Buckeye Book Award Reading Challenge - 1982-Present

In 2011, John Schu of Watch. Connect. Read. announced the Newbery Medal Challenge – 1922-Present.  He read every Newbery Award winning book in chronological order from 1922 to the present.  That same year, Laura Given of LibLaura5 announced the Caldecott Challenge – 1938-Present.  She read all the Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Books starting in 1938 to the present.  Around the same time, Travis Jonker of 100 Scopes, attempted to read all the Caldecott Medal books in one day!  I’ve followed these bloggers for years and love their creativity to start a challenge, gain participants, and celebrate the joy of reading award winning books.  So how about an Ohio-based reading challenge?  I’d like to announce the Buckeye Book Award Reading Challenge – 1982-Present.

The Buckeye Children and Teen Book Award was established in 1981.  Its designed to encourage Ohio students to read, promote teacher and librarian involvement in literature, and commend authors.  Every year, students all over Ohio nominate books from various categories: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, Teen.  Then in the fall, Ohio students vote on the top five nominations and in December a winner is selected for each category.  A list of past winners can be found at http://www.bcbookaward.info/past-winners/

So what is the Buckeye Book Challenge – 1982-Present? As an elementary librarian, my plan is to read all the past winners from the children’s book category in chronological order from 1982 to the present. My awesome librarian pal, Ashley Lambacher of The Book Talker has agreed to co-host the challenge with me.  She will read the 4-8/3-5 chapter book winners and I will read the K-2 picture book winners.  All along the way, we will be blogging and tweeting about our progress.  

Would you like to join us?  Like the reading challenges of the past, this is intended to be a fun, stress-free challenge.  You are invited to participate at your own pace and your own level of strictness – you may choose not to re-read titles.  Bottom line, make this challenge work for you.  Happy reading!

Click here to download a Buckeye Book Award Reading Challenge badge.