Young Hoosier Book Award
Middle Grade
First begun in 1974, the Young Hoosier Book Award encourages Indiana students to read for fun. Since 1992, the Award has been divided into three categories based on grade level: Kindergarten-3rd grade (picture books), 4th-6th grade (intermediate), and 6th-8th grade (middle grade).
 
Each year, teachers, students, parents and media specialists submit suggestions to the Young Hoosier Book Award committee, who nominate twenty books in each category. Students read the books on the list and vote for their favorites. Votes are then tallied and the winning illustrator and authors are presented the award in the spring of the following year.
 
2019-20 Winner
Refugee
by Alan Gratz

Although separated by continents and decades, Josef, a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl trying to escape the riots and unrest plaguing her country in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 whose homeland is torn apart by violence and destruction, embark on harrowing journeys in search of refuge, discovering shocking connections that tie their stories together.
2020-21 Nominees
Small Spaces
by Katherine Arden

After eleven-year-old Ollie's school bus mysteriously breaks down on a field trip, she has to venture through frightening woods, relying on her wits to survive and sticking to small spaces.
Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World
by Ashley Herring Blake

Twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen's house is destroyed in a tornado, and in the aftermath of the storm, she begins to develop feelings for another girl at school.
Charlie Hernández & the League of Shadows
by Ryan Calejo

Steeped in Hispanic folklore since childhood, middle schooler Charlie Hernández learns the stories are true when, shortly after his parents' disappearance, he grows horns and feathers and finds himself at the heart of a battle to save the world.
Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish: A Novel
by Pablo Cartaya

After a fight at school leaves Marcus facing suspension, Marcus's mother takes him and his brother to Puerto Rico to visit relatives they have never met, and while there Marcus starts searching for his father, who left their family ten years ago.
Not If I Save You First
by Ally Carter

Six years ago Maddie lived in Washington D.C. with her father, a Secret Service agent assigned to the President's family, and her best friend was Logan, the President's son; but after her father was wounded in an attempted kidnapping the two of them moved to a remote cabin in Alaska and Logan never replied to her letters--but now he has suddenly turned up on her doorstep, and, while she has no attention of forgiving him for his silence, she soon realizes that first she has to save him from the winter wilderness and the men who are pursuing him.
The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
by Leslie Connor

As he grieves his best friend Benny's death, Mason and his friend Calvin, who are targeted by the neighborhood bullies, create an underground haven for themselves, but when Calvin goes missing Mason finds himself in trouble.
New Kid
by Jerry Craft

Enrolled in a prestigious private school where he is one of only a few students of color, talented seventh-grade artist Jordan finds himself torn between the worlds of his Washington Heights apartment home and the upscale circles of Riverdale Academy.
The Girl I Used to Be
by Mary Torjussen

Blackmailed after a reckless night involving a drunken act of infidelity that she does not remember, real estate agent Gemma Brogan endures a downward spiral with ties to another night that changed everything years earlier. By the author of Gone Without a Trace.
The Night Diary
by Veera Hiranandani

Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary.
Attucks! : Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team that Awakened a City
by Phillip M. Hoose

Traces the inspirational story of the Crispus Attucks High School Tigers basketball team and how they broke the color barrier in segregated 1950s Indiana to become state champions. By the National Book Award-winning author of Claudette Colvin.
The Parker Inheritance
by Varian Johnson

Spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, Candice discovers the letter that sent her grandmother on a treasure hunt, and with her new friend Brandon, sets off to expose the injustice once committed against a local African American family.
Nowhere Boy
by Katherine Marsh

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed, a Syrian refugee, and thirteen-year-old Max, an American boy, are bound by a secret that sets them on the adventure of a lifetime.
The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl
by Stacy McAnulty

Surviving a lightning strike that has given her genius-level math skills, 12-year-old Lucy is offered entry into college but reluctantly takes her grandmother's advice to attend one year of middle school, make a friend, join a club and read a non-math book. A first middle-grade novel by the author of the Dino Files chapter books.
The Traitor's Game
by Jennifer A Nielsen

Kidnapped by the Coracks who want to use her to find a legendary blade capable of killing the despot, Kestra has her own plans and tries to evade her companion Simon, one of the rebels with his own grudge against the Dallisors.
Gamer Army
by Trent Reedy

Even though he is only twelve, Rogan Weber is an obsessed gamer, whose motto, ego sum maximus, declares his confidence in his own abilities, and whose parents are also deeply involved in ultra high tech (a little too deeply sometimes); naturally he is thrilled to receive an invitation to join a tech giant's virtual reality TV gaming contest--but as the games become more and more intense and dangerous, he and his fellow gamers realize that something sinister is behind this particular game.
How to Disappear
by Sharon Huss Roat

Vicky lives her life strictly below the radar, so after her only friend moves away, she begins Photoshopping herself into pictures that she posts online, but as she gains more followers, she sees that many people feel just as alone and ignored as she does.
Ghost Boys
by Jewell Parker Rhodes

After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till.
City of Ghosts
by Victoria Schwab

Surviving a near-fatal accident that gives her the ability to enter the spirit world, the daughter of television ghost-hunters visits with her ghost best friend and meets another girl who shares her abilities before realizing the dangers that come with her powers.
The Prince and the Dressmaker
by Jen Wang

The best-selling cartoonist of In Real Life presents a graphically illustrated fairy-tale set in Paris at the dawn of the modern age, where a cross-dressing prince hides his identity as a popular fashion icon and falls for a brilliant dressmaker who knows his secret at the same time his royal parents begin searching for a traditional bride for him to marry.
Piecing Me Together
by Renée Watson

Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.
Michigan City Public Library
100 E. 4th Street
Michigan City, Indiana 46360
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