Announcing the 2017 Abe Award nominees

The Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA) recently released the list of 20 books nominated for the 2017 Abraham Lincoln Award. The complete list, available on this LibGuide, includes titles and authors you might already know: I Am Malala byMalala Yousafzai, winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize; October Mourning by Leslea Newman, winner of the 2013 Stonewall Honor Book Award; Challenger Deep byNeal Shusterman, winner of the 2015 National Book Award. If these books are any indication, it’s going to be a great reading competition!

Join Kellie and I as we begin to promote this list of fiction and nonfiction titles and the Abe Award program, itself, which is designed to encourage high school students to read for pleasure and to become lifelong readers. Check out the Antioch catalog orLakes catalog or visit our new digital media library, Axis360, to get a head start on your reading.
Students who read four or more titles from the list get to vote for their favorite book. The 2016 winner was We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Here’s how the 2016 contestshaped up in District 117:

Antioch:

• Nine students voted for seven different books. Two of the students selected the winning title, We Were Liars.
• Five students read all 20 books to qualify for the ILC Reading Hall of Fame! Each student’s name will be on the plaque, and they will get a personalized Read Poster.
• There will be a pizza party/book talk for the nine students who read the minimum of four books required by ISLMA to vote.
• We already have ten students registered for next year’s competition!
  
  

At Lakes:

• Thirteen students voted for six different books. None of the votes was for We Were Liars! Their favorites were Between Shades of Gray, Cruel Beauty, andAristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.
• Eight students read all 20 books to qualify for the ILC Reading Hall of Fame. Each student’s name will be on the plaque, and they received a $10 Amazon gift card.
• We held a Snack and Learn on March 11 to unveil the 2017 list to students, and now, our current Top Ten List for checkouts comprises ten titles from that list. We expect even more Hall of Famers next year!
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We’re pretty pumped about the new list and can’t wait to get everyone started. Which book will we vote for? Why, you’ll just have to ask!

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