2023-2024 Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominees

Created on May 30, 2023, 12:37 pm

Last Updated August 16, 2023, 12:13 pm

The Texas Bluebonnet Award is one of the most prestigious children’s choice literary awards in the United States. Each year, 20 books are chosen for the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List. Schools and libraries around the state participate in the program, encouraging students to read a minimum of five books from the list. In January, students vote for their favorite title. The author of the book receiving the most votes wins the Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) which is presented at the Texas Bluebonnet Award presentation held during the TLA Annual Conference in the spring.

1) The Beatryce prophecy

Author

DiCamillo, Kate

Series

Thorndike Press large print striving reader collection

Formats:

Book, Audio, eAudiobook, Large Print, Playaway, Wonderbook

Description

"We shall all, in the end, be led to where we belong. We shall all, in the end, find our way home. In a time of war, a mysterious child appears at the monastery of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing. Gentle Brother Edik finds the girl, Beatryce, curled in a stall, wracked with fever, coated in dirt and blood, and holding fast to the ear of Answelica the goat. As the monk nurses Beatryce to health, he uncovers her dangerous secret, one that imperils...

2) Black boy joy

Series

Thorndike Press large print striving reader collection

Formats:

Book, Large Print

Description

From seventeen acclaimed Black male and nonbinary authors comes a vibrant collection of stories, comics, and poems about the power of joy and the wonders of Black boyhood.

3) Blue: a history of the color as deep as the sea and as wide as the sky

Author

Brew-Hammond, Nana Ekua

Description

This picture book follows one color's journey throughout history -- from ancient Afghan painters to 1905, when a chemical blue dye was created -- and around the world, as it becomes the blue we know today. "For centuries, blue powders and dyes were some of the most sought-after materials in the world. Ancient Afghan painters ground mass quantities of sapphire rocks to use for their paints, while snails were harvested in Eurasia for the tiny amounts...

4) The dirt book: poems about animals that live beneath our feet

Author

Harrison, David L

Description

"A collection of poems about dirt and the many organisms that live there such as grubs, trap door spiders, moles, earthworms, chipmunks, and doodlebugs"--

5) The first cat in space ate pizza

Author

Series

First cat in space volume 1

Formats:

Book, Graphic Novel, Juvenile/Children's Graphic Novel, Playaway, Wonderbook

Description

Publisher Annotation: Something terrible is happening in the skies! Rats are eating the MOON! There's only ONE hero for the job, a bold and fearsome beast bioengineered in a secret lab to be the moon's savior and Earth's last hope! And that hero is . . . a cat. A cat who will be blasted into space! Accompanied by the imperious Moon Queen and LOZ 4000, a toenail clipping robot, the First Cat in Space journeys across a fantastic lunar landscape in a...

6) Gladys the magic chicken

Author

Description

In Ancient Times, Gladys the dancing chicken goes on an epic adventure when she is mistaken for a magical chicken who grants wishes to those she encounters.

7) Haven: a small cat's big adventure

Author

Lloyd, Megan Wagner

Description

Publisher Annotation: A warm, cozy lap. The toasty smell of baking bread. Tasty food served in a bright-blue bowl. These make Haven's life as an indoor pet heaven. All thanks to her beloved human and rescuer, Ma Millie. But when Ma Millie becomes too sick to care for her, the cat's cozy life is turned upside down, and Haven decides she must seek out another human for help. Anything for Ma Millie! Her vow pulls her out of her safe nest into the shadowy...

8) Indelible Ann: the larger-than-life story of Governor Ann Richards

Author

Browne, Meghan P

Description

"A folksy, larger-than-life picture book biography about Ann Richards, the late governor of Texas who has inspired countless women in politics today"--

Author

Gonzalez, Christina Diaz

Formats:

Book, Book with Media, Graphic Novel, Juvenile/Children's Graphic Novel, Playaway

Description

How can you be yourself when no one sees the real you? Five students meet in the school cafeteria when they're forced to complete their school community service hours. There's George: the brain Sara: the loner Dayara: the tough kid Nico: the rich kid And Miguel, the jock. They immediately know that they have nothing in common with each other... even though their school administration has decided that they all belong together. None of the kids wants...

10) The last beekeeper

Author

Series

Thorndike Press Youth large Print

Formats:

Book, Book on CD, Large Print, Playaway, Wonderbook

Description

Publisher Annotation: Facing a world dually altered by climate change and those who profit from it, Yolanda Ciceron will have to fight to save the last known beehive from extinction in this stirring new adventure by award-winning author Pablo Cartaya.

11) The last mapmaker

Author

Soontornvat, Christina

Series

Thorndike Press youth large print middle reader

Formats:

Book, Audio, Large Print, Playaway

Description

Publisher Annotation: In a fantasy adventure every bit as compelling and confident in its world building as her Newbery Honor Book A Wish in the Dark, Christina Soontornvat explores a young woman's struggle to unburden herself of the past and chart her own destiny in a world of secrets. As assistant to Mangkon's most celebrated mapmaker, twelve-year-old Sai plays the part of a well-bred young lady with a glittering future. In reality, her father is...

12) Leave it to Plum!

Author

Series

Plum (Matt Phelan) volume 1

Description

Every day at the Athensville Zoo the peacocks are allowed to wander freely among the visitors, delighting and guiding kids and grownups alike, and kind, curious Plum is the peacock most proud of their responsibility.

13) The legend of Gravity: a tall basketball tale

Author

Description

"Have you ever heard of Gravity? No, not gravity, the centrifugal force pulling us to the Earth. I'm talking about Gravity--the greatest ball player to ever lace up a pair of sneakers."--

14) The Marvellers

Author

Clayton, Dhonielle

Series

Marvellerverse volume 1

Formats:

Book, Audio, Playaway

Description

Publisher Annotation: Eleven-year-old Ella Durand is the first Conjuror to attend the Arcanum Training Institute, a magic school in the clouds where Marvellers from around the world practice their cultural arts, like brewing Indian spice elixirs and bartering with pesky Irish pixies. Despite her excitement, Ella discovers that being the first isn't easy-some Marvellers mistrust her magic, which they deem "bad and unnatural." But eventually, she finds...

15) Once upon a Tim

Author

Series

Once upon a Tim volume 1

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

With no knightly experience but plenty of pluck and an impressive vocabulary, a twelve-year-old peasant, hoping to improve his station in life, volunteers to help a cowardly prince and his not very powerful wizard rescue a princess from an evil, foul-smelling monster.

16) The polter-ghost problem

Author

Description

Best friends Aldo, Pen, and Jasper stumble onto an abandoned orphanage and discover that freeing a houseful of imprisoned ghosts from an angry poltergeist could get them into serious trouble.

17) Solimar: the sword of the Monarchs

Author

Muñoz Ryan, Pam

Description

On the eve of her Quinceañera, Princess Solimar discovers that it will take more than magic to save her kingdom and prevent the destruction of the Monarch butterfly.

18) Tales to keep you up at night

Author

Description

Ignoring a handwritten warning from her grandmother, Amelia reads an old book she finds in the attic, and as elements from the stories begin to come to life around her, she realizes that she may be in a spooky story of her own.

Author

Series

Thorndike Press youth large print

Formats:

Book, Large Print

Description

In the poorest part of Mumbai, where access to water is severely limited, twelve-year-old Minni discovers her employer's husband is stealing water from her community, and decides she must do her part to fight for equality.

20) Unbound: the life + art of Judith Scott

Author

Description

"An introduction to the life and art of Judith Scott, a renowned artist"--