Winter break (during a pandemic) is a great time to catch up on some reading. Our friends at the Texas Library Association (TLA) have multiple reading lists curated for all ages across all genres of books. Click here to check them out. 

One such list is the esteemed Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List. Developed by TLA and considered one of the most prestigious children’s literature lists in the country, the TBA Master List contains 20 titles, and schools and libraries from across the state participate in the program by encouraging students to read at least five books from the list. Then, students can vote for their favorite title. The author of the winning title receives the Texas Bluebonnet Award. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 10 students from across the state announced the list during the virtual Texas Book Festival in November. 

Here is the 2021-22 master list, alphabetized by title. Happy reading! 

1. Act by Kayla Miller. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 2020).
2. The Best of Iggy by Annie Barrows, illustrated by Sam Ricks. (G. P. Putnam & Sons Books for Young Readers, an Imprint of Penguin Random House, 2019).
3. Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes. (Little Brown & Company Books for Young Readers, 2020).
4. The Canyon’s Edge by Dusti Bowling. (Little Brown & Company Books for Young Readers, 2020).
5. Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros. (Quill Tree Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2020).
6. The Elephant’s Girl by Celesta Rimington. (Crown BFYR, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, 2020).
7. Follow Those Zebras: Solving a Migration Mystery by Sandra Markle. (Millwood, an Imprint of Lerner Publications, 2020).
8. A Hatful of Dragons: and More Than 13.8 Billion Other Funny Poems by Vikram Madan (WordSong, an Imprint of Boyds Mills & Kane, 2020).
9. Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann. (Neal Porter, an imprint of Holiday House, 2020).
10.  The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter by Aaron Reynolds. (Little Brown & Company Books for Young Readers, 2020).
11.  Lexi Magill and the Teleportation Tournament by Kim Long. (Running Press Kids, an Imprint of Perseus Books, an Imprint of Hachette, 2019).
12.  The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, illustrated by Oge Mora. (Schwartz & Wade, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, 2020).
13.  Our Friend Hedgehog: The Story of Us by Lauren Castillo. (Alfred A. Knopf BFYR, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, 2020).
14.  Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker, illustrated by Junyi Wu. (Henry Holt, an Imprint of Macmillan Books, 2019).
15.  The Secret Garden of George Washington Carverby Gene Barretta, illustrated by Frank Morrison. (Katherine Tegan, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2020).
16.  Sharuko: el arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello by Monica Brown, illustrated by Elisa Chavarri. (Children’s Book Press, an Imprint of Lee & Low Books, 2020).
17.  Someplace to Call Home by Sandra Dallas. (Sleeping Bear Press, 2019).
18.  Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia. (Rick Riordan Presents, an imprint of Disney Hyperion, 2019).
19.  Ways to Make Sunshine by Reneè Watson, illustrated by Nina Mata. (Bloomsbury Children’s Book, 2020).
20.  Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen. (Scholastic Press, an Imprint of Scholastic Books, 2019).