by Pat Keogh

 The Massachusetts Book Awards were presented on November 20, 2008 at an impressive celebration in the Hall of Flags at the State House. 

 Three children’s/YA authors were honored as well as adult writers for fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  Jacqueline Davies’ delightful novel for young readers, Lemonade War, is already a favorite at many schools.  Siblings Evan and Jessie, suddenly in the same grade, no longer work a lemonade stand together but choose other partners and battle for business.  Kathleen Duble creates a story of suspense in Bravo Zulu, Samantha. Unhappy that she must spend a summer with her grandparents, especially crotchety grandfather, Samantha gradually learns to understand her grandfather’s unhappiness and has the opportunity to help him with a secret project. Should she? Samantha learns about growing up and growing wiser. Whale Port, a fascinating story for all ages, is a collaborative effort of a talented father-son team, Mark and Gerald Foster.  When colonial farmers left home to go whaling, it is doubtful they realized what changes it would bring to a new country.  Although the author chose a fictional setting, Tuckanucket, readers will see New England throughout the historical piece.  Illustrations bring every page to life.  The Center puts out a list of recommended titles as well.  I particularly enjoyed Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Rich Michelson’s Tuttle’s Red Barn illustrated by Mary Azarian.  Pair this with Whale Port for an explanation of growth in New England over the centuries. Check out massbook.org for other programs the Center runs.

How fortunate we are to have so much talent within the children’s literature community!

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Dear Massachusetts School Librarians,

We have posted recommended reading lists from the 8th MassBooks at our web site.  You can access these lists from our homepage -- www.massbook.org.  They consist of 10 to 15 books in each of the four categories (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children's/ya lit) that our judges felt were great reads.  The award books are listed at the top of each page followed by a highly recommended. Feel free to print these out or direct your students to our page for reading recommendations!

Photos and videos of the awards event will be posted to our site in the coming week or so.  The reading guides will be up by January as well.  Library volunteers have done an extraordinary job with them this year.

The deadline for the 2009 awards was January 15, 2009.

If you want to become more involved with the awards program, please email me at the following address to indicate if you would like to be a judge, a reading guide developer, and/or a volunteer for the awards event: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Sharon Shaloo, Executive Director
Massachusetts Center for the Book