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Mark Twain Readers Award

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Each year, Missouri schoolchildren in grades 4-6 vote for their favorite book from a list of nominated titles. The Mark Twain Award is awarded to the author of this book by the Missouri Association of School Librarians.

Mark Twain Award Winners

2024

Six Feet Below Zero
Six Feet Below Zero
by Ena Jones

Rosie and Baker need to keep up the illusion that their Great Grammy is alive before the Grim Hesper takes away the only home they have ever known.

2023

Millionaires for the Month
Millionaires for the Month
by Stacy McAnulty

After seventh graders Benji and Felix borrow $20 from a lost wallet, the billionaire owner challenges them to spend over $5 million dollars in thirty days in order to learn life lessons about money--|cProvided by publisher.

2022

White Bird : A Wonder Story
White Bird : A Wonder Story
by R. J. Palacio

Tells the story of Julian's Grandmére's childhood as she, a Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II and how the boy she once shunned became her savior and best friend.

2021

Blended
Blended
by  Sharon M. (Sharon Mills) Draper

Piano-prodigy Isabella, eleven, whose black father and white mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged, and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.

2020

One for Sorrow : A Ghost Story
One for Sorrow : A Ghost Story
by Mary Downing Hahn

When unlikeable Elsie dies in the influenza pandemic of 1918, she comes back to haunt Annie to make sure she'll be Annie's best--and only--friend soon.

2019

Framed!
Framed!
by James Ponti

In Washington, D.C., twelve-year-old Florian Bates, a consulting detective for the FBI, and his best friend Margaret help thwart the biggest art heist in United States history.

2018

The War That Saved My Life
The War That Saved My Life
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.

2017

A Million Ways Home
A Million Ways Home
by Dianna Dorisi-Winget

When her grandmother and guardian suffers a stroke, twelve-year-old Poppy Parker's life turns upside down--but when she witnesses a murder and has to go into witness protection with Detective Brannigan's mother it becomes hard to believe she will ever find a way home, let alone save Gunner, a beautiful German shepherd with an uncertain future.

2016

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library
by Chris Grabenstein

Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by his hero (the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello), with other students but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape.

2015

Wonder
Wonder
by R.J. Palacio

Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.

2014

The Unwanteds
The Unwanteds
by Lisa McMann

In a society that purges thirteen-year-olds who are creative, identical twins Aaron and Alex are separated, one to attend University while the other, supposedly Eliminated, finds himself in a wondrous place where youths hone their abilities and learn magic.

2013

Out of My Mind
Out of My Mind
by Sharon Draper

Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.

2012

Runaway Twin
Runaway Twin
by Peg Kehret

Thirteen-year-old Sunny, accompanied by a stray dog, takes advantage of a windfall to travel from her Nebraska foster home to Enumclaw, Washington, to find the twin sister from whom she was separated at age three.

2011

Stolen Children
Stolen Children
by Peg Kehret

Fourteen-year-old Amy's excitement over her first babysitting job ends when she and her three-year-old charge are kidnapped, but a daily videorecording sent to little Kendra's parents allows Amy to send clues, in hopes of being rescued before the kidnappers decide they no longer need her.

2010

Deep and Dark and Dangerous
Deep and Dark and Dangerous
by Mary Downing Hahn

When thirteen-year-old Ali spends the summer with her aunt and cousin at the family's vacation home, she stumbles upon a secret that her mother and aunt have been hiding for over thirty years.

2009

The Sea of Monsters
The Sea of Monsters
by Rick Riordan

Demi-god Percy Jackson and his friends must journey into the Sea of Monsters to save their camp. But first Percy will discover a secret that makes him wonder whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or a cruel joke.

2008

The Lightning Thief
The Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods. (Film title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief)

2007

Abduction!
Abduction!
by Peg Kehret

Thirteen-year-old Bonnie has a feeling of foreboding on the very day that her six-year-old brother Matt and their dog Pookie are abducted, and she becomes involved in a major search effort as well as a frightening adventure. Matt is missing. Bonnie's brother left his classroom to use the bathroom --and disappeared. A police dog traces his scent to the curb, where he apparently got into a vehicle. But why would Matt go anywhere with a stranger? Overwhelmed with fear, Bonnie discovers that her dog is gone, too. Was Pookie used as a lure for Matt? Bonnie makes one big mistake in her attempt to find her brother. In a chilling climax on a Washington State ferry, Bonnie and Matt must outsmart their abductor or pay with their lives.

2006

The City of Ember
The City of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

2005

Wenny Has Wings
Wenny Has Wings
by Janet Lee Carey

After having a near-death experience in the accident that killed his younger sister, Wenny, eleven-year-old Will copes by writing her letters.

2004

Zach's Lie
Zach's Lie
by Roland Smith

When Jack Osborne is befriended by his school's custodian and a Basque girl, he begins to adjust to his family's sudden move to Elko, Nevada, after entering the Witness Security Program, but the drug cartel against which his father will testify is determined to track them down.

2003

Because of Winn-Dixie
Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo

Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.

2002

Dork in Disguise
Dork in Disguise
by Carol Gorman

Starting middle school in a new town, brainy Jerry Flack changes his image from "dork" to "cool kid," only to discover that he'd rather be himself.

2001

Holes
Holes
by Louis Sachar

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

2000

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio
by Peg Kehret

The author describes her battle against polio and her efforts to overcome its debilitating effects.

1999

Saving Shiloh
Saving Shiloh
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Sixth-grader Marty and his family try to help their rough neighbor, Judd Travers, change his mean ways, even though their West Virginia community continues to expect the worst of him.

1998

Titanic Crossing
Titanic Crossing
by Barbara Williams

In 1912, thirteen-year-old Albert considers his younger sister a pest, but things change when they travel with their mother and uncle aboard the Titanic and are caught up in its tragic sinking.

1997

A Time For Andrew
A Time For Andrew
by Mary Downing Hahn

When he goes to spend the summer with his great-aunt in the family's old house, eleven-year-old Drew is drawn eighty years into the past to trade places with his great-great-uncle who is dying of diptheria.

1996

The Ghosts of Mercy Manor
The Ghosts of Mercy Manor
by Betty Ren Wright

Twelve-year-old Gwen, an orphan who comes to live with the Mercy family, discovers that the house is haunted by the ghost of a sad-looking young girl and is determined to solve the mystery behind her appearances.

1995

The Man Who Loved Clowns
The Man Who Loved Clowns
by June R. Wood

Thirteen-year-old Delrita, whose unhappy life has caused her to hide from the world, loves her uncle Punky but sometimes feels ashamed of his behavior because he has Down syndrome.

1994

Shiloh
Shiloh
by Phyllis R. Naylor

When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.

1993

Maniac Magee
Maniac Magee
by Jerry Spinelli

After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.

1992

The Doll in the Garden
The Doll in the Garden
by Mary Downing Hahn

After Ashley and Kristi find an antique doll buried in old Miss Cooper's garden, they discover that they can enter a ghostly turn-of-the-century world by going through a hole in the hedge.

1991

All About Sam
All About Sam
by Lois Lowry

The adventures of Sam, Anastasia Krupnik's younger brother, from his first day as a newborn through his mischievous times as a toddler.

1990

There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom
There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom
by Louis Sachar

An unmanageable, but lovable, eleven-year-old misfit learns to believe in himself when he gets to know the new school counselor, who is a sort of misfit, too.

1989

Sixth-Grade Sleepover
Sixth-Grade Sleepover
by Eve Bunting

Janey worries that the sixth grade Rabbit Reading Club's all-night sleepover will expose her fear of the dark, but it turns out that she is not the only member with a secret.

1988

Baby-sitting is a Dangerous Job
Baby-sitting is a Dangerous Job
by Willo Davis Roberts

A baby sitter and her three willful charges make a formidable team to outwit their surprised kidnappers.

1987

The War With Grandpa
The War With Grandpa
by Robert Kimmel Smith

Upset that he has to give up the room he loves to his grandfather, Pete decides to declare war in an attempt to get it back.

1986

The Dollhouse Murders
The Dollhouse Murders
by Betty Ren Wright

A dollhouse filled with a ghostly light in the middle of the night and dolls that have moved from where she last left them lead Amy and her mentally challenged sister to unravel the mystery surrounding grisly murders that took place years ago.

1985

A Bundle of Sticks
A Bundle of Sticks
by Pat Mauser McCord

The frequent target of a bully, eleven-year-old Ben gets sick at the thought of fighting back until his father insists he take a self-defense course, and Ben learns that it is okay to be himself.

1984

Secret Life of the Underwear Champ
Secret Life of the Underwear Champ
by Betty Miles

Ten-year-old Larry is "discovered" on the street and asked to appear in a television commercial. Only later does he find out what he is advertising.

1983

The Girl With the Silver Eyes
The Girl With the Silver Eyes
by Willo Davis Roberts

A 10-year-old girl, who has always looked different from other children, discovers that she not only has unusual powers but that there are others like her.

1982

The Boy Who Saw Bigfoot
The Boy Who Saw Bigfoot
by Marian T. Place

A ten-year-old boy, placed once again with new foster parents, becomes involved in a search for Bigfoot.

1981

Soup For President
Soup For President
by Robert Newton Peck

Rob manages Soup's campaign for class president in their small Vermont town.

1980

The Pinballs
The Pinballs
by Betsy Byars

Three lonely foster children learn to care about themselves and each other.

1979

The Champion of Merrimack County
The Champion of Merrimack County
by Roger Drury

The discovery of a bike-riding mouse in the bathtub is just the beginning of a series of humorous communications for the Berryfield family.

1978

Ramona the Brave
Ramona the Brave
by Beverly Cleary

Six-year-old Ramona tries to cope with an unsympathetic first-grade teacher.

1977

The Ghost on Saturday Night
The Ghost on Saturday Night
by Sid Fleischman

When Professor Pepper gives Opie tickets to a ghost-raising instead of a nickel in payment for being guided through the dense fog, Opie manages to make money anyway by helping to thwart a bank robbery.

1976

The Home Run Trick
The Home Run Trick
by Scott Corbett

The Panthers try desperately to convincingly lose a baseball game when they find out the winners must play a girls' team.

1975

How To Eat Fried Worms
How To Eat Fried Worms
by Thomas Rockwell

Two boys set out to prove that worms can make a delicious meal.

1974

It's a Mile From Here to Glory
It's a Mile From Here to Glory
by Robert C. Lee

A shy undersized sixteen-year-old finds himself suddenly popular when he becomes star of the track team.

1973

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
by Robert O'Brien

Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long lived.

1972

Sounder
Sounder
by William H. Armstrong

Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and with the help of the devoted dog Sounder.