2025- 2026
We are accepting mentor applications until we have twelve teams. (Teams outside of the Denver/Boulder metro area are given preference.) Please fill out the mentor’s registration at the bottom of this webpage. You will receive an email about your team’s status. If you have questions, email us at: Pil2011@partnersinliteracy.org.
Here is the calendar for this year. Times are still flexible depending on all your schools’ schedules.
ARE YOU A PERSON WHO’d LIKE TO SEE 7th to 12th GRADERS COME TO FOSTER A LOVE OF READING?
Would you like to help guide them in authentic conversations about recently published young adult novels and witness their maturation as readers and critical thinkers?
Be a part of a reimagined Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award, where students will be encouraged by their mentor to be self-motivated and book teams to be self-governed. They will be encouraged to read books critically and will be able to participate in the excitement of cutting-edge books being published now.
Mentors have been school or public librarians, interested volunteers, other school professionals, or even adult friends that the judges have asked to be their mentors.
Team Mentor Roles and responsibilities
The CBSA is a very permissive framework. The goal is for student judges to read and discuss (at least) three eligible books during the space of the school year, submit a book talk on their favorite book by mid-January and attend two remote statewide meetings. Some teams meet every week, some, every other week and some once a month. If mentors are able to hand over the organization and communication of the book group to their student judges, their time commitment, in addition to reading their team’s chosen books, should be limited to accessing books and book team’s meetings. Not every team can attend the CO Teen Lit Conference in April, but those who can, will be so glad that they did.
GOALS AND TIMELINE
Recruit as soon as kids are back in school.
Use that back-to-school energy to tell the kids about your school’s book team. Don’t be afraid to connect with your library kids who you think would be good judges. What student can resist: “I think you would be a terrific judge for the Colorado Blue Spruce YA Book Award?” Encourage them to invite their friends. Book teams can be as small as two kids and as large as a whole class. The earlier you start, the more easygoing and pleasurable your time together will be. (There is more about recruiting with sample posters under the recruiting tab on this website.)
*** NEW***OPTIONAL INFORMAL EARLY REMOTE GET TOGETHERS
The feedback from last year’s mentors was that the kids wanted more informal early remote time for them to get to know kids from other schools and talk about books. The form of these meetings has not yet quite crystalized. It could be just between the kids who can carve out the time and want to talk about what they want to read with kids from other schools. Most likely these will be arranged by Partners in Literacy to meet the needs of particular teams. Imagine 20 minutes. The goal is to make community and put more knowledge about the books into the kids and mentors’ hands before they have to make decisions about what to read.
The BIG PICTURE SEPTEMBER THROUGH JANUARY: Read and talk, read and talk, read and talk. Read books (published in 2024 or 2025), choose the favorite, make a book talk to submit to Partners in Literacy by mid-January. At the first remote statewide meeting (at the end of January) your book team will get to present that book talk and listen to the other teams’ book talks. (We hope that most kids will read at least two books during this time.)
MORE DETAILS SEPTEMBER THROUGH JANUARY:
- Let your school leadership and colleagues know that you will be mentoring a CBSA book team. (Maybe they have a suggestion for a student who would be perfect for the team.) You can use the ‘Dear Colleagues’ form on this page.
- Organize your first meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to explain the arc of the CBSA year to your potential judges as well as to let them know that their book team will impact teens’ reading all over Colorado by influencing what books librarians will buy. Use the ‘Judge Registration and Expectations’ form at the bottom of this page to have kids take on comfortable leadership roles. Once they are filled out, keep these forms to refer to during the year.
- Also at your first meeting, encourage kids to bring eligible book titles that they want to read with the group. Check out the CBSA Eligible Books Padlet. If your students have eligible books that they want to read, that are not on the Padlet, just ask them to add them.
- Deciding what you want to read is the most important decision of the CBSA year. Share book reviews. Have each student commit to sampling a least one book with a goal of either recommending it or not.
- Depending on the size and cohesion of the book team, students will be able to sort themselves into one or more groups by the books that they will read.
- After a first round of books are read, students will consider which of the other books they want to commit to reading for the second round of books. Once again, they will sort themselves into one or more groups.
- Discuss the books that most kids have read. A good way to deepen conversations is to use the Discussion and Scoring Guide.
- Make a short book talk. It can be text, audio, video, or graphic. The purpose of the book talk is to give the gist of the book and highlight what makes it unique and extraordinary. (Many students and mentors report that making the book talk is their favorite part of the year. It should not be a burden.) Submit it to Partners in Literacy by mid-January. Previous books talks can be found on this website grouped by the years.
- Your students will introduce and present your book talk at the winter statewide meeting at the end of January. (If you student judges need a permission slip to get out of class for that day, one is included on this page.)
The BIG PICTURE FEBRUARY TO APRIL: Read and talk, read and talk. The second semester repeats the first semester, except the field of books is limited to the nominated books and there are no book talks made. Each team will come to the statewide meeting with a team choice. For some teams it will be the book they nominated, for others it will be another team’s nominated book. The teams will all discuss the books’ strength and weaknesses. For the final vote, students will vote individually for the winning book.
The CO TEEN LIT CONFERENCE: It happens in Denver on an early April Saturday. Any judge who can attend the conference and wants to help announce the wining book may. In 202, 2025 twenty-five student judges helped announce the award. For our gallery of photos, click on the CO Teen Lit Conference page of this website.
POST THE POSTER FOR THE WINNING BOOKS IN A PROMINENT PLACE IN YOUR CLASSROOM or LIBRARY as soon as the winners are announced. Buy the wining books. Display them next to the poster. The award is a cycle. Your library patrons want to hear what books won! The new year begins immediately. Jumpstart your students’ or patrons’ thinking about what titles will be on the CBSA Eligible Book Padlet next year.
Ready to start? Submit the Form Below!
Just fill out the Mentor Registration Form below and submit it! We will reply quickly. In our reply email, we will let you know:
- how many teams there are and where they are from.
- the link to the Google sheet where all the teams’ mentors share information about their teams throughout the year.
Our whole goal is to support you. We respond to email questions (pil2011@partnersinliteracy.org) as fast as lightening. We will also set up a time to visit or call, so that we can answer all your questions and get to know you and your student judges.
Teens inspire teens. When your team is up and reading, send us a photo that we can share on our social media.
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