Bison Bluebonnet Reading Program

Hello Bison readers,

I am so excited about this year’s Texas Bluebonnet Award books! They are an awesome collection of books that celebrates courage, innovation, history, culture, mystery, compassion, acceptance, identity and so much more. This year’s Bethke Library Bluebonnet Program for our 3rd-5th graders is going to take place solely online on Canvas so that everyone can participate in this amazing program! 

For those of you who may not be familiar with the Texas Bluebonnet Award here is a brief description from their website. “Each year, 20 books are chosen for the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List. Schools and libraries around the state participate in the program, encouraging students to read a minimum of five books from the list. In January, students vote for their favorite titles. The author of the book receiving the most votes wins the Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) which is presented at the Texas Bluebonnet Award Luncheon held during the TLA Annual Conference in the spring. https://txla.org/tools-resources/reading-lists/texas-bluebonnet-award/about/ (Links to an external site.)

Let me explain how the program is going to work this year at Bethke. Students will be required to read at least 5 of this year’s Texas Bluebonnets and answer a couple of short-answer discussion questions. Students are required to read at least 3 chapter books and are only allowed to read 2 picture books that count towards their 5 required readings.  Feel free to read all or as many of the Bluebonnet books you want. 

To find the discussion questions you will just go to the Bluebonnet program module and scroll through the list of Bluebonnets until you find the page of the one you are looking for. Click on the book’s page you are looking for and you will be directed to click on a link that will take you to the discussion questions for that book. Questions need to be answered completely, using complete sentences, correct punctuation, and make sense in order to be counted as one of your required readings. You only have from September-December to get all 5 of the books to read and then voting happens in January. 

If you complete all the readings and questions for at least five of the books I will put your name or picture up on our "Bluebonnet Wall of Fame" in the library so that the whole school can see your accomplishment. Also, you will be eligible to vote for your favorite Bluebonnet book with the rest of the students in Texas AND if students read a total of 10 Bluebonnet books (the 5 books are included in the count) and answer discussion questions they get to attend the Texas Bluebonnet Celebration in the Spring!