Prairie Pasque Nominees 2010-2011

Zoe Alley

Wolf, a rather fine dresser and intelligent creature, just can't catch a break. All he wants to do is eat some pig, lamb, a gosling or two, a loud sheperd… or that little girl wearing a red hood, but for some reason none of them will cooperate. Five classic tales morph into one ongoing yarn as Wolf bumbles his way through each of them. Told in graphic novel style in a picture book package.

Grade Level: 3-4
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Don Brown

THE “UNSINKABLE” MEETS THE UNTHINKABLE — A gripping acount of the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic. It took 4,000 men to build it, 23 tons of animal grease to slide it into the ocean, 100,000 people to wave bon voyage, but only one wrong move to tear the Titanic apart, sinking it into the pages of history. On a cold moonless night in April of 1912, 2,000 passengers — both the uber-rich enjoying a luxury cruise and the dirt-poor hoping to find a new life in America — struggled to survive. Only 700 succeeded. Lifeboats were launched half-full; women were forced to leave their husbands and sons behind; and even those who made it out alive were forever haunted, constantly wondering “why me?” Told through captivating prose and chilling first-hand accounts, Don Brown take the pieces of the broken Titanic and gives it such a vivid shape that you'd swear you've never heard the story before.

Grade Level: 3-5
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

James Deem WINNER!

In 1991, mountain climbers on the Niederjoch Glacier on the Italian-Austrian border came across something unexpected: a body. It had been a very warm summer, and five bodies had already turned up in the area. But something here was different. The materials found with the body suggested it might be very old, perhaps from the 1800's. But radiocarbon dating proved the iceman was 5,300 years older, from the Copper Age. He was named Ötzi and he is the oldest human mummy preserved in ice ever found. James M. Deem takes readers on a captivating and creepy journey to learn about glaciers, hulking masses of moving ice that are now offering up many secrets of the past.

Grade Level: 4-5
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Betsy Franco

The quirky ways of cats are captured in more than thirty original visual poems. From acrobat-flipping to toilet-bowl-sipping, couch-scratching to dog-catching, this collection celebrates the fickle feline in ways that any cat lover will appreciate.

Grade Level: 3-5
Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Bill Harley

Ben Moroney has just moved from Arizona to Massachusetts and befriends his science teacher, Mrs. Tibbets. She introduces fifth-grader Ben to the wildlife inhabiting her rural property, including the fascinating, rarely seen spadefoot toad. Although struggling to overcome his longing for his former home, Ben finds himself increasingly interested in his new environment; and when he learns that the spadefoot toad's habitat will soon be sold to developers, he makes it his mission to save the threatened species.

Grade Level: 3-5
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers, Ltd.