GOLDEN DOME AWARD BOOKS Have you ever heard of the Vermont Golden Dome awards (formerly DCF Books)? The name has changed but the challenge remains the same...read at least 5 to be eligible to vote for your favorite and determine this year’s winner! All of the books that are highlighted are from this year’s list! | |
 | Leaving a possible war behind is easy, but leaving Baba, Issa, and everything Jude knows is hard. This great story is written in verse! Through Jude’s eyes readers see firsthand what it is to leave behind one’s beloved home and family, as many refugees do every single day. Young readers will laugh with Jude, cry with her, and root for her every step of the way. A beautiful, powerful, and important book for all readers. |
 | Runaway sisters Viji and Rukku quickly discover life on the streets is dangerous. Fortunately, the girls find shelter - and friendship - on an abandoned bridge that’s also the hideout of Muthi and Arul. Making a living scavenging the city's trash heaps is the pits, but the kids are now the bosses of themselves, no longer dependent on untrustworthy adults. When illness strikes, Viji must decide whether to risk seeking help from strangers or to keep holding on to their fragile, hard-fought freedom. |
 | If you have ever looked up at the night sky and wondered: What does it all mean? How does it all work? And what is my place in the universe? Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry will give you a basic knowledge of the major ideas and discoveries that help scientists think about the universe. If I’ve succeeded, you’ll be able to stun your parents at the dinner table, impress your teachers, and stare up at the stars on cloudless nights with a deeper sense of both understanding and wonder. |
 | The first time I heard about Planet Choom, we’d been on Mars for almost a year. Life on Mars station was grim and Earth was no longer an option (we...might have blown it up) so we ended up on Choom with the Zhuri. They’re very smart. They look like giant mosquitoes. They don’t like laughter, anger, or any other emotion. And they don’t like us. If humankind is going to survive, it’s up to my family to change their minds. No pressure. |
 | Tinn and Cole are raised as human twins, neither knowing what secrets may be buried deep inside one of them. When they are thirteen years old, a mysterious message arrives, calling the brothers to be heroes. “Little changeling, you must return to the horde. A goblin is not meant to live so long without its kin and kind. Follow the goblin trail at first light tomorrow morning. Do not trust anyone you meet in the forest.” |
 | Summer 1940. Nothing was really normal anymore. Not if you were Jewish, like us. The Vichy government passed a series of anti-Jewish laws. They banned Jews from going to certain public places. They kept lists of Jewish people and where they lived. They stamped the word Juif or Juive on our identity cards. “Jew”. They would not let Jews work in certain jobs. There began a very systemized campaign of anti-Jewish propaganda, blaming Jews for all the troubles in France. Posters, movies, and even radio programs sought to dehumanize us, turn us into hideous stereotypes. To be truthful, it was easier for me not to think about all the restrictions placed upon us. I was still desperately trying to hold on to a sense of normalcy. I was still desperately trying to hold on to my fairy-tale life. |
 | “I was one of the poorest kids at a school for the children of the wealthy. I was on the subsidized lunch program, and mocked endlessly. This is my middle school experience, but I think it’s an important story to tell.” - Rex Ogle, a proud Slytherin who spends his spare time reading to his dog, and enjoying nature. |
 | “Tristan Strong will punch a hole in your heart. I loved this book - an epic blend of fantasy, action, and mythology. Wonderful characters, an intriguing plot, and a lightning pace will make Tristan Strong the next big thing.” - Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl Series “Mbalia weaves an exhilarating tale of magic, mystery, and full-throttle adventure filled with iron monsters, Black American gods, bone ships, and so much more.” - J.C. Cervantes, author of The Storm Runner |
 | Klawde of the planet Lyttyrboks is not your average cat. He is an emperor with a hunger for battle and a thirst for revenge. He’s cruel. He’s cunning. He’s brilliant. And he’s just been exiled 2,900.4 million light-years across space to the most horrible, distant, and desolate planet in the universe: EARTH. This graphic novel is not one to miss! |
 | From fixing the class computer to repairing old radios, twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius. But she’s the only deaf person in her school, so people often treat her like she’s not very smart. When she learns about Blue 55, a real whale who is unable to speak to other whales, Iris is determined to help, and soon comes up with a way to “sing” to him. But Iris lives in Texas, and Blue 55 is off the coast of Alaska. How can she play her song to him from 3000 miles away? “He keeps singing this song, and everything in the ocean swims by him like he’s not there. He thinks no one understands him. I want to let him know he’s wrong about that.” |
 | All scary stories have two sides, like the bright and dark of the moon. If you're brave enough to listen and wise enough to stay to the end, the stories can shine a light on the good of the world. They can help you survive. But If you don’t listen closely...if you turn tail from the horror and don’t stay till the end, then the darkness of the story can swallow all hope. It can frighten you so deeply you’ll never want to leave your den again. So. Do you still want to hear a scary story? |
 | Charlie Thorne is 12 years old. Rebellious. Headstrong. Conceited. A thief. A genius. And now it’s up to her to save the world. Albert Einstein devised an equation that could benefit all life on earth - or destroy it. The recipe for providing almost unlimited clean power... or creating unimaginable weapons of destruction. Fearing what would happen if the wrong people got a hold of the equation, Einstein hid it. Now, decades after his death, a terrorist cell is closing in on its location. Desperate to get there first, the CIA drags Charlie Thorne into the hunt, hoping her brilliance will allow them to reach it first - if they can stay alive long enough to find it. |
 | Coyote and her dad Rodeo have spent the five years since her mom and sisters died travelling the country in a repurposed bus. When Coyote learns her childhood park is slated to be dug up and re-built, the same park where Coyote buried a time capsule with her mom and sisters years ago, it’s a race to get back home before the bulldozers arrive - a race they have to complete before Rodeo figures out the finish line, and turns around. |
 | When I die, will my cat eat my eyeballs? What would happen to an astronaut body in space? Can we give Grandma a Viking funeral? Caitlin Doughty is here to answer your questions about death. She gives factual, hilarious, and candid answers to 14 questions asked by tiny mortals. Learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend’s skull as a keepsake, and what happens when someone dies on a plane. |
 | Isabelle is the ugly stepsister who cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella’s shoe. When the prince discovers Isabelle’s deception, she is turned away in shame. She is a plain girl in a world that values beauty; a feisty girl in a world that wants her to be pliant. Isabelle has tried to fit in. To be sweet. To be pretty. One by one, she has cut away pieces of herself in order to survive a world that doesn’t appreciate a girl like her. And that has made her mean, jealous, and hollow. But perhaps ugly is in the eye of the beholder. It’s up to Isabelle to find a new definition of beauty. Don’t just fracture the fairy tale. Shatter it. |
 | For seventh-grader Mila, it starts with an unwanted group hug on the school blacktop. A few days later she’s tricked into another hug that just feels...weird. The boys won’t leave Mila alone. On the bus, in the halls, even during band practice. It doesn’t feel like flirting, no matter what her friends say. So what is it? More importantly, how can Mila get it to stop? |
 | Zenobia July used to live as a boy, because everyone around her thought she was one. After moving to Maine to live with her aunts, she is finally able to live openly as the girl she has always known herself to be. When someone posts hateful memes on her school’s website, Zen knows she has the cyber skills to catch the hacker. But is bringing them to justice worth the chance of exposure for Zenobia? |
NEW LIBRARY BOOKS TO CONSIDER READING (NOT PART OF THE GOLDEN DOME BOOK AWARD LIST) Literacy specialist, Ms. Levine, has been helping the library purchase books that might be of interest to our students. If you think you may want to read one of these books, then talk to your teacher who will connect you with Ms. Levine, or direct your interest to Ms. Levine at alevine@maplerun.org. Each Friday descriptions of some of the new books will be added to the announcements. |
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NEW LIBRARY BOOKS TO CONSIDER READING | |
 | What does it take to be an astronaut? Excellence at flying, courage, intelligence, resistance to stress, top physical shape -- any checklist would include these. But when America created NASA in 1958, there was another unspoken rule: you had to be a man. Here is the tale of thirteen women who proved that they were not only as tough as the toughest man but also brave enough to challenge the government. They were blocked by prejudice, jealousy, and the scrawled note of one of the most powerful men in Washington. But even though the Mercury 13 women did not make it into space, they did not lose, for their example empowered young women to take their place in the sky, piloting jets and commanding space capsules. ALMOST ASTRONAUTS is the story of thirteen true pioneers of the space age. |
 | Growing up quiet and lonely at the beginning of the twentieth century, Gyo learned from her relatives the ways in which both women and Japanese people lacked opportunity. Her teachers and family believed in her and sent her to art school and later Japan, where her talent flourished. But while Gyo's career grew and led her to work for Walt Disney Studios, World War II began, and with it, her family's internment. But Gyo never stopped fighting -- for herself, her vision, her family an d her readers -- and later wrote and illustrated the first children's book to feature children of different races interacting together. Check out this Red Clover book from our school’s library today! |
 | Katina King is the reigning teen jujitsu champion of Northern California, but she’s having trouble fighting off the secrets in her past. Robin Thornton was adopted from an orphanage in India and is reluctant to take on his future. If he can’t find his roots, how can he possibly plan ahead? Robin and Kat meet in the most unlikely of places—a summer service trip to Kolkata to work with survivors of human trafficking. As bonds build between the travel mates, Robin and Kat discover that justice and healing are tangled, like the pain of their pasts and the hope for their futures. You can’t rewind life; sometimes you just have to push play. |
 | As a boy, Jadav Payeng was distressed by the destruction, deforestation and erosion was causing on his island home in India's Brahmaputra River. So he began planting trees. What began as a small thicket of bamboo, grew over the years into 1,300 acre forest filled with native plants and animals. The Boy Who Grew a Forest tells the inspiring true story of Payeng--and reminds us all of the difference a single person with a big idea can make. |
 | This is the story of one brave family: Mildred Loving, Richard Perry Loving, and their three children. It is the story of how Mildred and Richard fell in love, and got married in Washington, D.C. But when they moved back to their hometown in Virginia, they were arrested (in dramatic fashion) for violating that state's laws against interracial marriage. The Lovings refused to allow their children to get the message that their parents' love was wrong and so they fought the unfair law, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court - and won! |
 | You are never too young to make a difference. Ever since she learned about climate change, Greta Thunberg couldn’t understand why politicians weren’t treating it as an emergency. In August 2018, temperatures in Sweden reached record highs, fires raged across the country, and fifteen-year-old Greta decided to stop waiting for political leaders to take action. Instead of going to school on Friday, she made a sign and went on strike in front of Stockholm’s parliament building. Greta’s solo protest grew into the global Fridays for Future—or School Strike 4 Climate—movement, which millions have now joined. She has spoken at COP24 (the UN summit on climate change) and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. This timely, unofficial biography is her story, but also that of many others around the world willing to fight against the indifference of the powerful for a better future. |
 | Get to know celebrated Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the first picture book about her life—as she proves that disagreeing does not make you disagreeable! Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spent a lifetime disagreeing: disagreeing with inequality, arguing against unfair treatment, and standing up for what’s right for people everywhere. This biographical picture book about the Notorious RBG, tells the justice’s story through the lens of her many famous dissents, or disagreements. |
 | Nic Stone, the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out, creates two unforgettable characters in one hard-hitting story about class, money--both too little and too much--and how you make your own luck in the world. Meet Rico: high school senior and afternoon-shift cashier at the Gas 'n' Go, who after school and work races home to take care of her younger brother. Every. Single. Day. When Rico sells a jackpot-winning lotto ticket, she thinks maybe her luck will finally change, but only if she--with some assistance from her popular and wildly rich classmate Zan--can find the ticket holder who hasn't claimed the prize. But what happens when have and have-nots collide? Will this investigative duo unite...or divide? |
 | An inspiring picture book biography of storyteller, puppeteer, and New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian, who championed bilingual literature. When she came to America in 1921, Pura Belpré carried the cuentos folklóricos of her Puerto Rican homeland. Finding a new home at the New York Public Library as a bilingual assistant, she turned her popular retellings into libros and spread story seeds across the land. Today, these seeds have grown into a lush landscape as generations of children and storytellers continue to |
 | In April 1916, Nell Richardson and Alice Burke set out from New York City in a little yellow car, embarking on a bumpy, muddy, unmapped journey ten thousand miles long. They took with them a teeny typewriter, a tiny sewing machine, a wee black kitten, and a message for Americans all across the country: Votes for Women! The women’s suffrage movement was in full swing, and Nell and Alice would not let anything keep them from spreading the word about equal voting rights for women. Braving blizzards, deserts, and naysayers—not to mention a whole lot of tires stuck in the mud—the two courageous friends made their way through the cities and towns of America to further their cause. One hundred years after Nell and Alice set off on their trip, Mara Rockliff revives their spirit in a lively and whimsical picture book, with exuberant illustrations by Hadley Hooper bringing their inspiring historical trek to life. |
 | When a young boy visits his grandfather, their lack of a common language leads to confusion, frustration, and silence. But as they sit down to draw together, something magical happens-with a shared love of art and storytelling, the two form a bond that goes beyond words. With spare, direct text by Minh Lê and luminous illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat, this stirring picture book about reaching across barriers will be cherished for years to come. |
 | Told in lively and powerful verse by debut author Kevin Noble Maillard, Fry Bread is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family, vibrantly illustrated by Pura Belpre Award winner and Caldecott Honoree Juana Martinez-Neal. This beautiful picture book has won many awards including the 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Picture Book Honor Winner. |
 | It can be a little scary to be small in a big city, but it helps to know you're not alone. When you're small in the city, people don't see you, and loud sounds can scare you, and knowing what to do is sometimes hard. But this little kid knows what it's like, and knows the neighborhood. And a little friendly advice can go a long way. Alleys can be good shortcuts, but some are too dark. Or, there are lots of good hiding places in the city, like under a mulberry bush or up a walnut tree. And, if the city gets to be too much, you're always welcome home, where it's safe and quiet. In the first book that he has both written and illustrated, award-winning artist Sydney Smith spins a quiet, contemplative tale about seeing a big world through little eyes. |
 | Jabari is making a flying machine in his backyard! “It’ll be easy. I don’t need any help,” he declares. But it doesn’t work! Jabari is frustrated. Good thing Dad is there for a pep talk and his little sister, Nika, is there to assist, fairy wings and all. With the endearing father-child dynamic of Jabari Jumps and engaging mixed-media illustrations, Gaia Cornwall’s tale shows that through perseverance and flexibility, an inventive thought can become a brilliant reality. |
 | The Kids Under the Stairs: BenBee and the Teacher Griefer is a funny, clever novel-in-verse series about Ben Bellows—who failed the Language Arts section of the Florida State test—and three classmates who get stuck in a summer school class. But these kids aren't dumb—they're divergent thinkers, as Ms. J tells them: they simply approach things in a different way than traditional school demands. • Each chapter is told through the perspective of one of the four students, who each write in a different style (art, verse, stream of consciousness). • Celebrates different types of intelligence • A heartwarming, laugh-out-loud novel-in-verse Soon, the kids win over Ms. J with their passion for Sandbox, a Minecraft-type game. The kids make a deal with Ms. J: every minute they spend reading aloud equals one minute they get to play Sandbox in class. But when the administration finds about this unorthodox method of teaching, Ben B. and his buds have to band together to save their teacher's job—and their own academic future. |
BOOKS ABOUT RESILIENCY IN OUR LIBRARY FOR YOU TO READ Do you know what it means to be resilient? Our school family has shown resilience in many ways this year. Think about all of the things you can do now that you couldn’t before and how much you have grown! This month we are highlighting books that showcase resiliency for you to explore. | |
 | Dashrath Manjhi used a hammer and chisel, grit, determination, and twenty years to carve a path through the mountain separating his poor village from the nearby village with schools, markets, and a hospital. Manjhi Moves a Mountain shows how everyone can make a difference if their heart is big enough. |
 | In 1956, one year before federal troops escorted the Little Rock 9 into Central High School, fourteen-year-old Jo Ann Allen was one of twelve African-American students who broke the color barrier and integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee. At first, things went smoothly for the Clinton 12, but then outside agitators interfered, pitting the townspeople against one another. Uneasiness turned into anger, and even the Clinton Twelve themselves wondered if the easier thing to do would be to go back to their old school. Jo Ann--clear-eyed, practical, tolerant, and popular among both black and white students---found herself called on as the spokesperson of the group. But what about just being a regular teen? This is the heartbreaking and relatable story of her four months thrust into the national spotlight and as a trailblazer in history. Based on original research and interviews and featuring backmatter with archival materials and notes from the authors on the co-writing process. |
 | Demonstrating the power of protest and standing up for a just cause, here is an exciting tribute to the educators who participated in the 1965 Selma Teachers’ March. Reverend F.D. Reese was a leader of the Voting Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama. As a teacher and principal, he recognized that his colleagues were viewed with great respect in the city. Could he convince them to risk their jobs–and perhaps their lives–by organizing a teachers-only march to the county courthouse to demand their right to vote? On January 22, 1965, the Black teachers left their classrooms and did just that, with Reverend Reese leading the way. Noted nonfiction authors Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace conducted the last interviews with Reverend Reese before his death in 2018 and interviewed several teachers and their family members in order to tell this story, which is especially important today. |
 | Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.) But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed. Now she’s suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she’s not black enough. Wait, what? Shay’s sister, Hana, is involved in Black Lives Matter, but Shay doesn't think that's for her. After experiencing a powerful protest, though, Shay decides some rules are worth breaking. She starts wearing an armband to school in support of the Black Lives movement. Soon everyone is taking sides. And she is given an ultimatum. Shay is scared to do the wrong thing (and even more scared to do the right thing), but if she doesn't face her fear, she'll be forever tripping over the next hurdle. Now that’s trouble, for real. |
 | William Still’s parents escaped slavery but had to leave two of their children behind, a tragedy that haunted the family. As a young man, William went to work for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, where he raised money, planned rescues, and helped freedom seekers who had traveled north. One day, a strangely familiar man came into William’s office, searching for information about his long-lost family. |
