History of the Kentucky Bluegrass Award
The purpose of the Kentucky Bluegrass Award is to encourage the students of Kentucky in grades K through 12 to read quality children's literature. The KBA is one of approximately 45 state children's choice awards nationwide. All Kentucky public and private schools as well as public libraries are welcome to participate in the program.
The Early Years
In 1982, Northern Kentucky University faculty, Rosemary Ingham and Rebecca Kelm, began the Kentucky Bluegrass Award with a $2,000.00 grant from the Ashland Oil Company. Shortly after starting the award, they both accepted different positions, and Jennifer Smith became the coordinator of the award. She has held this position since 1983.
The late Bill Worley, art professor at Northern Kentucky University, created the KBA logo, letterhead, and certificate of award. These items continue to be distinguishing identifiers for the KBA. Through the years, these symbols of the KBA have appeared on stickers, stamps, posters, bookmarks, balloons, and a host of other materials used in publicizing the award.
The first winner (1983) of the KBA was Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg. Van Allsburg has the distinction of winning the KBA three different times.
The first author to come to Kentucky and accept the award in person was Martha Alexander. Her book, Move Over Twerp, was the second KBA winner (1984). She came all the way from Homer, Alaska. This initial author visit eventually developed into an annual conference. The conferences of 1986 and 1987 featured Erica Magnus and Sandy Asher respectively. The books of these authors were not chosen as winners of the award, but Susan Varley, author of winning book, Badger's Parting Gifts (1986) lived in England and was not able to attend. The next year (1987), The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg was chosen as the winning title.
Finally, in 1989, things fell into place. At the beginning of the award year, the KBA was divided into two divisions, K-3 and 4-8. At the conference which came to be held at NKU in either March or April of the year, both 1988 winning titles were represented by their creators. Richard Egielski, illustrator of Hey Al! (K-3) and Linda Gondosch, author of Who Needs a Bratty Brother (4-8) were both present to receive the award and participate in the conference. This was also the first year where a parallel conference was held for children. Approximately 100 children came to meet the authors of their favorite books.
Offering activities for the children at the conference each year, although a tremendous amount of work, was one of the things that made the KBA unique among the state children's choice awards.
The KBA continued to grow and become more popular among schools and libraries, particularly in the northern Kentucky area.
During 1992-1993, the KBA celebrated its tenth anniversary. This was a special occasion. Both winning authors of 1992 were able to attend the conference. Jack Prelutsky, author of the 4-8 winning title Something Big Has Been Here came from Seattle. And, George Ella Lyon, author of the K-3 winning title Basket was also present. George Ella was the first Kentucky author to win the Kentucky Bluegrass Award. It was a special time with an anniversary cake and other special details. Mother Nature celebrated the 10th anniversary with a blizzard on the day of the conference (mid-April). It was necessary to cut the day short and send everyone home early. Jack Prelutsky and his publisher, Susan Hirschman, were stuck in northern Kentucky for two extra days because the airport was closed.
The Middle Years
Prior to the tenth anniversary, rumblings had been heard from those farther south in Kentucky that their students never had opportunity to meet the authors of the winning KBA books because of the travel involved to get to the NKU campus. So, after some experimentation with extending the conference to Elizabethtown in 1990 and actually holding the conference in Louisville in 1992, the conference officially went on the road in 1994. River Ridge Elementary was the host of the first traveling conference. David Wiesner was the featured author and illustrator. His winning book was Tuesday. Tuesday had also been named the 1992 Caldecott Medal winner.
The 1995 and 1996 conferences were held at Eastern Kentucky University. The authors that came were David McPhail with his KBA winning title, Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore!, and Paul Brett Johnson. Paul was the second Kentucky author to win the KBA. He has won the award twice. His first winning book was The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down (1995). This was followed by A Perfect Pork Stew winning in 1999.
The 1997 conference returned to Louisville and featured Mark Buehner and J. Patrick Lewis. Their books, Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm (K-3) and Christmas of the Reddle Moon (4-8), respectively, were the winners of the 1996 KBA.
The Teenage Years
In October of 1997, Jennifer Smith began a leave of absence from her responsibilities at NKU, including the KBA, in order to return to school and continue work on a Ph.D. Janet Miller, education professor at NKU, agreed to assume responsibility of the KBA until Jennifer's return.
The 1997 winners were announced in April. Janet Miller and Joyce Creek, KRA Conference Chair, were able to arrange for one of the winning authors, Margi Palatini (Piggie Pie, 4-8, 1997), to speak at the Kentucky Reading Association Conference that September. Thus began the Kentucky Bluegrass Award's association with the Kentucky Reading Association. In 1998, Alan Schroeder (Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman, 4-8, 1998) was also featured at the KRA conference lunch.
In May of 1999, Jennifer returned to NKU to find that A Perfect Pork Stew by Paul Brett Johnson was the winner of the K-3 division of the KBA. Contact was made immediately with Paul and arrangements for him to speak at the KRA conference luncheon in September were made.
During the summer of 1999, Jennifer established a web site for the KBA. The most current information for the KBA can be found at the Kentucky Reading Association site.
Upon her return to NKU, Jennifer worked with KRA to define and establish a relationship with the KBA. KBA became an official project of the KRA in 1999-2000 during the tenure of KRA president, Shirley Long. KRA supports the KBA in all respects and has sanctioned the Saturday conference luncheon as the KBA luncheon and celebration. A KBA Committee has been established, and the chair of that committee is an appointed member of the KRA board. In addition to the KRA, financial support is offered annually to the KBA by the Kentucky School Media Association.
The 2000 KBA was celebrated by featuring Helen Lester, author of the K-3 winning book, Hooway for Wodney Wat at the September KRA conference.
Prior to their release of the 2000-2001 Master Lists, the KBA committee agreed that the KBA should be divided into four divisions--K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. In April 2001, the first winners of each of these divisions were announced.
After twenty years of leading the Kentucky Bluegrass Award program, Jennifer Smith has stepped down. With the beginning of the 2003-2004 KBA year, Carrie Cooper from Eastern Kentucky University is chairing the KBA program.
updated: Monday, 16-Jul-2007 17:25:18 EDT