2001 Evergreen Award Winner

Holes by Louis Sachar
 
Imagine that you are Stanley Yelnatz and every evening when you were growing up you heard your father sing this lullabye:
If only, if only the woodpecker cries
The bark on the trees was as soft as the skies
And the wolf howls below, so lonely, so lonely,
If only, if only….
[Change your stance: You are now Stanley Yelnatz]
If only! If only those sneakers hadn'ta fallen outta da sky! If only I'dda left ‘em alone. Howsz' I supposta know they were stolen? Do I look like the kind of person who'd steal from a charity auction?
[Muttered sotto voce] Don't answer that!
If only when the judge said I hadda choice between Juvenile Detention and Camp Greenlake, I hadn'ta chosen the camp! Howsz' I supposta know what it really was? I'd never been to summer camp? How bad could it be?
Bad. Real bad. I'm in boot camp with a lot of serious criminals. Murderers maybe! Out in the middle of the desert (Lake, hah!) with poisonous snake and lizards and scorpions. And y'know what they make us do? You're never gonna get this: They make us dig holes. Holes! Everyday you gotta dig a hole 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide all around. You don't get to eat or sleep or nothin' until you dig that stupid hole.
And it's it's all the fault of my no-good, rotten, pig-stealing great-grandfather. If he'd of kept his promise, then that old Gypsy lady would never've cursed us. Uh uh. And I wouldn't have such lousy luck. It's bad here. Crazy. I don't think I'm gonna survive this…
[Return to being “the Narrator”] Oh yeah, Stanley Yelnatz's life is going to get crazier than he knows. He thinks they're just making the prisoners dig holes to hurt them, maybe to break their spirit. But the holes are really linked to a secret and a murder and a curse. And Stanley? Why he's right, shall we say, dead in the center of it all. Oh yeah, Stanley is doomed!
By Kirsten Edwards, King County Library System
[Note to nitpickers: To be “doomed” is an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to have a special fate. These guys being what they word, naturally this was assumed to be unpleasant.]

Armageddon Summer - by Jane Yolen

Armageddon Summer - by Jane Yolen

This summer, the world will go up in flames. Or so the followers of Reverend Raymond Beelson. Only the faithful few, hiding out in a mountain camp will escape Armageddon. Two teenagers, Jed and Marina, are dragged to the cult's mountain top retreat by their families. Marina's family have been believers for years and she's worried and upset that they're leaving her dad behind to fry. Jed thinks it's a crock. That it's just his flaky dad's latest craze that will wear off when this so-called Armageddon fizzles out.The FBI agent hidden in the camp is afraid that the cult will turn violent. Both Jed and Marina never expected to find love that strange summer.
One way or another, for Jed and Marina, their world will go up in flames.

Read Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville.

By Kirsten Edwards, King County Library System

2001 Evergreen Award Nomination

Haunted Sister - by Lael Littke

Haunted Sister - by Lael Littke
Have any of you ever heard about something called a "near death experience"? [Let your audience respond. If no one volunteers, describe it briefly]. Basically, whether you're a materialist, and think that it's your brain trying to make sense of getting briefly shut down or a spiritualist who thinks it's a clue to life after death, people do "remember" some strange stuff when they're technically "dead" and resuscitated.
Janine has had a near-death experience. She's hovering above the body of a teenage girl on an operating table, listening to the worried voices of the doctors and thinking that this poor kid is really messed up. Then she remembers the accident and realizes that the body below her is her.
She sees a white light that pulls her toward it, hurrying her toward a beautiful city. She sees people she knows have died; that kid in her class from middle school, her grandpa and her long-dead twin-sister. In an instant she's beside her beloved grandfather. He's telling Janine that it's not her time, that she has to go back. To her surprise her dead twin sister snarls at her. "It's your fault I'm here!"
The next thing Janine knows she's waking up. Her head hurts. Her whole body hurts. She's a hospital bed, bandaged, splinted and catheter-ed. As she moans Janine's mom reaches down to hug her. Her mom is sobbing, "My baby is alive!"
And a voice in Janine's head says, "Wow. That feels really good. I've missed our mom." Janine is confused. What's wrong with me? She thinks. The voice in her head doesn't go away. [Sweetly] "Don't you remember me, Janine? It's me. Lenore. Your twin sister. [Menacingly] The one you killed.
"I'm back. I want my share of living. This is our body now and there's nothing you can do to stop me."
Find out what happens in Haunted Sister by Lael Littke

2001 Evergreen Nomination

Holes - by Louis Sachar

Holes  - by Louis Sachar

Imagine that you are Stanley Yelnatz and every evening when you were growing up you heard your father sing this lullabye:

If only, if only the woodpecker cries
The bark on the trees was as soft as the skies
And the wolf howls below, so lonely, so lonely,
If only, if only….

[Change your stance: You are now Stanley Yelnatz]

If only! If only those sneakers hadn'ta fallen outta da sky! If only I'dda left ‘em alone. Howsz' I supposta know they were stolen? Do I look like the kind of person who'd steal from a charity auction?

[Muttered sotto voce] Don't answer that!

If only when the judge said I hadda choice between Juvenile Detention and Camp Greenlake, I hadn'ta chosen the camp! Howsz' I supposta know what it really was? I'd never been to summer camp? How bad could it be?

Bad. Real bad. I'm in boot camp with a lot of serious criminals. Murderers maybe! Out in the middle of the desert (Lake, hah!) with poisonous snake and lizards and scorpions. And y'know what they make us do? You're never gonna get this: They make us dig holes. Holes! Everyday you gotta dig a hole 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide all around. You don't get to eat or sleep or nothin' until you dig that stupid hole.

And it's it's all the fault of my no-good, rotten, pig-stealing great-grandfather. If he'd of kept his promise, then that old Gypsy lady would never've cursed us. Uh uh. And I wouldn't have such lousy luck. It's bad here. Crazy. I don't think I'm gonna survive this…

[Return to being “the Narrator”] Oh yeah, Stanley Yelnatz's life is going to get crazier than he knows. He thinks they're just making the prisoners dig holes to hurt them, maybe to break their spirit. But the holes are really linked to a secret and a murder and a curse. And Stanley? Why he's right, shall we say, dead in the center of it all. Oh yeah, Stanley is doomed!

By Kirsten Edwards, King County Library System

[Note to nitpickers: To be “doomed” is an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to have a special fate. These guys being what they word, naturally this was assumed to be unpleasant.]

2001 Evergreen Award Nomination

The Killer's Cousin - by Nancy Werlin

The Killer's Cousin - by Nancy Werlin

David Yaffe killed his girlfriend, Emily. At the trial the judge and jury believed him (or at least David's lawyer) when he said it was an accident. So David was acquitted and life goes on, right?
Well, imagine you'd done what David had. That your girlfriend or boyfriend (like Emily) was a popular person; liked. And that everybody at [Name of the school at which you're booktalking] believed that the only reason you were acquitted was your Dad's high-priced lawyer. Imagine going back to [Name of the school].
So David's family sends him out of state to his aunt and uncle to finish his senior year at a school where nobody knows him or what he's done. But going to live with his aunt and uncle is like getting out of the frying pan and into the fire. These aren't the most stable nuts on the family tree. David's aunt and uncle haven't spoken to each other in over a year, since their eldest girl, Kathy, committed suicide.
I mean that literally. The only way they communicate is through their 10-year-old daughter, Lily. If you think this hasn't messed with Lily's head, guess again. The day after David arrives he comes across Lily going through his belongings. He asks her nicely to stop but she ignores him. David tries to get her to leave. Lily waits until just before David is afraid he's gong to have to throw her out, before getting up slowly. [The following is adapted from pages 16 - 17 of the book.]
As if casually, Lily asks, "So David, did you like how it felt, when Emily went down?"
All the air left the room. Lily's eyes sucked at him greedily. "Did it feel good? Powerful? Were you glad--even for just a minute?"
David had words somewhere inside him, but he couldn't get them out. He tried to tell himself; C'mon she's just a kid, just a little girl. It didn't work. He and Greg and Emily had been "just kids" that day. Just because you were under 18 didn't make you innocent. Or harmless.
"Get out!" [Growled loudly - point toward the "door".]
Lily just smirked as she left his room, her head held high.
This family is seriously messed up and Kathy's suicide may not be what it seems. David's fresh start is beginning to look like the bad old days as he wonders if murder runs in the family.
Adapted from a book review by Nancy Henkel, King County Library System

The Maze - by Will Hobbs

The Maze - by Will Hobbs

"Your name's on the cigarettes". Crazy Kenny, the kid who eats glass, who's so messed up everyone leaves him alone, whispers this to Rick Walker at lunch.

That's torn it. Rick's life is over. If the corrupt guards at the detention center don't like someone, they offer a carton of cigarettes to any inmate willing beat that person up. Now it's Rick. He's still got months to go on his sentence. He'll never manage to survive. He's got to get away. But this jail was only meant to be a detour. A tough judge trying to get a Rick to sort himself out after Rick was caught throwing rocks at a stop sign. Now it's maze. If he busts out of jail, he's in serious trouble. He'll be a fugitive. On the run. No chance to start over. But if he's stays, he'll die.

Rick busts out and stows away in a truck stopped at a nearby gas station. When the truck stops, Rick finds himself in the middle of nowhere. A real maze of canyons and red rock spires in Utah. Lon Perigrino, a wildlife biologist is there studying (and trying to save the endangered giant condor. After a rocky start (Rick tries to steal his truck!), Lon takes Rick in. As Rick begins to help Lon in his work, he discovers a powerful identification with the endangered birds. For a little while, like them, he feels free and safe in the wild canyons.

But what neither knows is that Lon's condors are in the way of powerful criminal interests. Killing off an endangered species and murdering a nutty biologist isn't going to bother them at all. It's another dead end in the maze that Rick's life has become. To save Lou, to save the condors, he'll have to sacrifice his freedom, and maybe his life.

Kirsten Edwards, King County Library System

2001 Evergreen Award Nomination

Rules of the Road - by Joan Bauer

Rules of the Road - by Joan Bauer
[Ask the audience what they think they need for a great summer. Wait for responses. Then continue:]
Some of these things are in this book. Jenna wishes she could have a summer with a driver's license money and a car. Jenna actually has her license. She turned 16, six months ago. She's also been saving money all year from her after-school job at a Gladstone Shoe Store. She can sell almost anything to anybody, especially shoes, so she's not doing badly in the money department. Jenna just doesn't quite have the car – yet! Her big plan is to save enough money to buy a little red car with a sun roof and bucket seats, and then explore all of Illinois and Wisconsin and who knows what else.

Then one day Jenna gets an unusual phone call. It's the president of the Gladstone Shoe Company. She wants Jenna to hire Jenna to be her driver for the summer and she's willing to pay very well. She's willing to hand over the keys to her enormous white Cadillac right away.
But Jenna's not too sure she's ready to take them. Sure, it will mean a chance to get away from her family (especially her drunk Dad) for the summer. It will mean freedom, the open road, a chance to explore, and lots and lots of money. But does Jenna really want to spend all summer with a little old lady instead of her best friend? Jenna's best friend warns her, “Jenna, don't be stupid! If you do this you'll be bored to death!”. On the other hand, there is all that money. Jenna will be getting paid enough to definitely buy that sweet car before she starts school in September. It's a tough decision…

Would you go?

Rochelle Brown, King County Library System

2001 Evergreen Award Nomination