher Marketing
  Ages: 12-17 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure | Speculative Fiction
• Lugalbanda: the Boy Who Was Caught Up in a War
  Author: Henderson, Kathy
  Publisher: Candlewick $ 16.99 ISBN: 0763627828 Date: 2006
  Kirkus PW SLJ
  Parents' Choice Award (Spring) Winner
  Found in Iraq and older than the Bible, the Koran, or the Torah, this stirring epic--the world's oldest written story discovered 150 years ago--is a tale of childhood and courage that is remarkably relevant even today.
  Ages: 8-12 Category: Folklore
• Lilly's Big Day
  Author: Henkes, Kevin
  Publisher: Greenwillow $ 16.99 ISBN: 0060742364 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW SLJ
  The Caldecott Medal-winning author/illustrator of Kitten's First Full Moon brings back his beloved character from Lilly's Chocolate Heart to star in a brand-new picture book in which Lilly prepares to be the flower girl at her teacher's wedding.
  Ages:4-8 Category: Picture Book
• The Adventure of Marco Polo
  Author: Freedman, Russell
  Publisher: Arthur Levine $ 17.99 ISBN: 043952394x Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  Marco Polo shook Europe with descriptions of the world he'd seen on his epic journey to the court of Kublai Khan, but had he really seen the "Roof of the World" in Central Asia, and the "City of Heaven" in far-off China or was he a charlatan who saw nothing more than the conjurings of his inventive mind?
  Ages: 9-12 Category: History
• Pancakes for Supper
  Author: Isaacs, Anne
  Publisher: Scholastic $ 15.99 ISBN: 0439644836 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  This deliciously satisfying story by an award-winning author and artist is inspired by the 19th-century Helen Bannerman classic.
  Ages: 3-5 Category: Folklore
• Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You
  Author: Jansen, Hanna
  Publisher: Carolrhoda $ 16.99 ISBN: 1575059274 Date: 2006
  Booklist PW SLJ
  Ages: 13-17 Category: Fiction
• Dreamhunter
  Author: Knox, Elizabeth
  Publisher: FSG $ 19 ISBN: 0374318530 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  Laura comes from a world similar to our own except for one
  difference: it is next to the Place, an unfathomable land that
  fosters dreams of every kind and is inaccessible to all but a
  select few, the Dreamhunters. These are individuals with special
  gifts: the ability to catch larger-than-life dreams and relay them
  to audiences in the magnificent dream palace, the Rainbow
  Opera. People travel from all around to experience the benefits
  of the hunters' unique visions. Now fifteen-year-old Laura and
  her cousin Rose, daughters of Dreamhunters, are eligible to test
  themselves at the Place and find out whether they qualify for
  the passage. But nothing can prepare them for what they are
  about to discover. For within the Place lies a horrific secret kept
  hidden by corrupt members of the government. And when
  Laura's father, the man who discovered the Place, disappears,
  she realizes that this secret has the power to destroy everyone
  she loves . . . In the midst of a fascinating landscape, Laura's dreamy
  childhood is ending and a nightmare beginning. This rich
  novel, filled with beauty, danger, politics, and intrigue, comes to
  a powerful crescendo, leaving readers clamoring for Book Two. - Publisher Marketing
  Ages: 13-17 Category: Fiction | Speculative
• Raiders Night
  Author: Lipsyte, Robert
  Publisher: Avon $ 15.99 ISBN: 0060599464 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  The award-winning author of The Contender delivers an absorbing, eye-opening glimpse into the increasingly high-stakes world of high school football, where everyone--coaches, parents, and players--knows that winning really is the only option, no matter the cost.
  Ages: 14-17 Category: Fiction | Sports
• Gossamer
  Author: Lowry, Lois
  Publisher: Walter Lorraine $ 16 ISBN: 0618685502 Date: 2006
  Kirkus PW SLJ
  In a haunting story that tiptoes between reality and imagination, a lonely, sensitive woman and a damaged, angry boy face their own histories and discover what they can be to one another, renewed by the strength that comes from a tiny, caring creature they will never see.
  Ages: 10-14 Category: Speculative Fiction
• Little Lost Bat
  Author: Markle, Sandra & Alan Marks (ilt)
  Publisher: Charlesbridge $ 15.95 ISBN: 157091656x Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  A baby Mexican free-tailed bat clings to the ceiling of a crowded, noisy cave, waiting for his mother to return from her daily hunting trip. After three days of searching and waiting, he is rescued by a bat that is in a strangely similar circumstance. A surprising story of adoption in the animal kingdom based on current research.
  Ages: 4-8 Category: Nonfiction
• Cyrano
  Author: McCaughrean, Geraldine
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 16 ISBN: 0152058052 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  Award-winning British author McCaughrean brilliantly brings a familiar and lovable character to life.
  Ages: 12-17 Category: Fiction
• I'm Dirty
  Author: McMullan, Kate & Jim
  Publisher: Joanna Cotler $ 16.99 ISBN: 0060092939 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW SLJ
  Clank! Rattle! Bang! Who's making all that noise? "Backhoe Loader, reporting for duty." Cleaning up a mess? Easy as pie. Make that a mud pie. RRRRRM! RRRRRM! Who wants to be clean when it's so much fun being dirty? Clunk! I just LOVE my job! - Publisher Marketing
  Ages: 4-8 Category: Picture Book | Transportation
• Jazz
  Author: Myers, Walter Dean & Christopher (ilt)
  Publisher: Holiday House $ 18.95 ISBN: 0823415457 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW SLJ
  Ages: 4-8 Category: Picture Book | Music
• Bread and Roses, Too
  Author: Paterson, Katherine
  Publisher: Clarion $ 16 ISBN: 0618654798 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  Rosa"s mother is singing again, for the first time since Papa died in an accident in the mills. But instead of filling their cramped tenement apartment with Italian lullabies, Mamma is out on the streets singing union songs, and Rosa is terrified that her mother and older sister, Anna, are endangering their lives by marching against the corrupt mill owners. After all, didn"t Miss Finch tell the class that the strikers are nothing but rabble-rousers--an uneducated, violent mob? Suppose Mamma and Anna are jailed or, worse, killed? What will happen to Rosa and little Ricci? When Rosa is sent to Vermont with other children to live with strangers until the strike is over, she fears she will never see her family again. Then, on the train, a boy begs her to pretend that he is her brother. Alone and far from home, she agrees to protect him . . . even though she suspects that he is hiding some terrible secret. From a beloved, award-winning author, here is a moving story based on real events surrounding an infamous 1912 strike. - Publisher Marketing
  Ages: 10-14 Category: Fiction | Historical
• Clementine
  Author: Pennypacker, Sara & Marla Frazee (ilt)
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 14.99 ISBN: 0786838825 Date: 2006
  Kirkus PW SLJ
  The author of Stewart's Cape and Stewart Goes to School introduces a new charmingly flawed and quirky character with an altogether unforgettable voice.
  Ages: 8 -10 Category: Fiction
• Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space
  Author: Reeve, Philip & David Wyatt (ilt)
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 16.95 ISBN: 1599900203 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  Arthur (Art) Mumsby and his irritating sister, Myrtle, live with their father in a huge and rambling house called Larklight . . . that just happens to be traveling through outer space.
  Ages: 10-13 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure | Speculative
• What the Moon Saw
  Author: Resau, Laura
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 15.95 ISBN: 0385733437 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  Clara Luna's name means "clear moon" in Spanish. But lately, her head has felt anything but clear. One day a letter comes from Mexico, written in Spanish: "Dear Clara, We invite you to our house for the summer. We will wait for you on the day of the full moon, in June, at the Oaxaca airport. Love, your grandparents." Fourteen-year-old Clara has never met her father's parents. She knows he snuck over the border from Mexico as a teenager, but beyond that, she knows almost nothing about his childhood. When she agrees to go, she's stunned by her grandparents' life: they live in simple shacks in the mountains of southern Mexico, where most people speak not only Spanish, but an indigenous language, Mixteco. The village of Yucuyoo holds other surprises, too-- like the spirit waterfall, which is heard but never seen. And Pedro, an intriguing young goatherder who wants to help Clara find the waterfall. Hearing her grandmother's adventurous tales of growing up as a healer awakens Clara to the magic in Yucuyoo, and in her own soul. What The Moon Saw is an enchanting story of discovering your true self in the most unexpected place. - Publisher Marketing
  Ages: 10-14 Category: Fiction
• Under the Baseball Moon
  Author: Ritter, John H.
  Publisher: Philomel $ 16.99ISBN: 0399236236 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  Andy Ramos dreams of taking his unique fusion of Latin jazz, rock, and hip-hop straight to the top. When he crosses paths with a softball pitcher with Olympian dreams, the mysterious fusion of their athletic and musical skills changes everything.
  Ages: 11-16 Category: Fiction | Sports
• The Foreshadowing
  Author: Sedgwick, Marcus
  Publisher: Wendy Lamb $ 16.95 ISBN: 0385746466 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW
  As World War I rages, 15-year-old Sasha, a well-to-do and sheltered English girl, wants to become a nurse. When she helps at a hospital, Sasha is able to see when someone is going to die. When she sees her brother in a premonition, she pretends to be a nurse and goes behind the front lines to prevent his death.
  Ages: 12-17 Category: Fiction | Historical
• Mommy?
  Author: Sendak, Maurice
  Publisher: Scholastic $ 24.95 ISBN: 0439880505 Date: 2006
  Kirkus PW SLJ
  In one hilarious pop up extravaganza after another, a plucky little boy wanders to everybody's favorite monsters in search of his Mommy. Sendak's first pop up book is masterfully paper engineered by Reinhart.
  Ages: 4-8 Category: Pop Up Book
• The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery
  Author: Springer, Nancy
  Publisher: Philomel $ 10.99 ISBN: 0399243046 Date: 2006
  Booklist Bulletin Kirkus PW SLJ
  A new series featuring Sherlock Holmes' much-younger sister Enola begins. When her mother disappears, Enola is determined to find her and sets out to the heart of London. There Enola becomes involved in the kidnapping of a young marquess.
  Ages: 9-12 Category: Fiction | Mystery & Detective
• Bella at Midnight: The Thimble, The Ring, And the Slippers of Glass
  Author: Stanley, Diane
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 15.99 ISBN: 0060775734 Date: 2006
  Booklist Bulletin Kirkus, SLJ
  Loosely based on "Cinderella," this fairy tale features a memorable heroine who embarks on a stirring adventure when she discovers her surprising destiny.
  Ages: 10-14 Category: Fiction | Fairy Tales
• Ptolemy's Gate
  Author: Stroud, Jonathan
  Publisher: Miramax $ 17.95 ISBN: 0786818611 Date: 2006
  Booklist Bulletin Kirkus PW Horn Book
  VOYA :Best Speculative Fiction
  In this thrilling conclusion of the Bartimaeus trilogy, the destinies of Bartimaeus, Nathaniel, and Kitty are thrown together once more. For the first time, the secrets of Bartimaeus's past are revealed, and the threesome must face treacherous magicians, unravel a masterfully complex conspiracy, and defeat a formidable faction of demons.
  Ages: 9-12 Category: Fiction | Speculative
• It's Kind of a Funny Story
  Author: Vizzini, Ned
  Publisher: Miramax $ 16.95 ISBN: 0786851961 Date: 2006
  Booklist PW SLJ
  The author of Be More Chill takes a poignant look at teenage depression in this remarkably moving and authentic picture of the physicality, the despair, and even the hilarity of depression.
  Ages: 13-17 Category: Fiction
• The Rules of Survival
  Author: Werlin, Nancy
  Publisher: Dial $ 16.99ISBN: 0803730012 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus SLJ
  National Book Awards Finalist
  In this thought-provoking exploration of self-reliance and the nature of evil, a young boy sees that he needs to take action to save his family from his unpredictable mother.
  Ages: 14-17 Category: Fiction | Suspense
• Flotsam
  Author: Weisner, David
  Publisher: Clarion $ 17 ISBN: 0618194576 Date: 2006
  Booklist Kirkus PW SLJ
  In this wordless masterpiece from a two-time Caldecott medalist, a bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam--anything floating that has been washed ashore.
  Ages: 5-8 Category: Picture Book