The Monarch Award and Bluestem Award are book awards in Illinois, where children get to vote the winner! There is a committee that nominates the books. Monarch Award nominees are books for Kindergarten-3rd grade children. Bluestem Award nominees are books for 3rd-5th grade children. Once the nominees are selected kids get to vote at participating libraries and schools. We had a voting station right here in our very own library, too! Our votes were collected throughout the month of March, then submitted and combined with votes from other libraries and schools to get the final vote count for the entire state. Here are the voting results from our library and the ultimate winners of the awards:
Algonquin Area Public Library Vote Winners:
Monarch:
Waiting is Not Easy by Mo Willems
Bluestem:
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Bradley Brubaker
2017 Monarch Award Winner:
2017 Bluestem Award Winner: