Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Results

This award is determined by Illinois students in fourth grade through eighth grade. After having read at least three of the twenty nominees, each student votes for his or her one favorite. We have occasionally had one or two students who have read the entire list. We often have students who have read at least half of them. This year we had 136 students in fourth and fifth grades who were qualified to vote.







The first place winner at Prairieview was The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. In second place, we had Heat by Mike Lupica. Wolf Brother, by Michelle Paver, took third place. For the first time this year, our students used the computers to vote. We are able to set this up using our library automation software, L4U.






The third graders at Prairieview joined the Elizabeth Ide students, participating in the Monarch Book Award. Like the fourth and fifth graders, the third graders had the privilege of voting via computer. One hundred thirteen third graders were qualified to vote. The results for third grade reflect their slightly more sophisticated taste. In first place, we had Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid by Megan McDonald. Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod came in second and Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O'Malley was third.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Elizabeth Ide-Monarch Award Results


The students at Elizabeth Ide voted for their favorite books on the 2009 Illinois Monarch Award list last week. Each student had to select one favorite from among the nominees which I had read to them.
The runaway winner was Once Upon a Cool Motorcyle Dude by Kevin O'Malley. A glimpse at the cover will help you to understand the wide appeal of this book.
We had a tie for second place between The Secret Science Project That Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra and Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner.
Our children enjoyed this opportunity. It will be interesting to see if the Kindergarten through 3rd grade students across the state of Illinois agree with them.