Maine Student Book Award

The Maine Student Book Award, a joint project of the Maine Library Association, Maine Association of School Libraries, and Maine Reading Association, has been around for decades.  While most awards for children’s books are chosen by adults (I mean, what’s up with that, right?) the Maine Student Book Award is awarded each spring to a book that kids in grades 4-8 in Maine have chosen by voting.  A committee chooses a list of books, published the previous year. Kids can suggest books to go on the list.  Kids in grades 4-8 read from the list, and then vote by April 1st.

Here is a link to the MSBA home page where you can find all the titles on the current list.
Maine Student Book Award Home Page

 There is a display of available titles in the Youth Services Room at the library.  And don’t forget that many are available in Scarborough Public Library’s very cool Cloud Library, too!

The Cloak Society, by Jeramey Kraatz is a fantasy title on the list.  

 
Like many kids, Alex isn't sure he wants to continue in the family business and is struggling to find his own path. Complicating matters: the family business is super-villainy! His great-grandfather was a founding member of the Cloak Society, a team of radiation-enhanced bad guys whose powers range from controlling electricity to super strength and, in Alex's case, telekinesis. His mother is telepathic, which presents the ultimate kid nightmare: his mother really can read his mind. On his 12th birthday, Alex fails in his first field test, a bank robbery. His powers cannot open the vault and he impulsively does the unthinkable: He saves Kirbie, a shape-shifting member of The Rangers of Justice,--the good guys. Even worse, she becomes his friend. And the more time he spends with her, the more Alex wonders about the world outside of Cloak—and what, exactly, he's been fighting for.



Check out the other titles on the list for more great books!

Happy reading,
Connie