Sponsored by the ADE and named after respected author Charlie May Simon, this literary competition is celebrating its 39 th year. The purpose of the award is to promote better reading for children and to recognize Mrs. John Gould Fletcher, an outstanding Arkansas author who wrote under the pen name Charlie May Simon. All fourth, fifth and sixth graders in Arkansas who have read at least three of the following titles will be eligible to vote in April.

Charlie May Simon Award Winner

Charlie May Simon Honor Book

The Underneath By Kathi Appelt Accelerated Reader Level: 5.2 An old hound that has been chained up at his hateful owner’s run-down shack, and two kittens born underneath the house, endure separation, danger, and many other tribulations.

Lost and Found By Andrew Clements Accelerated Reader Level: 5.0 Twelve-year old identical twins Jay and Ray have long resented that everyone treats them as one person, and so they hatch a plot to take advantage of a clerical error at their new school and pretend they are just one.

Hate That Cat By Sharon Creech Accelerated Reader Level: 5.0 Jack is studying poetry again in school, and he continued to write poems reflecting his understanding of famous poems and how they relate to his life.

The Diamond Of Darkhold: The Fourth Book of Ember By Jeanne DuPrau Accelerated Reader Level: 5.2 When The City of Ember became almost completely unlivable because of multiple equipment and poor failures and poor management by leaders, the near 400 residents escaped to the world above. The People of Sparks welcomed the strangers from below, but, sickness, lack of food, and places to live became chronic problems. After studying the remains of the old book, Doon and Lina decided to return to Ember looking for any food that might have been left behind during the evacuation, and to search for clues to something special mentioned in the partial book. Both teenagers were surprised when they discovered a hostile unknown family now occupied their ex-underground home.

Eleven By Patricia Reilly Giff Accelerated Reader Level: 4.1 When Sam, an orphan, who can barely read, discovers an old newspaper clipping just before his eleventh birthday, it brings forth the memories from his past, and, with the help of a new friend at school and the castle they are building for a school project, his questions are eventually answered.

Bird Lake Moon By Kevin Henkes Accelerated Reader Level: 4.9 Twelve-year old Mitch and his mother are spending the summer with his grandparents at Bird Lake after his parents separate, and ten-year-old Spencer and his family have returned to the lake where Spencer’ s older brother drowned long ago, and as the boys become friends and spend time together, each of them begins to heal.

Swindle By Gordon Korman Griffin was coned out of a valuable Babe Ruth baseball card by a man named Wendell Palomino. Griffin puts together a team of misfits to break into Palomino’s heavily guarded store and steal the card back. Accelerated Reader Level: 4.9

Savvy By Ingrid Law Recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her “Savvy” a magical power unique to each member of her family just as her father is injured in a terrible accident. Accelerated Reader Level: 6.0

The Willoughbys By Lois Lowry Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby agreed that neither one liked their four children, and began searching for the best method to get rid of the youngsters. The neglectful parents embark on a treacherous trip around the world adventure and leave the kids with and evil nanny. Accelerated Reader Level: 5.2

Keeping Score By Linda Sue Park Because her Dad had been a fireman at the local station before being injured, Maggie was always welcome Accelerated Reader Level: 5.4

The Hope Chest By Karen Schwabach When 11-year-old Violet runs away from home in 1920 and takes the train to New York City to find her older sister who is suffragist, she falls in with people her parents would call “the wrong sort,” and ends up in Nashville, where “Suffs” and “Antis” are gathered, awaiting the crucial vote on the Nineteenth amendment. Accelerated Reader Level: 5.4

Fearless By Elvira Woodruff In the late seventeenth- century England, motherless eleven-year-old Digory Beale is forced to leave his hometown when his father is believed to be lost at sea. Digory becomes an apprentice to the architect Henry Winstanley, who has built a lighthouse on the treacherous Eddystone Reef the very rocks that sank Digory’s grandfather’s ship years before. Accelerated Reader Level: 5.3

Citations Photos accessed from and on June 1, All summaries taken directly from Overviews of Charlie May Simon Childrens’ Book Award and Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award by Loyd Harris and Cora Ellsworth of Perma-Bound Books.