Thank you, Illinois school librarians!

I'm thrilled that GLORY BE has just been named to the 2016 Illinois Readers' Choice Bluestem list.

I love the description of the award:
"Named in honor of Big Bluestem which is the state prairie grass, the award may include both timeless classics and current titles, as well as books that have appeared on Monarch and Rebecca Caudill lists."

I've visited a few schools in Illinois over the years and I've met some super media specialists and teachers. Of course, I always poke around and wishfully think about incorporating their ideas into my own school. Then I remember, Whoops, I no longer have a school or a library to call my own.

On my most recent visit, sponsored by the fabulous Anderson's Bookshop, I loved this idea from Gayl Smith at Gompert Elementary. She has a team of book wizards who write reviews and post them on the bookshelf where that book resides.

Here's one written by a third grader, which easily rivals some of the professional reviews I've read:

Glory Be is a book about a young girl named Gloriana Hemphill, who lived in the south at the time of segregation. She is used to two of everything, one for the whites and one for the blacks. Then her whole life changes when she meets a girl who moved from Ohio and doesn't follow the rules that Glory had been used to. Her name was Laura Lampert. Glory's life is whirling around her with her other friends making fun of Laura because she is from the North, her older sister has turned into a teenager and doesn't want to play with her and the pool's closing down right before her birthday to "fix some cracks". 
What is really going on? Read to find out.


Now I love that, don't you?

This is what a few other reviews look like, tacked to those bookshelves.
Those kids must feel pretty special!