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The 2022 Texas Bluebonnet Award Winner is…

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Thousands of elementary students across Texas voted and the results are in! The winner of the 2022 Texas Bluebonnet Award is The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read, written by Rita Lorraine Hubbard and illustrated by Oge Mora.

The Oldest Student shares the true story of Mary Walker and her remarkable life.

In 1848, Mary Walker was born into slavery. At age 15, she was freed, and by age 20, she was married and had her first child. By age 68, she had worked numerous jobs, including cooking, cleaning, babysitting, and selling sandwiches to raise money for her church. At 114, she was the last remaining member of her family, having survived her husband and sons. And at 116, she learned to read and then became one of her city’s most beloved citizens.

Hubbard and Mora bring Walker’s story to life with evocative prose and beautiful illustrations.

The Texas Bluebonnet Award is one of the oldest and most prestigious children’s choice literary awards in the country.

A total of 63,331 students, all in third through sixth grade, voted. Each student had to read at least five books from the 2021-2022 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List in order to vote. More than 1,300 schools, public libraries and homeschool groups registered to participate in this year’s contest.

Students representing 10 Texas school districts will present the award to Hubbard at the Texas Bluebonnet Award Luncheon on Wednesday, April 27, at 11:45 AM, during the TLA 2022 Annual Conference in Fort Worth. For more information about the Texas Library Association, go to www.txla.org.

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