Junior Library Guild Selections of the Month
April
Zero the Hero
by Joan Holub ; illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
Zero believes that he is a hero, but the counting numbers think he is worthless until they get into trouble with some Roman numerals, and only Zero can help.
The Obsidian Blade
by Pete Hautman
After Tucker Feye's parents disappear, he suspects that the strange disks of shimmering air that he keeps seeing are somehow involved, and when he steps inside of one he is whisked on a time-twisting journey.
March
Penny and Her Song
by Kevin Henkes
Penny comes home from school eager to share her very own song, but must wait until the time is right to teach it to her parents and the babies.
Bewitching
by Alex Flinn
Tells the story of Kendra, a witch, and the first three-hundred years of her life, including takes on a classic fairy tale, the 1666 plague in Britain, the Titanic disaster, and the story of a modern-day, plain stepsister.
February
E-mergency!
by Tom Lichtenheld and Ezra Fields-Meyer
The letter E has fallen and injured herself-- which letters will replace her and how will words be spelled without her?
Desert Angel
by Charlie Price
In the California desert, fourteen-year-old Angel is on the run from the man who abused her, killed her mother, and intends to kill her too.
January
MR. PUTTER & TABBY RING THE BELL
By Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Arthur Howard
Show-and-Tell will never be the same after Mr. Putter and Tabby and Mrs. Teaberry and Zeke are through.
GIRLS DON'T FLY
By Kristen Chandler
Kept grounded by her overworked parents, her very pregnant sister and four rambunctious younger brothers, Myra yearns to stretch her wings, but when presented with an opportunity to travel to the Galapagos Islands, she is not sure she has the courage to fly so far from home.
December
Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea
written by Tony Johnston ; illustrated by Stacy Innerst
Retells, in tall-tale fashion, how Levi Strauss went to California during the Gold Rush, saw the need for a sturdier kind of trouser, and invented jeans.
Without Tess
by Marcella Pixley
Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Choen recalls what it was like growing up with her imaginative but disturbed older sister Tess, and how she is striving to reclaim her own life since Tess died.
November
I Want My Hat Back
by Jon Klassen
A bear almost gives up his search for his missing hat until he remembers something important.
The Lost Songs
by Caroline B. Cooney
In small-town Carolina, sixteen-year-old Lutie Painter treasures the "Laundry List" of songs written by her ancestor and does not want to share them, but ultimately they help her learn more about her absent mother and connect with fellow students Kelvin, Doria, and especially Train, a former friend.
October
The Money We'll Save
by Brock Cole
When Pa suggests his family raise a live turkey—to eat for Christmas dinner—no one expects to become so attached to the troublemaking bird.
The Name of the Star
by Maureen Johnson
Rory, of Boueuxlieu, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation.
September
Orani: My Father's Village
by Claire A. Nivola
Children's book author Claire A. Nivola explores the village of Orani, the tiny hamlet in the mountains of central Sardinia where her father lived before moving to New York during World War II.
Queen of Hearts
by Martha Brooks
Shortly after her first kiss but before her sixteenth birthday in December, 1941, Marie Claire and her younger brother and sister are sent to a tuberculosis sanatorium near their Manitoba farm.
