Prairie Bud Nominees 2010-2011

Bonny Becker

Bear is quite sure he doesn't like visitors. He even has a sign. So when a mouse taps on his door one day, Bear tells him to leave. But when Bear goes to the cupboard to get a bowl, there is the mouse — small and gray and bright-eyed. All Bear wants is to eat his breakfast in peace, but the mouse — who keeps popping up in the most unexpected places — just won't go away!

Grade Level: K-1
Publisher: Candlewick Press

Sarah Campbell

This true tale of horror begins in the leaf litter beside a porch in Jackson, Mississippi. Rain trickles off the edge of a quaint, tidy porch and onto the shell of a sleeping creature. The water awakens the beast. Slowly, a slimy foot emerges from the shell, then a hideous head. The wolfsnail is on the prowl. Big, strong, and fast (for a snail), the wolfsnail has a taste for meat. In some areas, it is called the cannibal snail. It has earned the name. This photographic story of a day in the life of a wolfsnail offers a unique and dramatic introduction to the food chain.

Grade Level: K-2
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press

Michelle Cook

A picture book that is part historical, part poetry. It takes the reader through the cumulative story of the US Civil Rights Movement, expanding the popular slogan beyond the stories of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Barack Obama to include more key players in the struggle for equality.

Grade Level: K-2
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Menena Cottin

Living with the use of one's eyes can make imagining blindness difficult, but this title invites readers to imagine living without sight through illustrations done with raised lines and descriptions of colors based on imagery. Braille letters accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet offers sighted readers help reading along with their fingers. This title gives young readers the ability to experience the world in a new way.

Grade Level: K-2
Publisher: Groundwood Books

Arthur Dorros

“When I'm with my papá, I can fly like an eagle, an águila. I can climb alto, high, in a tree…”

A young boy and his papa may speak both Spanish and English, but the most important language they speak is the language of love. Here, Arthur Dorros portrays the close bond between father and son, with paintings by Rudy Gutierrez.

Grade Level: K-2
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers