The document describes the Bluestem Award program for students in 4th and 5th grade at King School. To participate, students can check out one award nominee book per week and must finish the entire book, with one renewal allowed. After finishing each book, students fill out a form to be entered into a monthly raffle. Reading 4 nominees in a row or 6 total earns extra raffle entries or an invitation to a pizza party. The student who reads the most nominees wins a special prize. Votes from the pizza party will be sent to the state to contribute to deciding the overall award winner.

1. Bluestem Award
Illinois Readers Choice Award
for grades 3-5
At King School, students in
fourth and fifth grade may
participate.

2. How does it work at King School?
You may only check out one award nominee each week.
You must finish the entire book! You may only
renew it ONCE.
After finishing a book, fill out an I Read a Bluestem!
sheet. When you turn this in, I'll mark the book off your
Bluestem Bingo card.
For every Bluestem nominee that you read, you will be
entered in a monthly raffle to win a free book!
If you read 4 nominees in a row on your
Bluestem Bingo card, you will receive an
extra raffle entry.

3. How does it work at King School?
Students who read at least 6 of the nominees will
be invited to a pizza party in March. At the pizza
party, they will vote for their favorite book.
If you read at least 4 of the nominees,
you can still vote for your favorite.
The student who reads the MOST Bluestem
nominees will receive a special prize!
I will send the votes to Springfield, where they will be
added to the votes of all the other students in Illinois
participating in the program.

4. the 2012 nominees...

12. It isn’t that Abby Carson can’t do her schoolwork. She just doesn’t like
doing it. And in February a warning letter arrives at her home. Abby
will have to repeat sixth grade—unless she meets some specific
conditions, including taking on an extra credit project: find a pen pal in
a distant country. Seems simple enough.
But when Abby's first letter arrives at a small school in Afghanistan,
the teacher takes it to the village elders. And everyone agrees that any
letters going back to America must be written well in English. And the
only qualified student is a boy, Sadeed Bayat. Except in this village, it
is not proper for a boy to correspond with a girl. So Sadeed’s younger
sister will write the letters. Except she knows hardly any English. So
Sadeed must write the letters. But what about the villagers who
believe that girls should not be anywhere near a school? And what
about those who believe that any contact with Americans is . . .
unhealthy?
As letters flow back and forth—between the prairies of Illinois and the
mountains of central Asia, across cultural and religious divides, through
the minefields of different lifestyles and traditions—a small group of
children begin to speak and listen to each other. And in just a few short
weeks, they make important discoveries about their communities,
about their world, and most of all, about themselves.

13. Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs, two
girls from different parts of Kentucky, are
participating in the first seventh-grade
student exchange program between their
schools. The girls will stay at each other’s
homes, attend school together, and record
their experience in their journals.
Catherine and her family have a beautiful
home with plenty of space. Since Ivy June’s
house is crowded, she lives with her
grandparents. Her Pappaw works in the coal
mines supporting four generations of kinfolk.
Ivy June can’t wait until he leaves that
mine forever and retires. As the girls get
closer, they discover they’re more alike
than different, especially when they face
the terror of not knowing what’s happening
to those they love most.

15. Grace loves cats. She also loves taking
pictures of cats and drawing Not So Super
comics. She doesn't like Sammy Stringer, a
boy in her class. She's got lots and lots of
ideas, and when her neighbor's cat goes
missing, Grace does her best to make Mrs.
Luther feel less lonely. But as the mystery
of the missing cat continues, Grace's well-
intentioned plan backfires, and she finds
herself in a bit of trouble. Maybe, just
maybe, Sammy Stringer will help her
through.