First Lines From the 2015 Cybils Plus . . .

This is supposed to be first lines from the 2015 Cybil Awards and wouldn't you know, the first book had no lines. This would seem to be a good year for wordless picture books. I don't love all of these first paragraphs. Why should I? We all have very different ideas of what we want to read. What's the best first line or paragraph you've read this year?

Fiction Picture Books

Sidewalk Flowersby JonArno Lawson
Groundwood Books
Nominated by: Hannah DeCamp

A distracted dad and his daughter take a walk home in this beautifully illustrated, wordless picture book. The story unfolds through a unique combination of graphic novel style format and traditional full-bleed or framed art. While the city seems drab and dark in the beginning, the little girl finds beauty around every corner. Details invite the reader to linger and pause over the pages, discovering along with the girl on her walk through the neighborhood. As she matter-of-factly shares her appreciation for things around her, color begins to spread beyond just the people and places where she distributes her finds.  Readers young and old alike will be charmed by this story of a little girl’s ability to stop and notice the weeds and her natural willingness to spread kindness in a busy, fast-paced world. The wordless aspect of the book makes it accessible to everyone, no matter what language they read or speak. 

Easy Readers

Ling & Ting: Twice as Silly (Passport to Reading, Level 3: Ling & Ting)by Grace Lin
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Nominated by: Heidi G.

Story 1 The Garden

Ting is in the garden. "

What are you doing?" Ling asks.

"I am planting cupcakes," Ting  says.

'Ting!"  Ling says. "You cannot plant cupcakes."

Early Chapter Books

Dory and the Real True Friend (Dory Fantasmagory)by Abby Hanlon
Dial Books
Nominated by: Sara Ralph

My name is Dory, but everyone calls me Rascal. This is my family. I have a mom, dad, big brother, and big sister who are just regular people. I also have a monster and fairy godmother who are not regular because only I can see them,

Elementary/Middle Grade

Fiction

The Blackthorn Keyby Kevin Sands
Aladdin
Nominated by: Melissa Fox

I found it.

Master Benedict says he wasn't the least bit surprised According to him, there were several times over the past three years when he was sure I'd finally discovered it. Yet it wasn't until the day before my fourteenth birthday that it came to be so clearly, I thought God Himself had whispered in my ear.

Speculative Fiction

The Fog Diverby Joel Ross
HarperCollins
Nominated by: PLCarpenter

After a long morning searching the woods, I spotted a school bus through the Fog. The broke windows looked like rotten teeth as I edged closer, hoping to salvage hubcaps or engine parts.

 

Young Adult 

Fiction

Every Last Wordby Tamara Ireland Stone
Disney-Hyperion
Nominated by: Jennifer Donovan

Lane three. It's always lane number three. My coaches think it's funny. Quirky/ A thing, like not washing your lucky socks or growing a rally beard. And that's perfect/ That's all I want them to know.

Speculative Fiction

The Walls Around Usby Nova Ren Suma
Algonquin Young Readers
Nominated by: Esther Braithwaite

Amber

WE WENT WILD

We wen wild that hot night. We howled, we raged, we screamed. We were girls - some of us fourteen and fifteen; some sixteen and seventeen - but when the locks came undone, the doors of our cells gaping open and no one to shove us back in, we made the noise of savage animals, of men.

Non-Fiction

Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam Warby Steve Sheinkin
Roaring Brook Press
Nominated by: Benji Martin

Cold Warrior

What could Daniel Ellsberg possibly have done to provoke such wrath - to be seen as such a threat? The story begins twenty-six years earlier, as World War II came to an end and the Cold War began. Ellsberg was just starting ninth grade at a prep school near Detroit, Michigan.

Sheinkin does it again. He's also the 2016 YALSA award winner. I read his book Bomb. The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon and adored it.

I still didn't have a picture book first line for this post. When I checked out the ALA Awards page, I fell in love with a title.  It won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award (best translation from another language.)
The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy (2015)

By Alemagna, Beatrice

I loved the title and the description and I went to LAPL tonight and placed a hold on it. (Why is my computer suddenly putting everything in title caps? I wish I could do that on purpose.)

Since I still didn't have a picture book first line from the Cybils. I am including one from the last picture book I read. A delightful read.

Han and the Mysterious Pearl by Barbara Bockman, illustrated by Carl Kocich.
Long ago in the part of China where giant finger mountains rise above the morning mist, a boy named Han lived with his mother in a little house beside the Li River. 

I am also interested in your favorite title of the year. Please feel free to comment. Write on!

2015 Crystal KIte Awards part 2

By Susan J Berger
The annual Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from 15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world. This is the second post on the 2015 Crystal Kite award. The first is here.
Again: The Crystal Kite is a rather odd award in that there are no Categories. Therefore a picture book may be competing against a young adult novel. 

Midwest (Minnesota/Iowa/Nebraska/Wisconsin/Illinois/Michigan/Indiana/Ohio)

I am Cow, Hear Me Moo by  Jill Esbaum, illustrated by Gus Gordon

Nadine was a truly remarkable cow.
There was nothing she feared –
so she claimed, anyhow.
“Not lightning?” asked Starla. “Loud noises? A rat?”
“I’m not scared,” Nadine boasted, “of any of that.”
“The woods?” asked Annette. “‘Cause that place scares me stiff.”
“Not me,” bragged Nadine, with a proud little sniff.
 

This was not available online. I contacted Jill, via Facebook and she graciously sent the first page to me. I definitely want to read this book. My kind of fun.

New England (Maine/Vermont/New Hampshire/Connecticut/Massachusetts/Rhode Island)

Feathers: Not Just for Flying by  Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Sarah Brannen –
Young naturalists meet sixteen birds in this elegant introduction to the many uses of feathers.

Birds and feathers go together like trees and leaves, like stars and the sky.

Thanks to Melissa Stewart for sending me the first line! I love it.

New York

 Sniffer Dogs: How Dogs (And Their Noses) are Saving The World by Nancy Castaldo –

Eli, a four-year-old bomb-sniffing black Labrador, was assigned to work alongside Marine Pfc. Colton Rusk, an improvised explosive device detection dog handler. The two left for a tour in Afghanistan on September 23, 2010, Colton's twentieth birthday and became inseparable. In fact Colton often broke protocol by letting Eli sleep with him on his cot instead of the regulation kennel on the floor. And on his Facebook page Colton wrote under a photo of Eli, "What's mine is his." There was no question of the bond the two shared.

Southeast (Florida/Georgia/South Carolina/North Carolina/Alabama)

Just a Drop of Water by Kerry Cerra, illustrated by Katy Betz

September 7, 2001

Friday

 

I’d rather dunk my head in a school toilet than run cros country. All the tree branches and roots are like landmines. They slow me down. Besides, I’m not good for long distances –I’m more of a sprinter. You know, get from point A to point B as fast as possible, with a finish line always in sight and no surprises along the way. That’s running. Unfortunately, Coach makes us do cross country in the fall or we can’t run track in the spring. It’s stupid. They’re not the same sport at all.

Southwest (Nevada/Arizona/Utah/Colorado/Wyoming/New Mexico)

All Four Stars by  Tara Dairman 

Chapter 1
A GREAT, BIG FAT AMOUNT OF TROUBLE

Gladys Gatsby stood at the counter with the spout of her father’s heavy blowtorch poised over the ceramic cup. Her finger hovered over the trigger button that was supposed to turn her plain little custards into crunchy, tasty treats. That’s when she heard a car door slam outside.

Texas/Oklahoma

  Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood  by Varsha Bajaj

Chapter 1

Be careful what you wish for.

 

The one thing I want most in life . . . ? Hmm.

Miss Cooper needs to know that? Really?

My eyes dart from Zoey on my right to Priya diagonally across from me to the clock directly above Miss Cooper’s head. Three minutes to the bell. Unlike me, my friends are scribbling furiously.

I know I want to read this.


UK/Ireland

The Year of the Rat by Claire Furniss

 

I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.”

Virginia Woolf’s diary, 17 February 1922

 

March

 

The traffic light glows red through the rainy windscreen, blurred, clear, blurred again, as the wipers swish to and fro. Below it, in front of us, is the hearse. I try no to look at it.

                                                                                                                      West (Washington/Oregon/Alaska/Idaho/Montana/North Dakota/South Dakota)

 

Be a Change Maker: How to Start Something That Matters by Laurie Ann Thompson 

It's Your Turn Now

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change we seek.
 Barack Obama, 44th President of the United Stated of America in a speech to his supporters in Chicago on February 5, 2008

 

You've heard the saying, "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." I've found this to be true more often than one might expect. Sometimes it's because other people can't do it. They just don't have t skills or the tools that you do. Other times they just won't do it. It is, after all, what  you want, and it's your definition of right.
I kept reading this online. A very empowering book.

I hope you found a book you want to explore further. What's your favorite book you've read this year?

First Lines from the 2015 Crystal Kite Awards Part One

By Susan J Berger

I love first lines and first paragraphs. I learn so much from them. The annual Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from 15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world.  The Crystal Kite is a rather odd award in that there are no Categories. Therefore a picture book may be competing against a young adult novel. This year I am posting the winners.

 Part one: First eight regions. (If you can't stand the suspense, all the winners are posted on the SCBWI website.)

Atlantic (Pennsylvania/Delaware/New Jersey/Wash DC/Virginia/West Virginia/Maryland)

 Pandemic  by Yvonne Ventresca

Chapter 1
As with many serious contagious illnesses, it wasn't immediately apparent what we were dealing with.
 -Blue Flu interview, anonymous US government official
I stood on the smoking corner behind the school reveling in my aloneness.

 

Australia /New Zealand

Karen Blair and Raewyn Caisley - Hello From Nowhere
First line not available.

Eve thought that living in the middle of nowhere was better than living anywhere else in the world . . . Only one thing made Eve sad. She hadn't seen Nan since they left the city long ago. Eve lives in a roadhouse in the middle of the Nullarbor and when her Nan visits one day, Eve shows her all the things that are special about where she lives. A moving celebration of the Australian outback and the special connection between grandparent and grandchild.

California/Hawaii
 

Connie Goldsmith - Bombs Over Bikini: The World’s First Nuclear Disaster

Toxic Snowfall As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on Earth that hadn't been touched by war and blew it to hell. BOB HOPE, US COMEDIAN, ACTOR AN AUTHOR -1947

March 1, 1954 was not a normal day on Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. That morning the US Military exploded the world's first hydrogen bomb -Bravo -on Nam, part of the Bikini Atoll about 75 miles (120 kilometers) away from Rongelap. I want to read this!

Canada
Bog by Karen Krossing –
1
Stone
Bog smelled the humans from across the lake. The stench floated high on the breeze, infecting the stars themselves, and then settled among the branches of the birch trees. What were humans doing on their hunting grounds?

International Other

  A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina’s Dream

 by  Kristy Dempsey, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Stars hardly shine in the New York City sky, with the factories spilling out pillars of smoke and streetlights spreading bright halos round their pin-top faces,
It makes it hard to find a star.
This one is on my MUST READ list. The illustrations are amazing.

Mid-South (Kansas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Tennessee/Kentucky/Missouri/Mississippi)
   

 Faking Normal by Courtney Stevens

Black funeral dress. Black heels. Black headband in my hair. Death has a style all its own. I'm glad I don't have to wear it very often.
I think I want to read this.

Mid-South (Kansas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Tennessee/Kentucky/Missouri/Mississippi)

     Hurricane Boy by  Laura Roach Dragon


Hollis Williams scowled as he stumbled on the same hump of buckled sidewalk he's climbed over almost all eleven years of his life. This time one of the broken sections tilted under his feet. His angry looked snapped into one of wide-eyed surprise, and his arms pinwheeled as he lurched of the chunk into the grass. He kicked the loose slab.

Middle East/India/Asia

Petu Pumpkin: Tooth Troubles by  Arundhati Venkatesh 

The Gap Club
Pushkin looked up from his snack box. He saw his friends huddled together in the corner of the art room. Kiran, Jatin, Sachin and Nitin were all there. Every thirty seconds, Jatin peeped into Kiran's book and copied something down. Pushkin moved closer and peered over Jatin's shoulder to see what he was writing,

I'll post the last seven in three weeks. I hope you found a book really want to read. I found more than one. Write on.

Crystal Kites UK/Ireland, Middle East/ India/Asia and Canada

By Susan J. Berger

The annual Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from 15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world.

This 5^th Crystal Kite post covers the finalists and winners in three regions: UK, Ireland, Middle East, India, Asia and Canada. It's interesting to note that most of the Crystal Kite finalist's books are available on Kindle. 
Some first lines weren't available online. I tried contacting some of the authors, but was unsuccessful. I used the SCBWI Blurb in place of the first lines for those book. All links are to the SCBWI page. You can follow the page links to purchase sites. If I saw that SCBWI didn’t have a buy link, I substituted links where you could get the book.

Again: The Crystal Kite is a rather odd award in that there are no Categories. Therefore a picture book may be competing against a young adult novel.

UK, Ireland

Fractured by Teri Terry

Rain has many uses.

            Holly and beech trees like those around me need it to live and grow.

It washes away tracks, obscures footprints. Makes trails harder to follow, and that is a good thing today.

But most of all, it washes blood from my skin, my clothes.

 

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (Code Name Verity, Book 2)

Rose Meyer Justice

August 2, 1944

Hamble, Hampshire

NOTES FOR AN ACCIDENT REPORT

I just got back from Celia Forester’s funeral. I’m supposed to be writing up an official report for the Tempest she flew into the ground, since she’s obviously not going to write it herself, and I saw it happen. And also because I feel responsible. I know it wasn’t my fault – I really do know that now. But I briefed her. We both had Tempests to deliver, and I’d flown one a couple of times before. Celia hadn’t. She took off ten minutes after me. If she’d taken off first, we might both still be alive.

 

Winner

 Shine by Candy Gourlay

“Are you listening, Rosa?”

I stared at Yaya. Her eyebrows were knitted on her yellow forehead and her face was suddenly smaller, her eyes hard and burning like black coals.

I am going to add the Amazon link for this book so you can read the first few pages because those first lines don’t give a good idea of the story. And I thought it was rather wonderful. Link to Shine on Amazon

 

 Middle East, India, Asia

Jet Black and the Ninja Wind by Leza Lowitz

The party had just started and Jet stood in Amy William’ kitchen wearing the two-dollar dress she’d bought at the thrift store.
            “That’s such a cool outfit,” Amy told her, pushing a drink into her hand. The girsls gathered, staring as if trying to remember whether they’d seen the dress in a catalog or a store window. Still, Jet knew it would’ve been cooler to have a date or to buy clothing that hadn’t belonged to someone living in an old folks’ home.

The Language Inside by Holly Thompson
 Chapter 1

AURA

Third time it happens

I’m crossing the bridge

Over a brown-green race of water

that slides through town

on my way to a long-term care center

pausing

to get my courage up

 

The Seven-Legged Spider by Poh Peng Lee

This is a story about Spider, who was born with seven legs. His friend, Ladybird, discovers what Spider can do and is amazed by his talents.

Tibby the Tiger Bunny by Emily Lim, Illustrated by Jade Fang

Tibby was an unusual bunny,

Sometimes he pounced.

Sometimes he hopped.

And sometimes he didn’t know if he should roar or squeak.

 

I

 

 

 

 managed to contact Emily and she sent me the first page.

She also sent me the rest of the fold-out cover.

 

  Winner

Bonkers! by Natasha Sharma

‘I’m home . . WAHAAAAT? WOW!’

My father is standing before me holdng a wriggling, squirming mass of brown and white fur,

‘Pant! Pant! Pant! Chuuueeeee! Chuuueeeee!’ squeels the furball.

I’m sure it can’t be . . but it is! Eyes wide, I drop down on my knees, as Papa puts down my long awaited puppy. In a flash the fur ball shoots forward and Bam! rams into my face. My spectacles go flying off my nose. I fumble for them.

Lick! Lick! Slobber! Slobber!

I couldn’t contact Natasha Sharma. When I looked on Amazon, I saw that the Kindle edition was 2.00 and bought it. Bonkers is either a short mid grade or an easy reader. In either case I loved the first chapter and plan to finish it,

Canada

Brothers at War by Don Cummer

DARE AND CONSEQUENCES

February 1811

I have been chosen first. M. Jacob Gibson. Hero-in-waiting.

Shoulders back like a soldier, Snowballs in my mitts. My faithful attack dog by my side, (Well, Ginger is actually romping about with the new boy.) And beneath my coat and shirt, my magic medicine bag to protect me,

First. Bravest. Best. 

Hoogie in the Middle by Stephanie McLellan, Illustrated by Dean Griffiths

Pumpkin was the first.

Tweezle is the newest.
Hoogie’s in the middle.

 

How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler

BFFs Grace and Kya, friends ever since Grace first moved in next door, are closer than sisters. Grace's dad, a former police officer, runs the town paintball center; the two girls are passionate about paintball and seeking coveted spots on Seattle University's Lady Grinders team. But not all is certain and assured, and when a terrible secret is reawakened from her past, Kya spirals beyond Grace's reach. Kya indulges in self-destructive behaviors: drinking, promiscuity, and hanging out with the wrong crowd. Their mutual friend, James, distances himself from Kya and rebuffs any of Grace's attempts to have them reconcile. Grace, who has always put her own needs second to Kya's, is torn between seeing her own goals realized and trying to save Kya. Gurtler, 

Stained by Cheryl Rainfield

Sarah thinks she knows what fear is--until she's abducted. Now she must find a way to rescue herself.

Seventeen-year-old Sarah Meadows covers the walls of her bedroom with images of beautiful faces she clips from magazines--and longs for "normal." Born with a port-wine stain covering half her face, all her life she's been plagued by stares, giggles, and bullying, and disgust. Why can't she be like Diamond, the comic-book hero she created? Diamond would never let the insults in. That's harder for Sarah.

But when she's abducted on the way home from school, Sarah is forced to uncover the courage she never knew she had. Can she look beyond her face to find the beauty and strength she has inside, somehow becoming a hero rather than a victim? It's the only way Sarah will have any chance of escaping the prison--both seen and unseen--that this deranged killer has placed around her.

Winners. (It’s a tie!)

I Dare You Not to Yawn by Helene Boudreau

Yawns are sneaky. They can creep up when you least expect them.There you are, minding your own business, building the tallest block tower in the history of the universe or dressing up the cat when suddenly . . .

Sounds like my kind of book.

Skink on the Brink by Lisa Dalrymple, Illustrated by Suzanne Del Rizzo

Stewie was a very little skink with a very blue tail.

That was the only sentence in the Amazon Canada preview. But they show material on the life cycle of a skink and some gorgeous illustrations. I wish we got more Canadian books in the US

 I hope you find some reads here that interest you. Happy reading and writing.
You might also like Crystal Kites  Atlantic, Mid South and Southeast
California Hawaii and the West

Southwest and Midwest 

New England, New York and Texas/Oklahoma 

 

 

 

First Lines from Crystal Kite Finalists

by Susan J. Berger

Congratulations to winners of the Crystal Kites in the fifteen SCBWI districts.

Congratulations to all the Crystal Kite Finalists.

The Crystal Kite is a rather odd award in that there are no Categories. Therefore a picture book may be competing against a young adult novel.  From the SCBWI Website: The Annual Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from 15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world.

This post covers the finalists in California and Hawaii and the West.  I was surprised to find that many of these books were available both in hardback and in Kindle form. I will be covering all the districts in future first line posts.

California, Hawaii

Words

Flow,

Tumble,

Fill the page.

They tell my story.

I promise every word is true.

Some Days you just need pie.

The creeping realization that this was a pie day began at breakfast for Gregory Korenstein Jasperton As he made his way toward food, he could hear conversation in the dining room, and while his brain told him that meant it was a day to go straight to the breakfast drawer in the kitchen, his nose smelled bacon. The nose won.

The 14 Fibs of Gregory K. by Greg Pincus

 (This one's on my Must Read list.)

Chapter one

Things (that seemed to have nothing to do with me, but did, and) that changed my life:

My destiny was decided in a second hand bookstore the day before I was born when my mother, Isabella found a book of proms. She’d been searching for a name for me, something that would set my life’s direction. She was a free spirit and poet herself, having sold a few poems to Hallmark that got made into cards. The saleslady suggested Juliet from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet,  but my mother said absolutely not; did she want me to end up a star crossed lover who dies too young, for heaven’s sake?

Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

 

Russia, 1910

On the eve my beloved Ryczar was born, under a bright full moon, the north wind whistled and howled. Like a forest spirit gone mad with merriment, it ripped through the Woronzova Kennel and sprawling grounds of Count Vorontsov’s grand country estate. All night long, icy flakes of windswept snow drummed against the stable windows until the last pup was born at dawn.

Lara's Gift by Annemarie O'Brien

Winner California Hawaii Division

Whenever the wind lifted off the river, and sent the trees to dancing, I itched to fly a kite.

I’d race to the great Niagara, plumes of mist rising from plunging waters, wind licking at my face.

 A boy like me knew, just knew which day would be perfect for flying kites.

The Kite That Bridged Two Nations by Alexis O'Neil, Illustrated by Terry Widener

I bought The Kite That Bridged Two Nations at the 2013 SCBWI Summer Conference and loved it.

West (Washington, Northern Idaho, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota)

Tariq

June 3, 1947

“I know you will make us proud, Tariq” Master Ahmed calls to me as I step onto the dusty sidewalk outside the school gates.

                I lift my palm to my face, fingertips to my forehead, bow, “Khuda hafiz.”

                “And may He guard you as well,” Master Ahmed replies. “Give my best to your parents.”

                “Shukriya.”

A Moment Comes by Jennifer Bradbury

I was unable to find the first page of Bedtime in The Meadow. Here is the Goodreads Description:

It's time for the animals in the meadow to find their way back home to sleep. Butterfly rests on a cattail, dragonflies settle on leaves, and bees gather in their hive. Families of foxes, ducks, and rabbits cuddle close for slumber. The soft padded covers, rounded corners and sturdy board pages make this title a perfect fit for preschoolers!

Bedtime In The Meadow by Stephanie Shaw

1 A year the devil designed.

Portland Oregon –October 16, 1918

I stepped inside the railroad car, and three dozen pairs of eyes peered my way. Gauze masks concealed the passengers’ mouths and noses. The train smelled of my own mask’s cotton, boiling onions, and a whiff of something clammy and sour I took to be fear.

                Keep moving, I told myself.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

 

Inside the museum of truly old things, past the food court, the woolly mammoths, and the wheel exhibit, the last Dinosaur Tooth Fairy polishes her collection of fangs.

(I love this line! I must have this book!)

The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy by Martha Brockenbrough, Illustrated by Israel Sanchez

 

 

 

Winner West Division

Does a feather remember it was once a bird?

Does a book remember it was once a word?

Once Upon A Memory by Nina Laden, Illustrated by Renata Liwska

Any favorites? Did you find any Must reads? Write on!