Glory Bea Bennett knows that miracles happen in Gladiola, Texas, population 3,421. After all, her grandmother—the best matchmaker in the whole county—is responsible for thirty-nine of them. Now, Glory Bea needs a miracle of her own. The war ended three years ago, but Glory Bea’s father never returned home from the front in France. Glory Bea understands what Mama and Grams and Grandpa say—that Daddy died a hero on Omaha Beach—yet deep down in her heart, she believes Daddy is still out there. When the Gladiola Gazette reports that one of the boxcars from the Merci Train (the “thank you” train)—a train filled with gifts of gratitude from the people of France—will be stopping in Gladiola, she just knows daddy will be its surprise cargo. But miracles, like people, are always changing, until at last they find their way home.
2021-2022 Lamplighter Award
Reading Level: 0.0
Published by Simon & Schuster
Copyright January 27, 2021
ISBN# 9781534446069 (HB)
He’s spent the majority of his life locked behind the cruel walls of Weatherly Orphanage, but when Tom learns that his parents might actually be alive, he is determined to find them. Together with his best friend Sarah, and armed with only the word “Britfield,” as a clue to Tom’s mysterious past, the two make a daring escape.
Soon, they are on the run from a famous Scotland Yard detective and what appears to be half of the police officers in England! The hunt is on, but will Tom and Sarah be able to evade capture long enough to solve an even bigger conspiracy that could tear our world apart
2021-2022 Lamplighter Award
Reading Level: 5.6
Published by Devonfiled Publishing LLC
Copyright January 27, 2021
ISBN# 9781732961210 (HB)
When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933, the United States was on the brink of economic collapse and environmental disaster. Thirty-four days later, the first of over three million impoverished young men were building parks and reclaiming the nation’s forests and farmlands. The Civilian Conservation Corps—FDR’s favorite program and “miracle of inter-agency cooperation”—resulted in the building and/or improvement of hundreds of state and national parks, the restoration of nearly 120 million acre of land, and the planting of some three billion trees—more than half of all the trees ever planted in the United States.
2021-2022 Lamplighter Award
Reading Level: 7.6
Published by Simon & Schuster
Copyright January 27, 2021
ISBN# 9781534429321 (HB)
Rebeka Uwitonze was born in Rwanda with curled and twisted feet, which meant she had to crawl or be carried to get around. At nine years old, she gets an offer that could change her life. A doctor in the US might be able to turn her feet. But it means leaving her own family behind and going to America on her own.
2021-2022 Lamplighter Award
Reading Level: 4.8
Published by Scholatic Focus
Copyright January 27, 2021
ISBN# 9781338356373 (HB)
Charlie, a budding violinist, decides to research the life of her great-aunt and namesake for her middle school ancestry project. Everyone in Charlie’s family believes Great-Aunt Charlotte (called Lottie), a violin prodigy, died at the hands of the Nazis, but the more Charlie uncovers about her long-lost relative, the more muddied Great-Aunt Lottie’s story becomes. Could it be that Lottie somehow survived the war by hiding in Hungary? Could she even still be alive today?
2021-2022 Lamplighter Award
Reading Level: 4.7
Published by Holiday House
Copyright January 27, 2021
ISBN# 9780823441662 (HB)
Shine on! might be the catchphrase of twelve-year-old Piper’s hero—astronaut, astronomer, and television host Nellie Dumont Frisse—but Piper knows the truth: some people are born to shine, and she’s just not one of them. That fact has never been clearer than now, since her dad’s new job has landed them both at Chumley Prep, a posh private school where everyone seems to be the best at something and where Piper definitely doesn’t fit in.
2021-2022 Lamplighter Award
Reading Level: 4.4
Published by Random House
Copyright January 27, 2021
ISBN# 9781524717667 (HB)
April is looking for an escape from the sixth-grade lunch hour, which has become a social-scene nightmare, so she signs up to be a “buddy bench monitor” for the fourth graders’ recess. Joey Byrd is a boy on the fringes, who wanders the playground alone, dragging his foot through the dirt. But over time, April realizes that Joey isn’t just making random circles. When you look at his designs from above, a story emerges… Joey’s “bird’s eye” drawings reveal what he observes and thinks about every day.
2021-2022 Lamplighter Award
Reading Level: 5.2
Published by Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright January 27, 2021
ISBN# 9781524717391 (HB)
Danger is never far from Audra’s family farm in Lithuania. She always avoids the occupying Russian Cossack soldiers, who insist that everyone must become Russian—they have banned Lithuanian books, religion, culture, and even the language. But Audra knows her parents are involved in something secret and perilous. In June 1893, when Cossacks arrive abruptly at their door, Audra’s parents insist that she flee, taking with her an important package and instructions for where to deliver it. But escape means abandoning her parents to a terrible fate.
2021-2022 Lamplighter Award
Reading Level: 5.6
Published by Scholastic Press
Copyright January 27, 2021
ISBN# 9781338275476 (HB)
