Black-Eyed Susan 2023-2024 Nominees: Grades 3-5

Eleven-year-old Aurora Petrequin's best friend has never spoken a word to her. In fact, Frenchie Livernois doesn't talk. Aurora is bouncy, loud and impulsive. Making friends has never come easily. When Frenchie, who is autistic, silently chose Aurora as his person back in third grade, she chose him back. They make a good team, sharing their love of the natural world in coastal Maine. In the woods, Aurora and Frenchie encounter a piebald deer, a rare...

Eleven-year-old Ellis discovers family secrets, makes new friends, and adjusts to his parents' recent divorce during a hijinks-filled summer helping his father open the world's first chocolate chip cookie store in 1976 Hollywood.

After moving to Sacramento to take over his grandparent's Filipino market, sixth-grader Alex seeks popularity by selling homemade slime at school, while his father insists he join a soccer team.

Eleven-year-old Maizy Chen visits her estranged grandparents, who own and run a Chinese restaurant in Last Chance, Minnesota, and as her visit lengthens, she makes unexpected discoveries about her family's history and herself.

"Odder spends her days off the coast of central California, practicing her underwater acrobatics and spinning the quirky stories for which she's known. She's a fearless daredevil, curious to a fault. But when Odder comes face-to-face with a hungry great white shark, her life takes a dramatic turn, one that will challenge everything she believes about herself--and about the humans who hope to save her"--Provided by publisher.