Eleven-year-old Sara Ponder didn't really like to read until she was in second grade. But, she's now in 5th grade and has helped to select the 2005-06 Mark Twain Award books for kids all across Missouri.

Each year, the Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) recommends books for kids across the state. The Mark Twain list is for 4th to 8th grade kids. The association has been making recommendations for more than 30 years.

Every year, a group of reader-selectors-some of them kids-make the final selections. This year, 36 books made the selection list. From those books, a total of 20 books were nominated for the final list.

The final list is picked after the reader-selectors rate each book on a scale from zero-through-5. Those with the highest number of points are recommended.

(The complete 2005-06 book list can be found in a sidebar article at the end of this story. If you'd be interested in the 2004-05 Mark Twain list, you can find that earlier story by clicking on the Past Stories tab at the top of the home page and call up the January. 2005, edition.)

Sara and 10-year-old Kelly Murphy are both students at Edgar Road Elementary School in Webster Groves. They were recruited as reader-selectors by Rebecca Schuder, the school's librarian. She is active in the MASL organization.

Kelly is following in the footsteps of her older sister, Casey, who was a reader-selector for the 2004-05 Mark Twain list.

Kelly said she read all 36 of the books from which the final 20 were selected. Sara said she read and rated about 30 books.

Not all of the books that they liked a lot made the final nominations list.

Sara said she really liked a book titled "Hill Hawk Hatti." That was a story about a girl who was involved in a complicated plot. First her mother dies. Then she's forced to work with her drunken dad as a tree logger. He makes her dress like a boy.

Relations with her dad improve as his drinking decreases. But then she's sent to live with her grandmother in order to get a better education.

Sara said she liked the book a lot even though "it ended up kind of sad."

Kelly said one of the books she liked that didn't make the final Mark Twain list was entitled "Million Dollar Goal." It had another complicated plot involve two brothers, a grandmother who gets a contest chance to shoot for a hockey goal worth $l million.

The grandmother dies before getting the goal chance. One of the brothers takes her place but narrowly misses scoring the goal. But, in the end, the boys find Elvis Presley's birth certificate in memorabilia their grandmother had collected. The certificate was worth $l million as a collector's item.

Both of the girls say they read books almost every day.

Kelly said she "definitely reads every day." Usually, it's for two hours per day.

She said she likes fantasy books but also likes historical and realistic fiction and adventure stories. She said, "I really like suspense in stories."

Sara said she reading sessions can range from one hour "to nearly an entire day." The shorter sessions are when she isn't too interested in the book. But, a good book can keep her going indefinitely, she said.

She said, although she likes fantasy books, she hasn't read any of the Harry Potter books. She added, "But, my sister already has the entire series and I'm going to read them."

Asked about her early lack of interest in reading, Sara said, "I guess the books got better and my teacher had a different approach to reading."

For Kelly, her reading started early. "I could read a little in kindergarten," she said.

She said her parents would read to her at bedtime when she was little. She said she started reading chapter books by second grand. Sara said her reading of chapter books started in second grade, right after she started to like any reading.

Although the girls read a lot, they take part in a number of other outside activities.

Kelly said she takes piano lessons and hopes to join both basketball and swimming clubs.

Sara takes part in soccer and basketball and likes to sing and draw. She said she's pretty good at drawing cats, dogs and people. Her best drawing-of a bird-is hanging up at home.

Asked what she gets out of reading, Kelly said, "It helps throughout life."