Children/Young Adult Book Awards: 2000-2009

Someone is always awake in the forest--and someone else is always asleep! Some animals are alert in daytime and sleep at night. Others are alert at night, and are sleepyheads during the day. Plus be sure to count the animals.

One summer morning, a flock of monarch butterflies alights on John Farrington's house and changes his life forever. Now that the meadows have become minimalls and the forests are turned into parking lots, the butterflies need a new home. Can John lead them to another refuge?

When a tiny snail meets a humpback whale, the two travel together to far-off lands. It's a dream come true for the snail, who has never left home before. But when the whale swims too close to shore, will the snail be able to save her new friend?

Jesse knows her two grandfathers only through the stories her parents share. One died before she was born; the other lived long enough to visit her when she was a baby.

When Jesse and her parents spend two weeks in the country, she is drawn to Daniel, an old man who carries a walking stick. Together, Jesse and Daniel hike through the woods, cross streams, and ascend hills. When Jesse returns to the city with her parents, she has her own walking stick and vivid stories and sweet memories of the summer she spent with her third grandfather.

In soothing, lyrical language, Wendy McCormick offers young readers a satisfying, evocative story that pays tribute to the power of stories to create bonds of enduring love that transcend familial ties. Illustrator Constance R. Bergum's soft, delicate watercolors capture the gentle tone of the story and bring the endearing characters to life.

Floy Hutchings, also known as Squirrel, is the daughter of the man who opened the first hotel in the Yosemite Valley in the 1860s. She has to fend for herself much of the time and is considered wild by her family and her father's guests. When the future naturalist John Muir is hired as a carpenter, Floy becomes his inquisitive shadow as he builds himself a cabin over a stream, talks to flowers, and listens to snow. Floy, determined never to grow up because she'd have to be a lady, and Muir, searching nature for a way to live free of society's expectations, are primed to find common ground.

In this story set against a backdrop of watercolor paintings that vividly capture the beauty of Yosemite, Floy learns to see the world through John Muir's eyes.

The remarkable true story of a one-of-a-kind survivor.

One lone tortoise lived a simple life on Pinta Island in the Galápagos Islands of the Pacific Ocean. Then visiting fishermen introduced goats to the unique island, which completely disrupted the ecosystem.

One lone tortoise stubbornly clung to life, even after his fellow tortoises disappeared slowly. Then, years after it was believed that all Pinta Island tortoises were extinct, scientists discovered one lone tortoise among the rocky hills of the now barren land.

The scientists named this miraculous survivor “Lonesome George” and brought him to the Darwin Research Station, where they hoped to find him a mate. Even though George has remained a steadfast bachelor while waiting for a Pinta Island mate, he is an inspiration for survival as well as a living reminder of the terrible price of extinction.

Jeannie Baker, incomparable creator of intricate collage illustrations, invites you to take a plunge with Ben, into the sea ... to see.See what?
Underwater forests of kelp.
Rocks with strangely beautiful textures.
A myriad of fish.
The hidden splendour of one of the Earth's last, most alluringly beautiful frontiers.
And something totally unexpected

Ben will never see things the same way again. And neither will you.

Before the word "dinosaur" was even coined, a young girl discovered a remarkable skeleton on the rocky beach at Lyme Regis in England. Thus began a lifelong passion for an extraordinary woman who became one of the first commercial fossil collectors. Born in 1799, Mary Anning spent a lifetime teaching herself about fossils and combing the rugged ribbon of shore near her home. Her work yielded an astounding treasure trove: fossils of long-extinct creatures that thrilled customers in her shop and excited early paleontologists. Blind to the dangers of fossil-hunting and to the limitations imposed on women of her era, Mary Anning was a singular scientist who used her sharp eyes and clear mind to compose a picture of ancient life from the bones she unearthed. With his trademark graceful prose and lyrical watercolors, Don Brown distills the life story of this rare treasure of a scientist.

Inspired by a passage from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, the wonderfully appealing Henry Hikes to Fitchburg follows two friends who have very different approaches to life. When the two agree to meet one evening in Fitchburg, which is thirty miles away, each decides to get there in his own way, and the two have surprisingly different days.

In this fascinating book, author Wendy Pfeffer and illustrator Robin Brickman introduce readers to they life cycle of a tree. The informative, lyrical text is complemented by stunning, three-dimensional paper sculptures that showcase the forest ecosystem, inspiring readers to take a close look at the trees -- and logs -- in their own backyards.