Where to Begin? Illinois Awards Lists

A month before I was even offered the position of district librarian, I was asked to apply for a $5,000 grant for books for our library. I ended up winning it and now I have $5,000 to spend on books k-12. Best possible problem! But now I don't know what books to buy for younger kids. My 5 year old reads voraciously, but we read books my mother kept from when I was a kid and/ or books he's been given as gifts. That's a nice start, but it means that I don't know much about what's currently going on in kid lit.

So I started with what I knew. I served two years on the selection committee for the Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Reader's Choice Award and I've loved it. (Does your state have a similar award? I cannot more highly recommend getting involved. It is SO much fun!) I knew that I wanted to get copies of all 20 of the 2019 semi-finalists for that to help supplement my classroom, but I also knew there were corresponding lists for young readers. Yes! I have a place to start. So my first order from my grant was to make sure my library had two copies of every book on the Monarch (k-3), Bluestem (3-5), Rebecca Caudill (middle grades), and Lincoln (teen).

I got six giant boxes of shiny new books. I still get giddy when new books come  in. My students just roll their eyes affectionately and laugh. They know when I'm practically skipping through the gym to get to the office that new books have arrived.

It was then that I decided I needed to read at least the Monarch and Bluestem books. You see, I am from a small, rural, rather conservative town. My students need windows and sliding class doors (Bishop), but sometimes people want to black out those windows, seal up the sliding doors. I wanted to be prepared in case anyone attempted. Will they be opposed to Funny Bones because it's about Dia de los Meurtos with death and skeletons?Will they dislike the Spanish words in Sofia Martinez: The Marigold Mess?  Are they going to fight I Dissent? I have no idea because I don't know what kind of climate there is at our grade school.

So I started reading.

What have I learned so far?
1. That I am no good at deciding what age levels books are for! City of Ember is on the 3-5 list? I have it in my high school library. I read and loved it a few years back. This is something I need to work on.

2. I also had no idea that people were writing so many very cool non-fiction books for young children. I especially loved I Dissent, John Deere, That's Who, and Six Dots.

3. I need to teach my son to be more adventurous in his reading.He tends to want to re-read the same books, like a lot of kids, but even when offered a wide array of brand new wonderful books to choose from, he shies away. Will other kids be like this? How can I help introduce students to more new books? I'll need to work with my new library aide to work on lots of book talks.

4. In general, there are just a lot of amazing kid books out! I'm so glad I started with an award winning list, and I think this is where my new orders will start each year.
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Want to find book award lists for your state? I found a couple of lists here and here.

My mission

So here's the deal. I've been a high school English teacher for 12 years. I've made book choice my #1 priority for my students. I've spent these years becoming well-versed in young adult literature and loving it. And now I'm ALSO going to be the district librarian for my school for k-12. I have no idea what I'm doing. I love books and I love sharing books with students (and I'm taking classes to become a school librarian.) Here's the thing-- I don't know grade school or middle grade books. I have no idea what we have in our collection. I have no idea what books to recommend! Or what books to buy for that matter!

What's a new librarian to do?

Start reading the stacks. Yes, you read that right. Haven't you ever dreamed of it? Reading all of the books in the library? I have no idea if I'll accomplish it, probably not. But here is where I plan to chronicle my trials and tribulations regarding this endeavor of trying to become a librarian and getting to know our school's collection.

Luckily, my 5 year old son will help me in this endeavor. Here he is with his book stack from yesterday. That's a stack of Big Nate books that he loves and reads aloud to me each night.

Here's my basic plan-- I let Ben pick a book to read each night. That gets me one book or one chapter of a longer book. And then, in my reading for the evening, I read either one children's book or one chapter of a book each night before I read my current YA book. That could be up to 14 books a week! Well, maybe...

Next post: What I've learned so far