23-24 Indian Paintbrush Award Nominees

Alex Cross' son, Ali, is eager to follow in his father's footsteps as a detective, but when his best friend goes missing, what price will he have to pay to solve the mystery?

One day, Mac (smartest boy in his class in a small town in California) receives a telephone call from the Queen of England, recruiting him to find the crown jewels (well, actually just the Coronation Spoon) and so Mac embarks on his first adventure as a secret agent--with the assurance that the Queen will give him a note excusing him from school.

"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"--

Piper's life is turned upside down when her family moves into a shelter in a whole new city. She misses her house, her friends, and her privacy, and she hates being labeled the homeless girl at her new school. But while Hope House offers her new challenges, it also brings new friendships, like the girls in Firefly Girls Troop 423 and a sweet street dog named Baby. So when Baby's person goes missing, Piper knows she has to help. But helping means finding...

A Cuban-American boy must use his ability to communicate with animals to save the inhabitants of his town when they are threatened by a witch that transforms into animals.

Twelve-year-old Lark Heron-Finch inherits a house on Swallowtail Island in Lake Erie, where she untangles a decades-old mystery and saves the island from unscrupulous developers.