We want you to vote for your favorite books for the Children’s Choice Book Awards! Here are the summaries for the 3-4th grade finalists. You can vote online or if you write your name on the back of your paper ballot, you have a chance to win a book from the Children’s Department!
50 Wacky Things Animals Do by Tricia Martineau Wagner (Ages 8-10)
50 Wacky Things Animals Do is loaded with all the wacky, interesting, and sometimes gross things animals do that seem too crazy to be true, but are! The planet Earth is a big place, and it’s filled with all kinds of animals that do some pretty crazy things! For example, did you know that giraffes clean their ears with their tongues? Or that food passes through a giant squid’s brain before going to its stomach? It’s true! 50 Wacky Things Animals Do describes 50 unbelievable animals and the things they do that seem too crazy to be true – but are!
Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History by Walter Dean Myers (Ages 8-10)
In this picture book biography, the late New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers and acclaimed artist Floyd Cooper take readers on an inspiring journey through the life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was a self-educated slave in the South who grew up to become an icon. He was a leader of the abolitionist movement, a celebrated writer, an esteemed speaker, and a social reformer, proving that, as he said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
Manjhi Moves a Mountain by Nancy Churnin (Ages 5 & up)
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.
Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander and Chris Colderley (Ages 8-12)
Out of gratitude for the poet’s art form, Newbery Award–winning author and poet Kwame Alexander, along with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth, present original poems that pay homage to twenty famed poets who have made the authors’ hearts sing and their minds wonder.
Thunder Underground by Jane Yolen (Ages 8-10)
In this collection of poems, noted children’s poet Jane Yolen takes readers on an expedition underground, exploring everything from animal burrows and human creations, like subways, near the surface—to ancient cities and fossils, lower down—to caves, magma, and Earth’s tectonic plates, deeper still below our feet.