I am immensely honored that Step Right Up: How Doc and Jim Key Taught the World About Kindness has been named to the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list for 2018-19. Many hundreds (500-700?) of books are considered before the twenty finalists are chosen for this list. What a thrill!

Thank you, Texas librarians!

Thank you, Texas Library Association!

Thank you, TX Bluebonnet Award Selection Committee!

Thank you, thank you—a bazillion times, thank you!

And, to the nineteen other finalists on the list, congratulations times a bazillion, too!

Here’s the full list of nominees:

• Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan (Salaam Reads, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Bravo! Poems About Amazing Hispanics by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Rafael López (Godwin Books/Henry Holt, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
• The Bicycle Spy by Yona Zeldis McDonough (Scholastic Press)
• Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and June Jo Lee, illustrated by Man One (Readers to Eaters)
• Garvey’s Choice by Nikki Grimes (Wordsong, an imprint of Highlights Press)
• Grand Canyon by Jason Chin (Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
• Grandpa’s Hal-La-Loo-Ya Hambone by Joe Hayes, illustrated by Antonio Castro L.  (Cinco Puntos Press)
• The Harlem Charade by Natasha Tarpley (Scholastic Press)
• Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly, illustrated by Isabel Roxas (Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
• How to Avoid Extinction by Paul Acampora (Scholastic Press)
• Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing by Kay A. Haring, illustrated by Robert Neubecker (Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
• Me and Marvin Gardens by Amy Sarig King (Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Press)
• Refugee by Alan Gratz (Scholastic Press)
• Sergeant Reckless: The True Story of the Little Horse Who Became a Hero by Patricia McCormick, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno (Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
• Slider by Pete Hautman (Candlewick Press)
• Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
• Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres (Little, Brown and Company)
• Step Right Up: How Doc and Jim Key Taught the World About Kindness by Donna Bowman, illustrated by Daniel Minter (Lee and Low Books)
• The Unlucky Lottery Winners of Classroom 13 by Honest Lee and Matthew J. Gilbert, illustrated by Joelle Dreidemy (Little, Brown and Company)
• Wedgie & Gizmo by Suzanne Selfors, illustrated by Barbara Fisinger (Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)