Adults, you'll be happy to know that kids are still reading...a lot! WNIJ's Peter Medlin talked with school librarian Nichole Folkman about the Readers’ Choice Award winners from the Association of Illinois School Library Educators –- the books Illinois students loved the most in 2024...
Peter Medlin (PM): The Monarch Award is for those youngest elementary school kids, Kindergarten to 3rd grade. We're talking about over 60,000 votes and I saw that this winner won by just about 50 votes. So, next time we're trying to illustrate how much voting matters to kids, here's a prime example for us. It won by just a nose, and in this case, an alligator’s nose!
Nichole Folkman (NF): Yes! ‘Chez Bob’ is the absolute most adorable little picture book for kids, and it's by Bob Shea. So, we also get to talk about like plays on words and puns. We get to talk a little bit about French, right? What does “chez” mean in Chez Bob? They get to learn about putting in effort and also how your motives can change, because what happens is, Bob is an alligator who really wants to eat the birds in his neighborhood, but he's really lazy, so he thinks if he just puts a restaurant on his nose, then the birds will come to him and he can eat them. The problem is, he starts to actually like the birds and maybe he doesn't want to eat them, after all.
(PM): Awesome. Let's go up to the Bluestem Award. It’s chosen by students in 3rd through 5th grade. This year had kind of a runaway winner, if you look at the voting. It was a graphic novel called ‘Allergic’ by Megan Wagner Lloyd and illustrated by Michelle Mee Nutter. First of all, let's talk a little bit about the book, and also why we think this one was such a clear winner.
(NF): Yeah, so the protagonist in this book really, really wants a pet, but is allergic. Instead of just trying to find an allergy friendly pet, they hide a pet in their home without letting their family know, and she has some major reactions to having that pet in the home. I think part of it is our kids always love graphic novels. They've been incredibly popular for a very long time now. And, I think kids, no matter where they are in their pet journey, they can relate to this. Either they have a pet and love that pet and can understand the desire to get one or, they're like our main character, and can't have pets. It's also a lot of fun. It's beautifully done. It's available through Scholastic and we have so many Scholastic Book Fairs, so I think that helps too. Some of the kids own their own copy because they saw it at the Scholastic Book Fair. Availability and seeing books, it makes a big difference.
(PM): It also talks a lot about family dynamics. The main character's family has a new baby they're expecting, and just trying to find your place in an ever-evolving family and where your dynamic is, especially if you're going through a lot of change in your life. It can be hard and complicated to figure out where exactly you fit in, even within the scope of your own family. So, it got me. I’m sold.
(NF): Yeah, and a child reacting to that change in their environment and going, ‘but I want something just for me,’ right? Because now I'm feeling like I'm getting lost in the shuffle, and that pet is that thing that tries to help her feel like she fits in.
(PM): 100% relatable. And sometimes we feel almost trained to feel bad about that. You want to be really happy. We've got this new sibling on the way, but also, what about me?!
(NF): Yeah, for older siblings, that's a process they have to go through and relate to.
(PM): Not me, as the youngest of four. [laughs]
(NF): I’m the oldest if you can't tell! [laughs]
(PM): There you go! Now we're on to the Rebecca Caudill Award. this is 4th through 8th grade. The winner, this one has a really interesting format, which I was a little surprised really hit home for a lot of kids.
(NF): Yeah, so this is a novel-in-verse. It's called ‘Alone’ by Megan E. Freeman. It is absolutely gorgeously done. It is thriller and suspense to the nth degree.
(PM): I was delighted to hear that the format was exciting for a lot of kids, because, again, this novel-in-verse is long form poetry.
(NF): Absolutely, and it's great for them to see all these different formats. They've loved graphic novels. They love novels-in-verse. There are fantastic narrative nonfiction books and visual nonfiction books, especially for older readers. On any given list, they're going to find one or two books that probably already call to them, but if their teachers and librarians are talking about some of the others, they go, ‘oh, that does sound good!’ and they might step out of their comfort zone a little and try something new.
(PM): Speaking of different formats, I think our final winner, this one from the teen readers award, which is the Lincoln Award, is a more traditional chapter book, right?
(NF): It is, yeah. ‘You'd be Home Now’ by Kathleen Glasgow. This is the story of our teen girl protagonist, who has a family member who's gone missing. She's not sure where he's gone. She also knows that there is an unhoused encampment near her city, and she starts to worry about these people because she thinks that perhaps her brother has joined them or that they might have information about where he's at. He has been struggling with addiction, and her family tends to stay away from the conversations about it, because it's so difficult and so uncomfortable for them and they're not sure how to handle it. But, as teens often do, they want that information. They want to talk through it. They want someone to give them information. Mom and dad just are too uncomfortable and too hurt to be able to have those conversations at this time. They all kind of work together and learn what they can do to process this grief and worry. It's beautifully done. Kathleen Glasgow has been a favorite on the list for quite a few years.
(PM): This is fascinating. I remember in our conversation last year, you were talking about how there was this idea, especially coming out of the first few years of the pandemic, that maybe kids were just looking for an escape. They were just looking for something a little bit lighter in tone, and that you quickly realized that is not the case at all. They want to dig even deeper. This and many of these books on the list seem like great examples of that. They want to learn. They want to explore their feelings and complicated issues going on with the world.
(NF): Because if you don't have information, you can't process things, right? You have to compartmentalize it instead. For some people that works, and for some people that's more hurtful. A lot of our teenagers, they're trying to figure out what these things are, and sometimes the people in their lives are too uncomfortable or too unknowledgeable to have the conversations with them, and so having books that they can relate to or help them relate to something their friend is going through -- it really helps give them the vocabulary to express their needs to the adults in their lives. Also, how they can help their friends and peers get through things as well, because sometimes it's not even for seeing themselves. But of course, seeing yourself in the book is incredibly important, but seeing the other kids in your class and what they're going through and what their family lives might be like is incredibly valuable as well.
(PM): Yeah, and another point about availability too: having these books readily available where we're talking about maybe an issue as specific as addiction, in the case of this book, to not only have media that represents that, but also media that is written and geared towards readers your age, to be able to give you a way to explore that topic in a way that you'd be able to digest a little better.
(NF): Yes, very much. A lot of these authors, when you get to hear them speak, or you read interviews with them, that's a lot of what they talk about. So, many especially YA authors say that they write the book they needed when they were teenagers.
(PM): Can we talk a little bit about 2025, and some books that are up for the award this year? You’re a school librarian; can you talk a little bit about the ones that you see connecting at your school?
(NF): Yeah. So, I am at a very small rural school in central Illinois. My sample size is pretty tiny. But I love sharing these books with these kids, and they have very strong feelings, and I love being able to talk about them. So, for the Monarch, the ones have been hitting my kids the best are the ones they're finding funniest. For instance, ‘Invasion of the Unicorns’ by David Biedrzycki. Lots of fun, beautiful colors, wonderfully illustrated. ‘Lou’ by Breanna Carzoo is adorable. It's the story of a fire hydrant who thinks that all they are is a toilet. That's why their name is Lou. But then Lou realizes that he's worth so much more because there's a fire at an apartment close by! They realize, ‘oh, I have another purpose!’ Then there's a great book, I've been calling it nonfiction with the kids. I tell them, we're going to learn real things with a silly premise. It's called ‘Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots’ and it's by Michael Rex. It is robots learning the difference between facts and opinions. It's really interactive, and the kids are learning wonderful and important lessons, but having a lot of fun and laughing while they're doing it.
