Caudill Award List 2023-24
Title: Stamped (for Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You
By: Cherry-Paul, Sonja
Published: 2021
RACE. Uh-oh. The R-word. But actually talking about race is one of the most important things to learn how to do. Adapted from the groundbreaking bestseller "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You," Ibram X. Kendi's research, Jason Reynolds' and Sonja Cherry-Paul's writing, and Rachelle Baker's art come together in this vital read, enhanced with a glossary, timeline, and more.
Ages 6 to 10
Title: My Life in the Fish Tank
By: Dee, Barbara
Published: 2020
When twelve-year-old Zinnia Manning's older brother Gabriel is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, it turns her family's world upside-down, especially since they are keeping the information private.
Ages 9 to 13
Title: Frankie & Bug
By: Forman, Gayle
Published: 2021
"In the summer of 1987 in Venice, California, ten-year-old Bug and her new friend Frankie learn important lessons about life, family, being your true self, and how to navigate in a world that is not always just or fair.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: Alone
By: Freeman, Megan
Published: 2021
When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She's alone--left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or Internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own.
Ages 10 to 12
Title: Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year
By: Hamza, Nina
Published: 2021
Ahmed Aziz is having an epic year--epically bad. After his dad gets sick, the family moves from Hawaii to Minnesota for his dad's treatment. Even though his dad grew up there, Ahmed can't imagine a worse place to live. He's one of the only brown kids in his school. And as a proud slacker, Ahmed doesn't want to deal with expectations from his new teachers. But Ahmed surprises himself by actually reading the assigned books for his English class.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: The Last Cuentista
By: Higuera, Donna Barba
Published: 2021
A girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children -- among them Petra and her family -- have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet -- and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth.
Ages 10 to 13
Title: Ophie's Ghosts
By: Ireland, Justina
Published: 2021
In 1922, Mama has gotten Ophie a job as a maid in the same old manor house where she works. Daffodil Manor, like the wealthy Caruthers family who owns it, is haunted by memories and prejudices of the past--and, as Ophie discovers, ghosts as well. Ghosts who have their own loves and hatreds and desires, ghosts who have wronged others and ghosts who have themselves been wronged. And as Ophie forms a friendship with one spirit whose life ended suddenly and unjustly, she wonders if she might be able to help.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: Red, White and Whole
By: LaRocca, Rajani
Published: 2021
Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she's the only Indian American student, and home, with her family's traditions and holidays. But Reha's parents don't understand why she's conflicted-they only notice when Reha doesn't meet their strict expectations.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: The Unforgettable Logan Foster
By: Peters, Shawn
Published: 2022
Logan, an undersized twelve-year-old orphan with a photographic memory and no filter, discovers that his foster parents are superheroes in grave danger and only Logan's highly logical mind can save them.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: City Spies
By: Ponti, James
Published: 2020
Sara Martinez is facing years in the juvenile detention system for hacking into the foster care computer system to prove that her foster parents are crooks. But then she gets a second chance when a mysterious man offers her a chance to join a group of MI6-affiliated spies.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: A Game of Fox and Squirrels
By: Reese, Jenn
Published: 2020
When Aunt Vicky gives Sam a mysterious card game called A Game of Fox & Squirrels, Sam falls in love with the animal characters, especially the charming trickster fox, Ashander. Then one day Ashander shows up in Sam's room and offers her an adventure and a promise: Find the Golden Acorn, and Sam can have anything she desires.
Ages 10 and up
Title: Daughter of the Deep
By: Riordan, Rick
Published: 2021
In this story inspired by Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," Ana Dakkar, a freshman at Harding-Pencroft Academy, a five-year high school that graduates the best marine scientists, naval warriors, navigators, and underwater explorers in the world, makes astounding discoveries about her heritage and puts her leadership skills to the test against deadly enemies from a rival school.
Ages 10 to 14
Title: I Must Betray You
By: Sepytus, Ruta
Published: 2022
n a country governed by isolation, fear, and a tyrannical dictator, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer, but he decides to use his position to try to outwit his handler, undermine the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country.
Ages 12 and up
Title: Fallout
By: Sheinkin, Steve
Published: 2021
With communism sweeping the globe, the United States and the Soviet Union begin a neck-and-neck competition to build even more destructive bombs and win the space race. In their battle for dominance, spy planes fly above, armed submarines swim below, and undercover agents meet in the dead of night. The Cold War game grows more precarious as weapons are pointed toward each other, with fingers literally on the trigger.
Ages 10 to 14
Title: Barakah Beats
By: Siddiqui, Maleeha
Published: 2021
Desperate to fit in and save her friendship with Jenna, Nimra accepts an unlikely invitation to join Barakah Beats, a band made up of popular eighth-grade boys. The only problem is, Nimra was taught that music isn't allowed in Islam, and she knows her parents would be disappointed in her. So she devises a plan: join the band just until she wins Jenna back, then quit before her parents find out. but Nimra's lies quickly start to unravel.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: A Wish in the Dark
By: Soontornvat, Christina
Published: 2020
A boy on the run. A girl determined to find him. A compelling fantasy looks at issues of privilege, protest, and justice.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: The Shape of Thunder
By: Warga, Jasmine
Published: 2021
Estranged from the best friend whose brother killed her sister in a school shooting, a grieving Cora receives a message on her twelfth birthday from her friend, asking for her help with creating a time portal to prevent the tragedy.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: Turtle Boy
By: Wolkenstein, M. Evan
Published: 2020
Seventh-grader Will's Bar Mitzvah community service project, visiting an incurably ill older boy in the hospital, leads to a friendship that is life-changing for both them and those around them.
Ages 10 and up
Title: Maizy Chen's Last Chance
By: Yee, Lisa
Published: 2022
Eleven-year-old Maizy Chen visits her estranged grandparents, who own and run a Chinese restaurant in Last Chance, Minnesota; as her visit lengthens, she makes unexpected discoveries about her family's history and herself.
Ages 8 to 12
Title: The Awakening Storm (City of Dragons)
By: Yogis, Jaimal
Published: 2021
When a mysterious old woman gifts her a dragon egg during a field trip, Grace discovers that the wonderful stories of dragons she heard when she was a young girl might actually be real--especially when the egg hatches overnight. The dragon has immense powers that Grace has yet to understand.
Ages 8 to 10