We are thrilled to announce that Transatlantic client Rachelle Delaney’s THE BIG STING has been shortlisted for the 2024-25 Sunshine State Young Readers Award, Books List for Grades 3-5 !
The Sunshine State Young Readers Award (SSYRA) Program is a statewide reading motivational program for students in grades 3 through 8, sponsored by the Florida Department of Education (DOE) and Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME).
The purpose of the SSYRA Program is to encourage students to read independently for pleasure and to read books that are on, above, and below their reading level in order to improve their reading fluency. Sunshine State books are selected for their wide appeal, literary value, varied genres, curriculum connections, and/or multicultural representation. The SSYRA committee is comprised of 20 qualified school librarians located throughout the state of Florida, subdivided into two committees- grades 3-5 and grades 6-8.
About THE BIG STING:
A visit to Leo’s grandfather’s farm turns upside down when his grandmother’s bee hives are stolen. A light-hearted and funny middle-grade novel for fans of Rebecca Stead and Lynda Mullaly Hunt.
Eleven-year-old Leo is an “armchair adventurer.” This, according to Dad, means he’d choose adventures in books or video games over real-life experiences. And while Leo hates the label, he can’t argue with it. Unlike his little sister Lizzie, Leo is not a risk-taker.
So when he, Lizzie, Mom and Dad leave the city to visit Grandpa on Heron Island, Leo finds all kinds of dangers to avoid — from the deep, dark ocean to an old barn on the verge of collapse. But nothing on the island is more fearsome than Grandpa himself — Leo has never met anyone so grumpy! According to Mom, Grandpa is still grieving the recent death of his wife, a beekeeper beloved by everyone on the island.
Despite Leo’s best efforts to avoid it, adventure finds him anyway when Grandma’s beehives go missing in the dead of night. Infuriated, Grandpa vows to track down the sticky-fingered thieves himself . . . with risk-averse Leo and danger-loving Lizzie (plus a kitten named Mayhem) in tow.
Rachelle Delaney is the author of several middle-grade novels, including The Metro Dogs of Moscow, which was a CLA Book of the Year Honor Book, as well as a finalist for the Silver Birch Award and the Red Cedar Award, among others. Its sequel, The Circus Dogs of Prague, was shortlisted for the Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader’s Choice Award. The Bonaventure Adventures won BC’s Chocolate Lily Award in 2019, and Clara Voyant was a Chocolate Lily Award nominee. Visit her at www.rachelledelaney.com.
Rachelle is represented by Amy Tompkins.
Congratulations!