2012 OPLbery Medals Awarded!
Our OPLbery Medals (mock Newbery) have been awarded! After meeting monthly since March 2011, the members of the OPLbery Club (ages 9 – 13) met and voted yesterday. The Second Annual OPLbery Medal goes to … Floors, by Patrick Carman. OPLbery Honors were given to The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, by Meg Wolitzer, and Close to Famous, by Joan Bauer. The OPLbery members read and evaluated over 40 books before selecting these outstanding books. In March, we will begin the process all over again for the 2013 awards.
On January 23, the American Library Association will announce the 2012 Newbery medal winner. Check back for the announcement.
For more information about the OPLbery Club, click on the tabs above.
Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger
Summary:
Harvey, upset when his Darth Paper finger puppet brings humiliation, gets Dwight suspended, but Origami Yoda asks Tommy and Kellan, now in seventh grade, to make a new casefile to persuade the School Board to reinstate Dwight.
Reviews:
A pretty short time ago, in a middle school not far away … there was a sixth grader named Dwight. He’s sort of hard to explain. I mean, on the one hand, he digs holes for no apparent reason and sits in them. On the other hand, he makes a great origami Yoda that gives AMAZING advice. Everybody used to not like Dwight, but now that he’s made McQuarrie Middle School better with Yoda, they appreciate him. Then, Harvey makes Darth Paper and they bring doom to the peaceful galaxy of the school by getting Dwight (and Yoda) kicked out.
I thought this book was unique because it was set up as a case file with different stories. It was funny and had great, believable, heartwarming characters. I was sad when I finished it! Dwight was extra-special because of all his different traits and by the fact that he’s so different from Yoda. All these things made Darth Paper Strikes Back probably my second favorite book in 2011!-Maggie
OPLbery Club releases its mock Newbery short list
Yesterday the OPLbery Club narrowed down their list for the OPLbery Award winner to six remaining contenders:
Close to Famous by Joan Bauer
Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger
The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Meg Wolitzer
Floors by Patrick Carman
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall
War and Watermelon by Rich Wallace
Club members will announce their choice for the second OPLbery Award winner on January 11, 2012.
Pie by Sarah Weeks
Summary:
When Alice’s Aunt Polly passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily surly cat Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice.
Suddenly Alice is thrust into the center of a piestorm, with everyone in town trying to be the next pie-contest winner … including Alice’s mother and some of Alice’s friends. The whole community is going pie-crazy . . . and it’s up to Alice to discover the ingredients that really matter. Like family. And friendship. And enjoying what you do.
Reviews:
I thought that this was an okay book. I liked how it had a recipe in each chapter. To tell the truth I hate pie. Not PIE the book I mean like the food pie. But this book actually made me love pie. This book really got to me and made me feel interested. I do not know how. From a scale of 1 to 10, I think this book should deserve an 8. This may be, but not likely, the OPLbery winner. – Florencia
The Secret of the Skeleton Key by Penny Warner
Reviews:
The Secret of the Skeleton Key by Penny Warner is the first book of The Code Busters Club series. The book is about an interesting club of four members who like mysteries. Their club names are Lock&Key, Em-me, Kuel-Dude and CodeRed. Their real names are Quinn Kee, Maria Elena, Luke LaVeau and Dakota Jones. I liked the book because the chapters’ titles are in sign language. On the last page the titles are written in manuscript. Also at the back of the book there are the solved codes. They formed a club to solve mysteries and to make codes which they solve until Quinn’s creepy neighbor’s house burns down. The man in the house is an old man who the busters call “skeleton man.” Skeleton man’s will says he will donate $100,000 to the SPCA when he dies. His cousins want the will for some odd reason and that is the mystery.-Elliot
I really liked this book. It teaches you a lot of things. I learned American sign language. I earned different codes too. It was a really interesting book. I really liked how Mr. Skelton spied on Quinn and Cody and knowing that his cousin is a good-for-nothing-loser. This book is amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. If we take it off the list can I keep it? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.-Florencia
The Luck of the Buttons by Anne Ylvisaker
Summary: In Iowa circa 1929, spunky twelve-year-old Tugs vows to turn her family’s luck around, with the help of a Brownie camera and a small-town mystery that only she can solve.
Reviews:
This book was boring. The subject was not that interesting. I don’t think this an OPLbery winner.-Eric
You’ll Like it Here (Everybody Does) by Ruth White
Summary: Although Meggie Blue seems to be an average sixth grader she is abnormally frightened when residents of her small, North Carolina town become fixated on aliens, and soon she and her family are forced to flee, making it clear that all is not as it seems.
Reviews:
Meggie Blue’s life was changed when she was terrorized by a man in third grade. He called himself an alien hunter and lunged at Meggie with a knife. She wasn’t hurt but her family decided that she and her brother should move.
Now Meggie’s in sixth grade in a new town. When rumors circulate about aliens in the town, Meggie gets nervous. And for good reason….because one night… the Blues disappear.
This was my favorite story yet. I don’t think ANYTHING compares to it.
I really liked the character Meggie. She tries hard to be strong. She’s also very kind. And in some trying situations, she is very brave.
The book was well written. I could see everything Meggie and David, her brother, described. It will either get the OPLbery award or honor.
You’ll Like It Here (Everybody Does) is a science fiction thriller with action and adventure.
You’ll like this book. (Everybody does.)-Maggie
This book is really interesting. It is about a girl named Meggie and her family, who live peacefully on Earth untill somebody acuses them of being aliens, and they have to move- to another planet. At first, this planet seems quite similar to Earth, but Meggie and her family soon discover that things are not at all as they seem on this new planet. I’m not sure if its worthy of winning oplberry, but this is a great book to read. -Skyler
This book is an OPLbery winner by far! The two children must have been really scared. The surprise was really unexpected. Like Maggie said “I don’t think ANYTHING compares to it.”-Eric
Dragon’s Tooth by N. D. Wilson
Summary: When their parents’ seedy old motel burns down on the same night they are visited by a strange man covered in skeleton tattoos, Cyrus, Antigone, and their brother Daniel are introduced to an ancient secret society, and discover that they have an important role in keeping it alive.
Reviews:
This book is ok.it is not an OPLbery winner. This book is stuffed with violence. – Eric
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Summary: Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother’s room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.
Reviews:
This book is an OPLBERY WINNER! This is a page turner. you cannot put this book down. – Eric
This book is an OPLbery winner!! This book is really good because it has a lot of details that pulls you into the book. I mostly liked the surprise at the end. And I liked how the author showed Rose’s story as well.-Colleen
This book is amazing!!!!!!!! It is similar to the book, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” in the way that is is made up mostly of pictures, but the story(s) is completely different. There are two different stories going on at once, but in different times. This phenominal story with a surprise ending should definitely win the OPLbery.-Skyler
Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Summary: Abandoned by his mother in an Acadia National Park campground, and with only a small toy elephant for company, Jack tries to make his way back to Boston before anyone figures out what is going on.
Reviews:
You know how when a kid gets lost, their mom or dad finds them? Well, Jack Martell’s world is turned up-side down when his mom leaves him stranded in the middle of Acadia National Park, and he sets out to find her. Will an 11-year-old survive long enough to reunite with his mom and find his place in the herd?
You’re probably feeling sooo sorry for Jack and wanting to read this book. But I’ve got to tell you, it isn’t any good. I really didn’t like this book. The story moves slowly and it gets boring after the first paragraph. I had to struggle to stay awake. I was stuck wondering, what’re you getting at? And, what’s the significance here? I got fed up with his little sob story and wanted it to be over!
This IS NOT AN OPLBERY WINNER!-Maggie
