Bluestem Award Winners for 2012

The second annual Bluestem Award winners have been announced. Over 38,000 readers in grades 3-5 from 499 schools and libraries in Illinois voted from the 2012 book nominees. Was your vote included? Which book received your vote? First place goes to Adventures in Cartooning by James Sturm.   Second place goes to Sideways Stories from Wayside School, [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Ten

Here are the last two nominated books for the 2012 Bluestem Award. Dying to Meet You, by Kate Klise Start with writer Ignatius B. Grumply, add 11-year-old Seymour Hope and his cat Shadow and mix them in with a ghost named Olive C. Spence. They all end up inhabiting 43 Old Cemetery Road one summer. They [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Nine

Here are two more of the nominees for the 2012 Bluestem Award. Extra Credit by Andrew Clements Abby needs to do an extra credit pen-pal exchange project if she is going to be able to go to seventh grade next year. What she doesn’t foresee is that the project becomes anything but ordinary. Sixth-grader Abby Carson [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Eight

Here are two more of the nominees for the 2012 Bluestem Award. 14 Cows for America, by Carmen Agra Deedy Kimeli Naiyomah returned home to his Maasai village in Kenya from New York City with news of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He and the villagers want to give a gift to help America heal. Kimeli declares [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Seven

Here are two more of the nominees for the 2012 Bluestem Award. Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Sitting tall in the saddle, with a wide-brimmed black hat and twin Colt pistols on his belt, Bass Reeves was a U.S. Marshal who seemed bigger than [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Six

Here are two more of the nominees for the 2012 Bluestem Award. The World According to Humphrey, by Betty Birney Humphrey is a pet hamster in Room 26 at Longfellow School. The students take turns taking Humphrey home each weekend.  Humphrey manages to bring out hidden courage and kindness in everyone he visits. He helps the members of [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Five

Here are two more of the nominees for the 2012 Bluestem Award. All Stations! Distress! April 15, 1912: The Day the Titanic Sank, by Don Brown The Titanic was five days into her first voyage from England to New York City when tragedy struck. There were about 2,200 passengers on board. No one could have [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Four

Here are two more of the nominees for the 2012 Bluestem Award. Swindle, by Gordon Korman After a mean collector named S. Wendell Palamino (known as Swindle) cons him out of his most valuable baseball card, Griffin Bing must put together a band of misfits to break into Swindle’s compound and recapture the card. Griffin is [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Three

Here are two more of the nominees for the 2012 Bluestem Award. Just Grace by Charise Harper Image being in a class in school with three other kids who have the same name as you do. Grace (whose harried teacher nicknames her Just Grace to distinguish her from the three other Graces in class) deals [...]

Bluestem Award Nominees: Part Two

Here are two more of the nominees for the 2012 Bluestem Award. Adventures in Cartooning, by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost Do you like to doodle? Have you always wanted to make your own cartoons? Discover how to cartoon while reading about a knight who is on a quest for a bubble-gum chewing [...]