Edward S. Rhodes Library: RICBA 2025 Nominees

Mia and her mom visit Grandma in Maine every summer, but this year Mia is going alone. Her mom will stay behind to get their house ready to sell. It'll be a new start, she says, after the divorce. Mia doesn't want a new start. She'd rather everything just stayed the same! At least things will be the same at Grandma's, though. Then Mia meets Grandma's know-it-all new neighbor, who's just her age. Cayman acts like he belongs at Grandma's house. He acts like he's the expert on everything. And when he and Mia spot an unusual white bird of prey, he acts like it's his job to find out what it is. Unless, that is, Mia finds out first. In her effort to prove herself to him, she makes a decision that will change things for the town, for the bird, for Cayman, and even for herself. Can Mia stop what she's put into motion?

When Zimdalamashkermishkada starts at a new school, he knows he'll have to introduce himself to lots of new people. He trips over his long name and decides to shrink it down to the shorter, simpler Zim. The nickname works fine for introductions, but deep down, it doesn't feel right. It's not until a new friend sees him for who he truly is that Zimdalamashkermishkada finds the confidence to step proudly into his long name.

Eleven-year-old Micah has no interest in moving out of her grandfather's house. To avoid packing, Micah goes for a bike ride and ends up at Finch House, the old house Poppop says is Off Limits. Except when she gets there, it's all fixed up and there's a boy named Theo in the front yard. Surely that means Finch House isn't Off Limits anymore? But when Poppop finds her there, Micah is met with his disappointment. By the next day, Poppop is nowhere to be found. After searching everywhere, Micah's instincts lead her back to Finch House. Once Theo invites her inside, Micah realizes she can't leave. With its strange whispers and deep-dark shadows, Finch House isn't just a house...it's alive. Will she be forced to stay in Finch House forever?

Foxes on the run! A crabby cat out for revenge! Fox cub siblings Ted and Nancy are being chased by Princess Buttons--the scariest street cat in the Big City. Running for their lives, the pair flees for Grimwood--a peaceful town in the countryside. The only problem? Grimwood is NOT as they expected. When Ted and Nancy arrive in Grimwood, instead of peace and quiet, they're met with thieving eagles, dramatic ducks, riotous rabbits, and a whole host of unusual characters. Grimwood is . . . weird. But when Princess Buttons tracks them down, they must unite with the other animals of Grimwood in a mind-bending race against time!

Young Plum is shocked to discover that she's been accepted to the Guardian Academy on Lotus Island, an elite school where kids learn how to transform into Guardians, magical creatures who are sworn to protect the natural world. The Guardian masters teach Plum and her friends how to communicate with animals and how to use meditation to strengthen their minds and bodies. All the kids also learn to fight, so they can protect the defenseless if needed. To her dismay, Plum struggles at school. While her classmates begin to transform into amazing creatures, Plum can't even seem to magic up a single feather! If she can't embrace her inner animal form soon, she'll have to leave school and lose the first group of real friends she's ever known.

For one girl, summers used to mean helping Lolo run his sari-sari store, which was always brimming with goods for the neighborhood and a sympathetic ear for anyone who needed it. "Sari-sari means a good variety--just look around and you'll see. What help can you give your community?" Lolo would say, as he filled his shelves with what people would need. Now that she's far from the Philippines, she misses Lolo and the friendly faces that surrounded his sari-sari store. But when she remembers her grandfather's words, her heart keeps Lolo close, and she starts to see opportunities for connection and community in her new home.

Our ancestors say our hair is our memories, our source of strength and power, a celebration of our lives.

If you want to get to know eleven-year-old Samantha Ali-O'Connor, you need to know three things: One, she isn't the only one of her siblings who is adopted, but she is the only one whose name isn't inspired by the ocean. Two, she and Harbor always compete with each other to be the best Oldest Sibling--and just about everything else. And three, she is determined to prove she's a real Ali-O'Connor by taking over the family business, repairing and chartering boats. Except there's a Capital-P Problem: Her mothers have been Serious Whispering about selling the business before summer's end! Sam needs to come up with a plan, quick, before Harbor finds out. And before Sam loses her chance to inherit the business and be an Ali-O'Connor forever.

Sejal Sinha is looking forward to celebrating Diwali with her family. But when a hurricane appears, Sejal and her cousin Mira learn that the house is in danger from the imminent storm. With the help of Sejal's favorite stuffed animal, Professor Cheetah, the two girls use Cardboard Box Magic to build their own Hurricane Hunter and fly into the eye of the hurricane! They learn about a project from the 1960s called Project Stormfury, where a team actually tried to stop hurricanes. Can Sejal and Mira do what the previous Stormfury team couldn't and battle the superstorm?

When a new kid comes to stay with his grandmother at the house next door, Shermy's plans for a quiet, relaxing summer are completely upended. That's because Shake is nothing like Shermy. And Shermy is nothing like Shake. Shermy likes to read quietly in the shade of a tree. He knows the proper way to do a puzzle. He collects treasures in the pouch he wears around his neck, and the books on his shelves are alphabetized by author. Shake likes to play street hockey or space explorers. He gobbles up rocket ice pops and Toaster Tarts. He shows up unannounced and plays board games by his own rules. As the two boys are forced to spend more and more time together, will they learn how to get along? Or will it be one long countdown until Shake goes home?

Titi Silvia leaves me by myself to unpack, but it's not like I brought a bunch of stuff. How do you prepare for the unpreparable? How do you fit your whole life in one bag? And how am I supposed to trust social services when they won't trust me back? Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It's tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt's house is okay, it just isn't the same as being in her own space. So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she'll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog will help them get better and things will finally go back to the way they should be. After all, how do you explain to others that you're technically a foster kid, even though you live with your aunt? And most importantly . . . how do you explain that you're not where you belong, and you just want to go home?

It's 1967 in Nablus, Palestine. Oraib loves the olive trees that grow outside the refugee camp where she lives. Each harvest, she and her mama pick the small fruits and she eagerly stomp stomp stomps on them to release their golden oil. Olives have always tied her family to the land, as Oraib learns from the stories Mama tells of a home before war. But war has come to their door once more, forcing them to flee. Even as her family is uprooted, Oraib makes a solemn promise to her beloved olive trees. She will see to it that their legacy lives on for generations to come.

Dale Donavan has heard the same lecture over and over again: Art will get you nowhere in life. A kid with a creative streak, Dale wants nothing more than to doodle, play video games, and create comics forever--maybe even as a full-time job one day. But between his grandfather pushing him to focus on his studies and a school with zero interest in funding arts programs, Dale feels like his future has already been decided for him. That is, until he comes up with the perfect plan: What if he starts an after-school art club, gathers a team of creative students like himself, and proves all the naysayers--his stubborn vice principal in particular--wrong? This might just work, but if the club isn't financially successful by the end of the semester, the school with shut them down. This may be Dale's only chance to show the adults in his life that a career as an artist is not just a dream but a possibility!

Can two kids save the world and work their family food truck? First-generation Filipino siblings JJ and Althea struggle to belong at school. JJ wants to fit in with the crowd, while Althea wants to be accepted as she is. To make matters worse, they have to help their parents run the family food truck by dressing up as a dancing pig and passing out samples. Ugh! And their mom is always pointing out lessons from Filipino folklore -- annoying tales they've heard again and again. But when witches, ogres, and other creatures from those same stories threaten their family, JJ and Althea realize that the folklore may be more real that they'd suspected. Can they embrace who they really are and save their family?

Meesh is a bad demon. "Bad" in that she always sees the good in those around her--which isn't how a demon is meant to feel or act. Bullied by the other demons, twelve-year-old Meesh is more likely to be found reading magazines from Plumeria City--the fairy realm--and fangirling about the fairy princesses. But when disaster strikes and all of demon-kind is threatened, Meesh must journey to other worlds in search of help. As luck would have it, she meets a fairy princess right away. Things in the fairy realm aren't so perfect either, though. As Meesh makes surprising new friends and unites a band of outcasts, she learns there's much more to being a demon than she ever realized. And learning to love herself might just uncover the secret to saving her home.

Learn about animal extremes through playful poems and fascinating facts. Who's tops in the animal world? In this guessing game find out about 19 animals who are the best in some way. Popular categories include Biggest Animal Ever and Fastest Short-Distance Runner as well as Best Engineer and Longest Tongue. Poems full of personality combined with intriguing science - what a lively and fun way to learn!

Celebrate the groundbreaking life of astronaut and Johnson Space Center director Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina in space. Young Ellen loved to learn. Encouraged by her mother, she graduated at the top of her high school and college classes, and studied electrical engineering in graduate school. An accomplished engineer by age 30, with three patents to her name, she kept learning and trying new things. When NASA began accepting women and people of color to the astronaut program, Ellen found herself drawn to this exciting and demanding career. On her first mission, she was the only woman aboard the shuttle Discovery and the first Latina to reach outer space. After four space flights, she became the first Latina director of the Johnson Space Center and has received numerous distinctions and awards.

For many animals, life is a constant battle to stay off a predator's menu. So they've had to come up with lots of cunning ways to avoid being eaten. From camouflage and color-changing, natural armor, playing dead, great escapes, detachable body parts, and impressive ways of fighting back, the range of survival tactics in the natural world is quite astonishing (and sometimes pretty disgusting). Discover how meerkats post sentries to guard their homes and possums play dead, to how mimic octopuses change their shape and bombardier beetles unleash a chemical weapon attack. The book is filled with intriguing illustrations and spectacular photographs of the amazing, obscure, and incredibly strange. You'll never look at nature the same way again!

**A CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK** The remarkable true story of Jovita Valdovinos, a Mexican revolutionary who disguised herself as a man to fight for her rights! Jovita dreamed of wearing pants! She hated the big skirts Abuela made her wear. She wanted to scale the tallest mesquite tree on her rancho, ride her horse, and feel the wind curl her face into a smile When her father and brothers joined the Cristero War to fight for religious freedom, Jovita wanted to go, too. Forbidden, she defied her father's rules - and society's - and found a clever way to become a trailblazing revolutionary, wearing pants!

Learn how and why a useful, 5000-year-old invention has become a threat to our planet--and what you can do about it--in this history of the simple straw. Read about the inventors behind the straw's technological advancements, including primary sources like patents, as well as how disposable plastic harms the environment. See the newest solutions, from plastic straw alternatives to activism by real kids like Milo Cress who started the Be Straw Free campaign when he was 11 years old. Learn about what kids can do to reduce plastic waste.