2012 Newbery Watchlist: Updated!

Only 6 months until ALA awards another Newbery Medal. With my 0 for 1 record in predicting the winners, I am on a quest to get it right this year- or at least award my Bizzaro Newbery correctly!   Here are some titles that I want to read ASAP! If I had a time machine, I would use it to go into the future and buy these books.  Does anyone have one I can borrow? (A time machine that is). Now, my opinion of these books being contenders may change after I read them! I will keep you posted!

In no particular order:

1. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (Sept 13, 2011): Relates the stories of twelve-year-old Ben, who loses his mother and his hearing in a short time frame and decides to leave his Minnesota home in 1977 to seek the father he has never known in New York City; and Rose, who lives with her father but feels compelled to search for what is missing in her life. Ben's story is told in words; Rose's in pictures.(Follett)

2, No Ordinary Day by Deborah Ellis (Sept 13, 2011): Valli has always been afraid of the lepers living on the other side of the train tracks in the coal town of Jharia, India, so when a chance encounter with a doctor reveals she also has leprosy, Valli rejects help and begins an uncertain life on the streets.(Follett)

3. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu (Sept 27, 2011): Hazel and Jack are best friends until an accident with a magical mirror and a run-in with a villainous queen find Hazel on her own, entering an enchanted wood in the hopes of saving Jack's life. (Follett)

4. City of Orphans by Avi (Aug 15, 2011): In 1893 New York, thirteen-year-old Maks, a newsboy, teams up with Willa, a homeless girl, to clear his older sister, Emma, from charges that she stole from the brand new Waldorf Hotel, where she works. (Follett)

5. The Only Ones by Aaron Starmer (Sept 13, 2011): After leading a solitary existence on an island, thirteen-year-old Martin discovers a village filled with children who live without adults after their families and friends disappeared one afternoon, but after meeting a mysterious boy who can talk to animals Martin thinks he can find a way to reunite the children with their families. (Follett)

6. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Sept 13, 2011): In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses. (Follett)

7. The Boy at the End of The World by Greg Van Eekhout (out now): Born half-grown in a world that is being destroyed, Fisher has instinctive knowledge of many things, including that he must avoid the robot that knows his name.(Follett)

8. Hidden by Helen Frost (out now): Years after Darra Monson's father stole a minivan with Wren Abbott hiding in the back, the girls come face to face at summer camp and together they try to work through what happened to them and the impact it had on their lives.(Follett)

Books I HAVE read that are contenders:

1. Bless This Mouse by Lois Lowry

2. Horton Halfpott: Or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset by Tom Angleberger

3. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

4. Saving Zasha by Randi Barrow
5. Sparrow Road by Sheila O'Connor 
6. The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson
7. Warp Speed by Lisa Yee
8. Words in the Dust by Trent Berry *This one may be on the mature end for a Newbery
9. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by John Auxier (Aug 1, 2011) Review to Come!! 

What do you think of my list? Would you add any? Take any away? Let me know!