Bluestem Reading Challenge
Announcing the 2023 Winners
Check out the Bluestem Awards winners. Compare the Illinois schools and libraries (left) favorites vs. the Marengo-Union Library favorites.
Illinois Official 2023 Winners
1st Place: Twins by Varian Johnson, Shannon Wright (illustrator)
2nd Place: The Spirit of Springer: The Real-Life Rescue of an Orphaned Orca by Amanda Abler. Levi Hastings (illustrator)
3rd Place: Mac B Kid Spy : Mac Undercover by Mac Barnett, Mike Lowery (illustrator)
Marengo-Union 2023 Favorites
1st Place: Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
2nd Place: A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi
3rd Place: Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte, Ann Xu (Illustrator)
November 2022-March 2023
Get ready to vote for your favorite Bluestem nominee. Pick up a list of Bluestem Award nominees in the library or browse the links below. You have until the end of March to see how many you can read. When you have chosen a favorite, cast your ballot at the circulation desk. We will announce the Marengo-Union Bluestem favorite on March 4th.
2023 Illinois Bluestem Award Master List
These books are designed for children in grades 3-6 and have been recognized for their excellence. Be sure to vote for your favorite. Please have your Marengo-Union Library Card ready to borrow the items below.
Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball
by Jen Bryant, Frank Morrison (Illustrator)
published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2020
Hall-of-famer Elgin Baylor was one of basketball’s all-time-greatest players—an innovative athlete, team player, and quiet force for change. One of the first professional African-American players, he inspired others on and off the court. But when traveling for away games, many hotels and restaurants turned Elgin away because he was black. One night, Elgin had enough and staged a one-man protest that captured the attention of the press, the public, and the NBA.
Genre: Nonfiction, Biography
The Amelia Six: An Amelia Earhart Mystery
by Kristin L. Gray
published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2020
Eleven-year-old Millie and five other girls, snowed in at Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kansas, are on a scavenger hunt when the lights go out and Amelia’s aviator goggles go missing.
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Becoming Muhammad Ali
by James Patterson & Kwame Alexander, Dawud Anyabwile (Illustrator)
published by Jimmy Patterson Books, Little, Brown and Company, 2020
A biographical novel tells the story of Cassius Clay, the determined boy who would one day become Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers of all time.
Genre: Nonfiction, Biography, Poetry
Caterpillar Summer
by Gillian McDunn
published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2019
Cat and her brother Chicken have always had a very special bond–Cat is one of the few people who can keep Chicken happy. When he has a “meltdown” she’s the one who scratches his back and reads his favorite story. She’s the one who knows what Chicken needs. Since their mom has had to work double-hard to keep their family afloat after their father passed away, Cat has been the glue holding her family together. But even the strongest glue sometimes struggles to hold. When a summer trip doesn’t go according to plan, Cat and Chicken end up spending three weeks with grandparents they never knew. For the first time in years, Cat has the opportunity to be a kid again, and the journey she takes shows that even the most broken or strained relationships can be healed if people take the time to walk in one another’s shoes.
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Neurodiversity
Eva Evergreen: Semi-Magical Witch
by Julie Abe
published by Little, Brown and Company, 2020
Eva must travel to a seaside town to complete her training and earn the rank of Adept Witch before her thirteenth birthday, or be banned from using magic forever.
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Glitch
by Laura Martin
published by HarperCollins Publishers, 2020
Regan Fitz and Elliot Mason have been enemies since they started training to become Glitchers–people who travel through time to preserve important historical events. But everything changes when they find a letter from Regan’s future self, warning them about an impending disaster that threatens them and everyone they know. Will they be able to set aside their past in order to save the future?
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure
The Great Chicago Fire: Rising from the Ashes (History Comics)
by Kate Hannigan, Alex Graudins (Illustrator)
published by First Second, 2020
In History Comics: The Great Chicago Fire, writer Kate Hannigan and illustrator Alex Graudins tell the true story of how a city rose up from one of the worst catastrophes in American history, and how this disaster forever changed how homes, buildings, and communities are constructed. A deadly blaze engulfs Chicago for two terrifying days! A brother, a sister, and a helpless puppy must race through the city to stay one step ahead of the devilish inferno. But can they reunite with their lost family before it’s too late?
Genre: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction
The Last Human
by Lee Bacon
published by Amulet Books, 2019
After machines take control of Earth, following the extinction of humans, twelve-year-old robot XR 935A confronts its prejudices about humans and begins to reconsider its own existence within robot society after discovering and befriending a twelve-year-old human girl.
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure
The Lion of Mars
by Jennifer L. Holm
published by Penguin Random House, 2021
Bell has spent his whole life–all eleven years of it–on Mars. But he’s still just a regular kid–he loves cats, any kind of cake, and is curious about the secrets the adults in the US colony are keeping. Like, why don’t they have contact with anyone on the other Mars colonies? Why are they so isolated? When a virus breaks out and the grown-ups all fall ill, Bell and the other children are the only ones who can help. It’s up to Bell–a regular kid in a very different world–to uncover the truth and save his family …and possibly unite an entire planet.
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure
The Losers Club
by Andrew Clements
published by Penguin Random House, 2017
Alec, a sixth-grade bookworm always in trouble for reading instead of listening and participating in class, starts a book club, solely to have a place to read, and discovers that real life, although messy, can be as exciting as the stories in his favorite books.
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Humor
Mac B. Kid Spy: Mac Undercover
by Mac Barnett, Mike Lowery (Illustrator)
published by Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc., 2018
One day, Mac (smartest boy in his class in a small town in California) receives a telephone call from the Queen of England, recruiting him to find the crown jewels (well, actually just the Coronation Spoon) and so Mac embarks on his first adventure as a secret agent–with the assurance that the Queen will give him a note excusing him from school.
Genre: Graphic Novel, Mystery, Humor
Measuring Up
by Lily LaMotte, Ann Xu (Illustrator)
published by Harper Alley, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2020
Having just moved to Seattle from Taiwan, twelve-year-old Cici enters a cooking competition to win the chance to see her grandmother again, but she only knows how to cook Taiwanese food.
Genre: Graphic Novel, Realistic Fiction
Shirley Chisholm is a Verb!
by Veronica Chambers, Rachelle Baker (Illustrator)
published by Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020
A picture book biography celebrating the life and contributions of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress, who sought the Democratic nomination to be the president of the United States.
Genre: Nonfiction, Biography
Song for a Whale
by Lynne Kelly
published by Delacorte Press, 2019
Twelve-year-old Iris and her grandmother, both deaf, fly from Texas to California and then take a cruise ship to Alaska– armed with Iris’s plan to help Blue-55, a whale unable to communicate with other whales.
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Disability
The Spirit of Springer: The Real-Life Rescue of an Orphaned Orca
by Amanda Abler, Levi Hastings (Illustrator)
published by Little Bigfoot, an imprint of Sasquatch Books, 2020
A heart-warming and true story about an orphaned orca named Springer who was found swimming alone in the Puget Sound in 2002. The book takes us on Springer’s journey from being near starvation to rescued to then the challenges of her release, eventual adoption, and the start of her own family.
Genre: Nonfiction, Animals & Nature
A Thousand Questions
by Saadia Faruqi
published by Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2020
Told in two voices, eleven-year-olds Mimi, who is visiting her wealthy grandparents in Karachi, Pakistan, for the first time and Sakina, daughter of the grandparents’ cook, form an unexpected friendship.
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Cultural
Tune It Out
by Jamie Sumner
published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2020
Twelve-year-old Lou Montgomery’s life has been centered on her mother’s terrifying plan to make her a singing star, but a crisis reveals Lou’s sensory processing disorder and people determined to help her address it.
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Disability
Twins
by Varian Johnson, Shannon Wright (Illustrator)
published by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc., 2020
Maureen and Francine Carter are twins and best friends. They participate in the same clubs, enjoy the same foods, and are partners on all their school projects. But just before the girls start sixth grade, Francine becomes Fran — a girl who wants to join the chorus, run for class president, and dress in fashionable outfits that set her apart from Maureen. A girl who seems happy to share only two classes with her sister! Maureen and Francine are growing apart and there’s nothing Maureen can do to stop it. Are sisters really forever? Or will middle school change things for good?
Genre: Graphic Novel, Realistic Fiction
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre
by Carole Boston Weatherford, Floyd Cooper (illustrator)
published by Carolrhoda Books, 2021
Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a powerful look at the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation’s history.
Genre: Nonfiction, History
Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor
by Ally Carter
published by Little, Brown and Company, 2020
After years in foster care, April gets to live in a mansion where she and four other children are caught up in a mystery related to a missing heir, a lost legacy, and the Phantom.
Genre: Mystery, Adventure