Every year the children's librarians in NH sponsor the "Great Stone Face Book Award". The award has been around since 1980 when Judy Blume was the first recipient for her renowned book "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret". The winner of this year's award will be announced at the New Hampshire Library Association Spring Conference later this month.
In Nashua, the librarians in the school district have their fourth and fifth graders vote for their favorite of the twenty-five titles selected by NH public librarians for the award year. As the public library children's librarian, I tally all the votes received from the schools and any votes that are submitted here at the library. I am pleased to announce that the top vote-getter in Nashua is "Punished" by David Lubar. This easy to read novel is about two friends that are fooling around in the library and bump into a mysterious man. The man punishes the boy named Logan by causing him to speak in puns. The only way to break the spell is to find seven examples of oxymorons, anagrams, and palindromes within the time limit that will return Logan to normal.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the state votes and which book will take the top award. Nashua has been quite successful over the years in being able to predict the statewide winner. I guess our kids can just feel the pulse of a really good book. Stay tuned as I will reveal the results in an upcoming blog and in the meantime, check out "Punished".