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Tag Archives: juvenile fiction
2024 ‘One Book For Nebraska Kids & Teens’ Titles Selected
The Nebraska Library Commission is excited to announce the 2024 titles selected for the One Book For Nebraska Kids & Teens program:

Wouldn’t it be great if kids all over Nebraska were talking about books? And wouldn’t it be even better if those kids were talking about the SAME book? Hold on to your bookmarks, the Nebraska Library Commission and Regional Library Systems have a program for that!
Each year, the One Book for Nebraska Kids & Teens program selects a title for kids (roughly grades 4-6) and teens (older readers) and encourages youth across the state to read and discuss the book together. Read more about the program, and see current and past selections here: http://nlc.nebraska.gov/Youth/OBOK/index.aspx

One Book For Nebraska Kids 2024:
Parachute Kids, by Betty Tang (Graphix, 2023).
A middle-grade graphic novel that follows Feng-Li and her siblings as they navigate life alone in a new country. After a fun-filled vacation in California, Mom and Dad announce that the family is staying and enroll the children in school. When their parents’ visas expire, the children are left in their rental house while their parents return to Taiwan to sort out a legal reentry to the United States.

One Book For Nebraska Teens 2024:
Between the Lines, by Nikki Grimes (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2018).
This 2018 companion to Grimes’ Bronx Masquerade combines verse and prose to explore the thoughts, feelings, and struggles of a diverse class of poets as they prepare for their school poetry slam. In addition to honing their writing skills, they find friendship and support in each other.
The Nebraska Library Commission and each Regional Library System will have book sets for the 2023 and 2024 titles to check out to librarians and school media specialists for their book clubs. See our Book Club Kit page, or contact your regional library system directory for details.
Friday Reads – Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow

Imagine being 12 years old and moving to a tiny Nebraska town with no internet, no TV, and no cell phone service. Heck, imagine being 40 and doing that! In this day and age, it’s almost unthinkable. Now imagine being famous for being the sole survivor of a mass shooting – also unthinkable – and needing a fresh start where no one has heard of you.
Simon and his parents move to Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, a small town set in the National Quiet Zone – a space where radio signals are banned as to not interfere with the operation of radio telescopes used by the astronomers and scientists searching for signs of life beyond our planet. His mother takes over the local mortuary, his father settles in as deacon of the Catholic church, and Simon just tries to resume life as a normal, anonymous kid. So far, so good – no one here can Google him. He can make up whatever goofy story he wants about why his family relocated.
Then disaster strikes. And keeps striking – a rogue squirrel ransacks the church’s communion wafers, a flock of emus get loose, the mortuary’s driver loses a body, a tornado bears down on the town… and someone finds out Simon’s secret. In the midst of his family getting all the wrong kinds of attention, Simon and his friends scheme a way to shift the focus from him to the stars, using a forbidden microwave, a metronome, and a whole lot of math.
Despite the devastating tragedy underlying the story, this was actually one of the most hilarious books I’ve read in a while. The author, originally from Iowa, lived in Nebraska for a time, and is familiar with the state’s geography and love of football. There is so much to love about Simon and his family and friends, as well as the odd little town they find themselves in. If you are looking for an entertaining read that will make you laugh AND cry, Simon says read this book!
Bow, Erin. (2023). Simon Sort of Says. Disney Hyperion.
Posted in Books & Reading, General
Tagged books, Erin Bow, Friday Reads, juvenile fiction, middle grade, Reading
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