2017 Bluebonnet Winners
In Texas the state flower is the Bluebonnet. Every year twenty books are awarded as "Bluebonnet books". Public schools usually do something called a Bluebonnet bowl where teams of students read the books and go to an academic competition. My son competed for the first time in 2016. In an effort to help him prepare this year, I have committed to reading all of the books and I am making up potential questions which I will post here in the hopes that other parents will find the resource and be able to study with their students. Typically the competition is structured in two rounds: the first gives a plot detail and students must name the book and author; the second is a tie-breaker round and asks more fill-in-the-blank detailed questions. That is how I have structured my potential questions.
The more books I post the more thoughts I have on how to structure. Here's what I've decided along the way:
I am printing the questions and having my student paste questions and answers onto fronts and backs of index cards to study like flash cards. Here is a link to a Word document (I hope the formatting holds) with all questions for all books in one place.
In general I'm trying to keep all questions in present tense except if it is something that happened distinctly in the past. In Circus Mirandus the book is told in two time periods so all questions will be present tense. But in Poems in the Attic a current girl is looking at her mother's past so actions of the mother are past tense.
Non-humans (such as a hamster) are always referred to characters and factual book humans are referred to as people.
I try to keep everything gender neutral
Sometimes I use [brackets] and /slashes to indicate acceptable alternatives.
Teaching your student to pay attention to details in the wording of the questions can help narrow down the answers.
A Fine Dessert - Emily Jenkins
A Handful of Stars - Cynthia Lord
Circus Mirandus - Cassie Beasley
Crenshaw - Katherine Applegate
Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible - Ursula Vernon
Hiawatha and the Peacemaker - Robbie Robertson
Lowriders in Space - Cathy Camper
Nightmares! - Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
Poems in the Attic - Nikki Grimes
Roller Girl - Victoria Jamieson
The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch - Chris Barton
The Chicken Squad - Doreen Cronin
The Terrible Two - Mac Barnett and Jory John
Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer - Kelly Jones