Hickory Creek students vote for favorite book through state program

Sixth through eighth grade students at Frankfort’s Hickory Creek Middle School recently voted for their favorite book through a state program, the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award. This is the eleventh year that Hickory Creek has participated. Food and prizes were available to students as they came to the Library Media Center to celebrate their favorite books. The program was supported by the Family School Partnership (FSP), Education Foundation and Student Council.

The annual award is given to the author of the book voted most outstanding by students in grades four through eight in participating Illinois schools. The program was developed to encourage children and young adults to read for personal satisfaction. The award is named in honor of author Rebecca Caudill who lived and wrote in Urbana, Illinois for 50 years. The award is given in recognition for her literary talent and the universal appeal of her books. The list of book titles and more information about the program can be found at the website www.rebeccacaudill.org.

Any school in Illinois may participate in the voting by agreeing to meet the program requirements. The students were challenged to read as many books as they could from a master list. Students could qualify as official judges by reading three or more of the 20 nominated titles. All judges had the opportunity to vote for their favorite title and help chose the 2015 Caudill book for Illinois. The winning books at Hickory creek were #1 Legend by Marie Lu, #2 The False Prince by Jennifer Nielson, and #3 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

Hickory Creek students who read all 20 nominated books included Zani Anderson, Grant Bruninga, Kayleigh Heffelmire, Olivia Parker, Kristina Williams, Brooklyn Chojnacki, Emma Groskreutz, Annabelle Kiely, Chrissy Szynalski, Logan Vucsko, Ashley White, Rebekah Stryjewski, Allie Ritz, Paige Sackman, Zoe Randolph, Steven Pimpinella, Lexie Johnson, Payton Bruns, Anmarie D’Ortenzio, Caellin Flaherty, Kira Martin, Elizabeth Myotte, Aria Puri, Veronica Szafoni, Michael Clarkin, Elizabeth Co, Aisling Hanly, Husna Hussaini, Colin Murphy, Kendall Blankenburg, Cameron Kavanaugh, Jake Leonard, Abby McCreary, Matthew Ferracuti and Sara Cooley.

This year, Hickory Creek Librarian Marybeth Raynes also served on the evaluators’ committee. Between May, 2014 and February 2015, she read 60 books nominated by fourth through eighth grade students from across the state. She then joined with all the other evaluators from the state at a meeting in Bloomington to choose the 20 titles for the 2016 list. She stated, “It was such a fun experience and I got the chance to try and persuade the other evaluators to choose the books I know our students will love. I’m pretty happy with the final list.”