The Volunteer State Book Award is a reader's choice award voted on by the students of Tennessee. Many other states have similar awards. I got to hear
author Peg Kehret accept a VSBA award a few years ago. She told the story of how her husband had started giving her a charm for the state whenever one of her
books won a state reader's choice award. After his death, her daughter and son-in-law have continued the tradition. You can read about her necklace and
see a picture of it on her web site: http://www.pegkehret.com/award-necklace/
In Tennessee, a group of librarians reads lots of books
and comes up with a master list of 20 titles for each age division: primary, intermediate, middle and high school. Our school reads from the middle school list. Any student who reads at least 3 books from the list is eligible to vote for their favorite book.
All the votes across Tennessee are tabulated and the winners are announced. The winning authors are invited to the fall conference of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians. Because I have attended this conference for many years, I have gotten to hear many of these authors speak. It's been fascinating to meet authors in this way.
This year I posted covers of the VSBA books in the library (see picture above) and invited students to sign the cover when they had read the book. I'm sorry that the picture is not the best quality--I wish you could see all the names on each cover. This year we had 10 people read at least three of the books and cast their vote, more than I remember voting in years past. Many more students read at least one or two.
I sent in our votes today. Here are the books our students chose:
Courage Has No Color: 1 vote
Bomb: 2 votes
Spy School: 1 vote
Navigating Early: 1 vote
The Selection: 2 votes
Wonder: 2 votes
The Paladin Prophecy: 1 vote
Each of these votes will be added to the votes of other middle school students across TN, so every one counts. It will be very interesting to see if one of our choices is determined the winner.
To find out more about the VSBA award, go to this link: http://www.tasltn.org/vsba
You can find a list of past winners or get a head start on next year's list. If you just need a good book suggestion, try one of the books from the VSBA list. You might be reading a winner.
author Peg Kehret accept a VSBA award a few years ago. She told the story of how her husband had started giving her a charm for the state whenever one of her
books won a state reader's choice award. After his death, her daughter and son-in-law have continued the tradition. You can read about her necklace and
see a picture of it on her web site: http://www.pegkehret.com/award-necklace/
In Tennessee, a group of librarians reads lots of books
and comes up with a master list of 20 titles for each age division: primary, intermediate, middle and high school. Our school reads from the middle school list. Any student who reads at least 3 books from the list is eligible to vote for their favorite book.
All the votes across Tennessee are tabulated and the winners are announced. The winning authors are invited to the fall conference of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians. Because I have attended this conference for many years, I have gotten to hear many of these authors speak. It's been fascinating to meet authors in this way.
This year I posted covers of the VSBA books in the library (see picture above) and invited students to sign the cover when they had read the book. I'm sorry that the picture is not the best quality--I wish you could see all the names on each cover. This year we had 10 people read at least three of the books and cast their vote, more than I remember voting in years past. Many more students read at least one or two.
I sent in our votes today. Here are the books our students chose:
Courage Has No Color: 1 vote
Bomb: 2 votes
Spy School: 1 vote
Navigating Early: 1 vote
The Selection: 2 votes
Wonder: 2 votes
The Paladin Prophecy: 1 vote
Each of these votes will be added to the votes of other middle school students across TN, so every one counts. It will be very interesting to see if one of our choices is determined the winner.
To find out more about the VSBA award, go to this link: http://www.tasltn.org/vsba
You can find a list of past winners or get a head start on next year's list. If you just need a good book suggestion, try one of the books from the VSBA list. You might be reading a winner.