2005 Picture Book Winner

MY PAL, VICTOR/MI AMIGO, VICTOR
by Diane Gonzales Bertrand
illustrated by Robert L. Sweetland
Raven Tree Press
ISBN: 0972019294
Ages 4-8
32 pages
June 2004

Victor tells heart-booming ghost stories, claps the loudest at Dominic's baseball games, and performs a fabulous floating frog stroke. Two Latino boys experience a spirited, carefree friendship despite one boy's disability. Full bilingual (English/Spanish) text and a vocabulary page are included.

2005 Middle School Award Winner

BECOMING NAOMI LEON
by Pam Munoz Ryan
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 0439269695
Ages 9-12
246 pages
September 2004

Naomi Soledad Leon Outlaw has had a lot to contend with in her young life: her name, her clothes (sewn in polyester by Gram), her difficulty speaking up, and her status among her classmates as "nobody special." But according to Gram's self-prophecies, most problems can be overcome with positive thinking. Luckily, Naomi also has her soap carving, a talent at which she excels. And life at Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho in Lemon Tree, California, with Gram and her little brother Owen is happy and peaceful. That is, until their mother reappears after seven years of being gone, stirring up all sorts of questions and challenging Naomi to discover who she really is.

2005 Teen Award Winner

MY THIRTEENTH WINTER: A Memoir
by Samantha Abeel
Orchard Books
ISBN: 0439339049
Ages 11-15
208 pages
November 2003

Samantha Abeel tells her own story of living with and overcoming dyscalculia. She describes in painstaking detail how her life was affected by her learning disability before and after she was diagnosed, and the way her peers, family and teachers treated her. In seventh grade, Samantha suffered anxiety attacks as she struggled to keep up in her classes, remember two locker combinations, and deal with new teachers. Samantha was placed in Special Education classes in eighth grade, but she continued to feel anxious about her future.