This is a ppt presentation on the Mark Twain Nominees for 2011-2012

1. MARK TWAIN AWARD
NOMINEES
2011-2012

2. Potato Chip Puzzles
• The whiz kid from The Puzzling World of Winston Breen
(Putnam, 2007) returns to reason through his second
mystery. Winston and his two friends, Mal and Jake, are sent
to represent Walter Fredericks Junior High in a daylong
puzzle competition sponsored by the eccentric owner of
Simon's Snack Foods. Their teacher, Mr. Garvey, is
determined to win the $50,000 prize for their school and
constantly chides the boys to take the day seriously. As
Winston's group scrambles around town tracking clues and
solving riddles, they are waylaid by a saboteur they suspect is
connected to one of the competing schools.

3. Heart of a Shepherd
•
• 11-year-old Brother (his given name is Ignatius: "Guess they ran out
of all the good saints by the time they got to me") helps manage his
family's Oregon ranch. With his father in Iraq, his four older
brothers at school or in the military, and his mother painting
abroad, caring for family's livestock falls to Brother, his
grandparents and some hired help. Though he is eager to prove to
his siblings, grandparents and most importantly, his father, that he
can handle it, Brother nonetheless struggles with the rigors of the
job, his father's and brothers' absence and the stress of war

4. Secret of Zoom
• Christina lives in a big, old stone mansion on the edge of a dark
forest surrounded by barbed wire. Deep within the forest is the
laboratory where her father works—and where her mother was
blown to bits years ago. Christina’s father knows just how
dangerous the world can be, so he keeps her safe at home,
forbidding her from talking to the very interesting orphans down
the road. But when an orphan boy named Taft talks to her, she’s
thrilled to help him search for a secret tunnel. But soon she
discovers there’s more to the orphanage, the lab, and the mystery
of her mother’s accident than she ever suspected. Sinister things
are in the works—and the secret of zoom is the most dangerous
secret of all!

5. Runaway Twin
• Sunny Skyland has missed her twin sister ever since they were separated
at age three after their mother and grandmother were killed in an
automobile accident. Sunny has kept her memories of Starr alive over the
past decade and in seven foster homes. Then, the discovery of a canvas
bag containing $800, with no claimant, spurs Sunny to travel from
Nebraska to her old neighborhood in Enumclaw, WA. Sunny is an
experienced runaway who plans carefully and tells no one. She boards a
bus for the first leg of her journey but then complicates her life by
adopting a stray dog. Her trip is thwarted by a group of teenage boys, and
she survives a tornado. She does reach her destination, but not with the
expected ending.

6. Love Aubrey
• How does a child recover from unspeakable loss? For Aubrey, 11, it takes
time, love, stability, and the emotional release that comes from writing
letters. After her father and younger sister die in a car accident, Aubrey's
mother becomes psychologically unstable and abandons her. Uprooted
from her home in Virginia, Aubrey goes to live with her grandmother in
Vermont. Along with Gram's love, she finds solace in spending time with
the family next door and acquires a best friend in the process. When her
mother materializes and begins her emotional recovery, Aubrey must
decide whether to return home or to remain with her grandmother. The
child's progress is reflected in her letters, which are at first directed to her
sister's imaginary friend, then to her dead father and sister, and finally to
the mother who hurt her so deeply

7. Million Dollar Throw
Thirteen-year-old Nate Brodie's life would seem to be the stuff of
adolescent boys' dreams: he is the star quarterback of his school
football team and has a great relationship with his best friend and
soulmate, Abby McCall. However, all is not smooth sailing. The Brodies
are in danger of losing their home in the economic downturn, and
Abby's eyesight is failing due to a rare congenital disease. Nate thinks
he may have the opportunity to solve all of his problems when he wins
the chance to make a million dollars by throwing a football through a
small target during halftime at a pro football game. Unfortunately, his
quarterbacking skills suddenly and mysteriously desert him just as he is
preparing for his big moment.

8. 11 Birthdays
• It's Amanda's 11th birthday and she is super excited---
after all, 11 is so different from 10. But from the start,
everything goes wrong. The worst part of it all is that
she and her best friend, Leo, with whom she's shared
every birthday, are on the outs and this will be the first
birthday they haven't shared together. When Amanda
turns in for the night, glad to have her birthday behind
her, she wakes up happy for a new day. Or is it? Her
birthday seems to be repeating iself. What is going
on?! And how can she fix it? Only time, friendship, and
a little luck will tell. . .

9. Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z.
• Gianna Z. has less than one week to collect twenty-five
leaves for a science project, or else she might lose her spot
at cross-country sectionals. Finishing her project will be
enough of a hurdle, but with a grandmother who keeps
losing her teeth, a father who drives her to school in the
family hearse, and an arch-nemesis intent on stealing her
spot on the team, Gianna will need a stroke of brilliance to
make everything fall into place.
• She is not so crazy about research projects or anything
involving time-management skills, and has somehow
gotten to within a week of the due date of a huge science
assignment with no work to show. But how hard can it be

10. Faith, Hope, and Ivy June
• The living situations of the seventh graders are at two
extremes and yet both girls have the humanity and
distinctness that allow them to escape the confines of
representing their classes. Make no mistake, this is Ivy
June's story, and her hardships and family challenges are
front and center in a way that Catherine's own family woes
are not. The exchange program set up by the schools is a
perfect showcase for looking at the role of wealth and
poverty in our assumptions about one another. Ivy June's
discomfort at having the wrong shoes is comparable to
Catherine's squirming at being unable to wash her hair
daily

11. Captain Nobody
• Ten-year-old Newt Newman is used to fading into the background: his
parents are workaholics; his brother, Chris, is a high school football star;
and he and his best buddies, JJ and Cecil, are ignored at school.
Determined to get noticed this Halloween, the three friends vow to come
up with original costumes. But then Chris takes a hit and is knocked into a
coma during the Big Game. Worried about his brother, and with his parent
camped out at the hospital, Newt has no interest in creating a costume.
When JJ and Cecil arrive at his house for trick-or-treating, they help him
transform an assortment of Chris's outgrown clothes into a get-up for a
new superhero: Captain Nobody! Enjoying the newfound confidence he
experiences behind his mask, Newt continues to wear the costume, and
opportunities start cropping up for him to save the day—whether helping
a confused old man find his way home or stopping a jewelry store robbery,
Captain Nobody gets the job done. But when it comes to his brother's
coma, even Captain Nobody is powerless…or is he?

12. Storm Chaser
• Jessica Warner, 13, plans to spend the summer helping out
on her family's Nevada ranch, riding her faithful old horse,
Rusty, and spending time with her friend Marybeth. When
a fierce storm hits, the old barn catches fire. Rusty survives,
but he can no longer be ridden. Jessica disobeys her father
and begins working with a wild paint filly she has dubbed
Storm Chaser. After the fire, the Warners decide to
transform the working ranch into a vacation spot. When the
first group of "dudes" arrives for a week of riding, weenie
roasts, and swims at the lake, culminating with a cattle
drive, things become complicated for Jess. One of the
vacationers has her eye on Storm Chaser and makes a big
show of wanting to buy her

13. Mudville
•
• It centers on 12-year-old Roy McGuire, whose dreams of
being a major leaguer are literally dampened by the fact
that it has been raining in his hometown for 22 years. The
rain began during a contest with neighboring Sinister Bend,
and it ends right after Roy returns from baseball camp to
find a new foster brother, Sturgis, living at his house. Their
relationship is rocky, but no one can deny Sturgis’ throwing
power, and soon both boys are ramping up for an epic
rematch between the two towns.
•