Book Tasting Events in the Library

In Texas, students in 3rd-6th grade can participate in the Texas Bluebonnet Award Program. Each year, 20 books are selected by a committee, and students are encouraged to read them. By January, students who have read or heard at least 5 of these books are able to vote for their favorite, and then sometime in February, the winner is announced. In our district, we also hold a “Battle of the Bluebonnets” in February where all elementary and middle schools compete in a whirlwind question-answer session to see which team really knows the 20 Bluebonnets.
I wanted to find a fun way to introduce these books this year to my students, so I decided to do a “Bluebonnet Book Tasting”. I had seen blogs written about other “book tasting” events like at Barrow Media Center, Mrs. Lodge’s Library, and The Book Bug. As I read about how these wonderful ladies did their book tastings, my idea began to form. I looked over the list of books and found that there were 4 main categories: Realistic books, Fantasy books, Historical books, and Adventure (this last category is more of a hodge-podge of Adventure and Mystery). I made some signs for the tables and used the table holders that I had used at my wedding to hold them up (It’s a good thing that I never throw anything away!)

I pulled out my picnic tablecloths that I use for my Poetry Picnic in the Spring, added a cup with our flower pencils, and displayed the books. The kids were super excited when they walked in, especially since I was playing a Perma-Bound’s Book Trailer Video that was introducing all 20 books! The music alone made them excited!

After this short video, I showed them our Bluebonnet Binder that I keep by the Circulation Desk. I already copied the reading logs from the TBA website, and have them ready for any students who want to start participating.

Here’s how I manage the program in the library:

When a student finishes reading a Bluebonnet book, they can come down to see me during their recess and/or lunch, or during class if their teacher says it’s okay.
I will ask them a question about the book, and if they get it correct, they get to put a checkmark by that book or color it in.
If they miss the question, I generally ask them another one to see if they understood the book. If they miss this question, I will tell them to read the story again and come see me another day.
I keep all the reading logs in this binder so that teachers don’t have to worry about keeping up with something else, but I do give the teachers a class form in case they want to track the books in their classrooms.
As students read 5 books, I give them a Bluebonnet Brag Tag to celebrate, and put a sticker on their record form to document that they can officially vote. (We use Brag Tags at our school to recognize students for different accomplishments.)

At the end of January, I will go through the binder and invite any students who have read at least 5 books to come down to the library to vote. Once they vote, I will ask them if they are interested in being on our schools’ “Battle of the Bluebonnet” team. (Each school is allowed a team of 5 students. I usually select one 3rd grader, one 4th grader, one 5th grader, and then leave the last 2 slots open for special cases or teacher recommendations.)
During the Battle of the Bluebonnets, I’m a picture-taking fiend! I use those pictures to create a photo book for the library so that those students can leave a legacy at the school. I also take a group picture and make a magnet for each student on the battle team.

After going through this information with them, they were pretty excited and couldn’t wait to get to the tables to get a “taste” of the Bluebonnet books! I showed them the “Book Tasting” form where they could vote for which book on each table interested them the most. I also created another form in case I didn’t end up organizing them by genres.

I will tally up those votes to determine which book I will read first in my after school Bluebonnet Enrichment Club. (Our school started an Enrichment program 2 years ago. Many of our students can’t afford to do any of the paid after school programs, so teachers volunteer to lead a club for an hour after school on Thursdays. It has been a huge hit, and the kids really look forward to coming. We’ve had a variety of clubs to try and meet the varied interests that the students have such as Sign Language Club, Chess Club, Craft Club, Cheer Club, Choir Club, Newspaper Club, Book Trailer Club, and Dance Club.)

So far the kids (and teachers) have really enjoyed it. The only grade that I had to make an adjustment for was 3rd grade. (The first class was in panic mode the first time the timer went off because they wanted to keep looking at the books!) Instead of having them move from table to table, I held up the books and gave a brief description of them while they marked on their form. This seemed to go a lot better. After they checked out their books, many of them came back to the tables to continue looking at the Bluebonnet books.

Since this has gone so well this week, I plan on doing more “Book Tasting” events this year. I’m already planning one for the Caldecott Award Books (my younger classes keep asking about when they will get to go to the “fancy tables”!) I’ll also do another one for the Newbery Award books, or I may combine it with the Caldecott books for the upper grades. I created table signs for those events already and a Book Tasting Journal to use for these events. I can’t wait to see their responses and what books “tickle their taste buds”!