Award Books

The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron
Newbery Medal Book
Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble determines to run away while also continuing to seek the Higher Power that will bring stability to her life. Note from CMC Librarian - Interestingly, there is quite a debate raging over the use of a particular word in this book. Many teachers and librarians are suggesting that the word is inappropriate for a children's book, and are refusing to purchase the book for their schools. This kind of controversy is very unusual for a Newbery Medal book. It is the policy at Cedarville to purchase all the Newbery Medal and Honor books.

Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium - Carla Killough McClafferty
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children Honor book
Meet Manya Sklodowska, better known today as Marie Curie, the co-discoverer of radium, and who became the first woman awarded the Nobel prize for her work on the discovery. Learn what life was like for Marie, and the effect her discovery had on the world.

John Muir: America's First Environmentalist - Kathryn Lasky
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children Honor book
A biography of John Muir, naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club, whose travels, speeches and writings led directly to the creation of the Yosemite National Park in 1890 and other national parks that followed. From the meadows of Scotland to the farms of Wisconsin, from the swamps of Florida to the Alaskan tundra, John Muir loved the land. Born in 1838, he was a writer, a scholar, an inventor, a shepherd, a farmer, and an explorer, but above all, he was a naturalist. John Muir was particularly devoted to the high cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient giant sequoia trees that, through his careful influence, were set aside as the first national park in America - Yosemite. Here is the life story of the man who, moved by a commitment to wilderness everywhere, founded the Sierra Club in 1892, a conservation group that carries on his crucial work to this day.