Illinois Bluestem Award at Prairieview

This week at Prairieview, I introduced the books nominated for the Bluestem award to every class. This award is determined by third, fourth, and fifth grade voters all over the state of Illinois. It is a very good match for Prairieview. The books are nominated by a teacher/librarian committee which pays close attention to suggestions from participants. They select a wide variety of books, subject and reading level-wise. However, all the books are appropriated for the participating grade levels. One might think I would grow bored introducing the eighteen titles we have available in our collection to sixteen different groups, but I did not. The list is very interesting and appealing this year and I intend to read every single one of the books on it. Our students need to have read at least four of the nominees to participate in the voting, which will occur in February. We encourage them to read or listen to as many as possible and teachers help out by reading one or two to their classes. We also ask all the students who can to get the books at the public libraries. All of the librairies participate and have multiple copies of the books. We cannot afford to spend the majority of our budget, just on this, no matter how fun it is.

At Ide, we do the Monarch Award program, which is intended for grades K through 3. At Lakeview, they do the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award. This is for grades 4 through 8. We do have many of the nominees for this one available at Prarieview, as well, but we do not emphasize it. These books tend to more for the older students. Students who have read three of these nominees will be able to vote at school in February.