Soaring Eagle Past Nominees | Natrona County Library

1) Above the trenches

Author

Hale, Nathan, 1976-

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

""Yippee! We're going back to World War One!" said nobody ever -- except maybe the Hangman. When the Great War began in 1914, America had plans to stay out of it. But some young men were so eager to fight, they joined the French Foreign Legion. From deep in the mud and blood of the Western Front, these young volunteers looked to the sky and saw the future -- the airplane. The first American pilots to fight in World War One flew for the French military....

Author

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

A family extending from Pakistan to California, deals with generations of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness. Lahore, Pakistan. Then. Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start. Juniper, California. Now. Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family....

3) The darkness outside us

Author

Schrefer, Eliot, 1978-

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

Earth's population is divided between only two existing countries which cannot manage to cooperate in any way, until a distress signal arrives from Titan's first settler and neither can afford to rescue her on their own if they act separately. Ambrose wakes up on board with successfully reaching his sister the primary thought in his mind until he notices several strange circumstances: he doesn't remember the launch, the ship's OS is voiced by his...

4) A door in the dark

Author

Reintgen, Scott

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

Follows six teenage wizards as they fight to make it home alive after a malfunctioning spell leaves them stranded in the wilderness. Ren Monroe is one of the best wizards in her generation, but top marks at Balmerick University will mean nothing if she fails to get recruited into one of the major houses. Enter Theo Brood. After a failed and disastrous party trick, fate has the two of them crossing paths at the public waxway portal the day before...

5) Promise boys

Author

Brooks, Nick, 1989-

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

J.B., Ramón, and Trey, students of the Urban Promise Prep School, must follow the school's strict rules, but when their principal is murdered, the three boys must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested.

6) The red palace

Author

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

While investigating a series of grisly murders, eighteen-year-old palace nurse Hyeon navigates royal and political intrigue and becomes entangled with a young police inspector. Includes author's note. Joseon (Korea), 1758. There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job, and perhaps finally win her estranged father's...

Author

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

"These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team--even though he can't help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident. When Jaxon's former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his...

8) Tilly in technicolor

Author

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

Tilly Twomley is desperate for change. White-knuckling her way through high school with flawed executive functioning from ADHD has left her burnt out and ready to start fresh. Working as an intern for her perfect older sister's start-up requires her to travel around Europe promises a much-needed change of scenery as she plans her future. The problem is, Tilly has no idea what she wants. Oliver Clark knows exactly what he wants. His autism has often...

Author

Notes

Nominated 2024-2025

Summary

"Danny Timmons has looked up to Jack Bailey ever since Jack saved two small children from drowning during the Great Flood of 1940. Now, with his father away fighting in World War II and his mother about to have a new baby, Danny relies on Jack's friendship and guidance more than ever. So when Jack goes missing without a trace from their small Appalachian town, Danny is determined to find him. He wonders if Jack's abusive father could be behind his...

10) The assassination of Brangwain Spurge

Author

Notes

Nominated 2023-2024

Summary

Uptight elfin historian Brangwain Spurge is on a mission: survive being catapulted across the mountains into goblin territory, deliver a priceless peace offering to their mysterious dark lord, and spy on the goblin kingdom -- from which no elf has returned alive in more than a hundred years. Brangwain's host, the goblin archivist Werfel, is delighted to show Brangwain around. They should be the best of friends, but a series of extraordinary double...

11) Aurora rising

Author

Notes

Nominated 2023-2024

Summary

Told in separate voices, eighteen-year-old Tyler Jones, top graduate of Aurora Academy, and a group of misfits and troublemakers embark on their first mission with Auri, a stowaway from the distant past. After rescuing a girl who was trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries from interdimensional space, eighteen-year-old Aurora Academy graduate Tyler Jones is swept up in an interstellar war millions of years in the making.

12) The bone spindle

Author

Notes

Nominated 2023-2024

Summary

When she pricks her finger on a bone spindle, treasure hunter Fi is stuck with the spirit of Briar Rose, a prince under a sleeping curse, and must team up with a tough-as-dirt girl warrior to free the prince--and herself.

13) Hollow fires

Author

Notes

Nominated 2023-2024

Summary

After discovering the body of fourteen-year-old Jawad Ali in Jackson Park, seventeen-year-old journalism student Safiya Mirza begins investigating his murder and ends up confronting white supremacy in her own high school.

14) Punching the air

Author

Zoboi, Ibi Aanu

Notes

Nominated 2023-2024

Summary

From award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. The story that I thought was my life didn't start on the day I was born. Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a...

15) The snow fell three graves deep: voices from the Donner party

Author

Notes

Nominated 2023-2024

Summary

"In powerful, vivid verse, the master behind The Watch That Ends the Night recounts one of history's most harrowing--and chilling--tales of survival. In 1846, a group of emigrants bound for California face a choice: continue on their planned route or take a shortcut into the wilderness. Eighty-nine of them opt for the untested trail, a decision that plunges them into danger and desperation and, finally, the unthinkable. From extraordinary poet and...

16) This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II

Author

Fukuda, Andrew Xia

Notes

Nominated 2023-2024

Summary

In 1935, ten-year-old Alex Maki of Bainbridge Island, Washington, is horrified to discover that his new pen pal, Charlie Lévy of Paris, France, is a girl, but in spite of his initial reluctance, their letters continue over the years and they fight for their friendship even as Charlie endures the Nazi occupation and Alex leaves his family in an internment camp and joins the Army.

17) You'd be home now

Author

Glasgow, Kathleen, 1969-

Notes

Nominated 2023-2024

Summary

After a fatal car accident that reveals Emory's brother Joey's opioid addiction, Emory struggles to help him on his road to recovery and make herself heard in a town that insists on not listening.

18) The blade of secrets

Author

Levenseller, Tricia

Notes

Nominated 2022-2023

Summary

"In the first book in Tricia Levenseller's exciting new YA fantasy duology, a teenage blacksmith with social anxiety is forced to go on the run to protect the world from the most powerful magical sword she's ever made"-- Provided by publisher.

19) Defy the night

Author

Kemmerer, Brigid

Notes

Nominated 2022-2023

Summary

"The kingdom of Kandala is recovering from a devastating plague but the cure is rare and expensive, so a girl hatches a plan to infiltrate the castle and bring the corrupt system crashing down"-- Provided by publisher. The kingdom of Kandala is on divided by corruption, and a sickness is ravaging the land. The only known cure to the sickness is an elixir made from delicate Moonflower petals, which are delicate and limited. King Harristan was thrust...

20) Gone to the woods: surviving a lost childhood

Author

Notes

Nominated 2022-2023

Summary

Born into the middle of World War II, Gary Paulsen's turbulent childhood provided plenty of subject matter for his bestselling novels, and the librarians in his life gave him the inspiration and support to explore the world through books. As a soldier himself, his storytelling technique developed, and for the first time he shares his own.

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