Participation in the Bluebonnet Reading Program is an important tradition here at Brill.
Begun in 1979, the Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) Reading Program motivates Texas students in grades three through six to read outstanding new children's literature. A committee of school and public librarians chooses 20 books for the list each year. In January, students who have read or listened to 5 or more books from the current list vote for their favorite. The author of the winning book is presented with the prestigious Texas Bluebonnet Award at the annual conference of the Texas Library Association. This award is very highly regarded by authors because it represents the choice of young readers, not adults!
Each May we send home the list of Bluebonnet nominees for the coming school year with our rising second through fourth-graders. During the fall semester the students are interviewed on books they have read by our team of Bluebonnet Moms. Voting takes place in late January and a Bluebonnet Readers Awards Assembly is held a few weeks later to recognize those students who have read ten or more of the books. A plaque near the library lists the names of those students who read all twenty books during a particular year.
In January 2008, 212 Brill students voted for their favorite Bluebonnet book; the winning title on our campus was Ghost's grave. In early February the Texas Library Association announced that the state-wide winner of the 2008 Texas Bluebonnet Award was Down Girl and Sit: On the road, by Lucy Nolan.
In June 2008, students in grades 2-4 will be given information about the Bluebonnet Reading Program for the 2008-2009 school year.