A Game of NoctisDeva FaganTwelve-year-old Pia Paro lives in Dantessa, an island city-state where game skills determine access to resources. Although its rules claim to make society fair, wealthy players can buy advantages, while people whose skills fall to zero become laboring pawns. Pia’s grandfather becomes a pawn as failing eyesight affects his play. To earn enough to restore his status, Pia joins Vittoria’s unlikely team for the annual Noctis competition and begins questioning the system she once accepted.All readersLexile Text Measure 750LATOS Book Level 4.8View book detailsTexas Bluebonnet Award Master List 2025-2026
The 2025 through 2026 edition contains 20 selections published by the Texas Library Association. It records one Texas Bluebonnet cycle, beginning with the committee's Master List and leading to the student vote. Students in Grades 3 through 6 read from the 20-book list and vote for a favorite.
2025-2026 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master ListSee the original list
Selections20
Published byTexas Library Association
SectionsAll readers
All readers
20 selections
A Game of NoctisDeva FaganTwelve-year-old Pia Paro lives in Dantessa, an island city-state where game skills determine access to resources. Although its rules claim to make society fair, wealthy players can buy advantages, while people whose skills fall to zero become laboring pawns. Pia’s grandfather becomes a pawn as failing eyesight affects his play. To earn enough to restore his status, Pia joins Vittoria’s unlikely team for the annual Noctis competition and begins questioning the system she once accepted.All readersLexile Text Measure 750LATOS Book Level 4.8View book details
A Plate of HopeErin Frankel, illustrated by Paola EscobarA picture-book biography of chef José Andrés follows his early love of cooking in Spain. As a boy, he gathered wood for a fire to cook paella and delighted in olive oil, chopped vegetables, and saffron. The book also focuses on Andrés and his World Central Kitchen organization, connecting his cooking story with helping in communities.All readersView book details
DogtownKatherine Applegate, Gennifer Choldenko, illustrated by Wallace WestDogtown is a shelter for stray dogs, dogs with behavior problems, and abandoned robot dogs. Chance, a real dog, was left there after her owners used dog-sitters who departed. Metal Head is a robot dog longing for a real home, while Mouse lives freely in the shelter and protects the dogs he loves. Chance and Metal Head set off together to seek permanent homes.All readersLexile Text Measure 630LATOS Book Level 4.3View book details
Doña Quixote: Rise of the KnightRey Terciero, illustrated by Monica M. MagañaIn a Texas town, residents see a strange older man who wears knightly clothing and says he protects the world from monsters visible only to him. Years later, Lucia and her best friend Sandro, described as her dependable squire, make a startling discovery: the town mayor is secretly a beast able to change shape. The story brings together a town’s skepticism about the old man’s claims with Lucia and Sandro’s encounter with a threat that appears to confirm a world of hidden monsters.All readersView book details
Ernö Rubik and His Magic CubeKerry AradhyaThis picture-book biography follows Ernő Rubik from his curious childhood in mid-twentieth-century Budapest through studying art and architecture and becoming a teacher. While building models to help students understand three-dimensional objects, he set out to make a large cube of smaller cubes that could move while remaining connected. The account traces the trial, error, breaks, and observations behind the puzzle later known as the Rubik’s Cube.All readersView book details
Haiku, Ew! Celebrating the Disgusting Side of NatureLynn Brunelle, illustrated by Julia PattonThis collection contains fourteen haiku about the less tidy parts of nature. Its poems turn to subjects such as whale gas, how lobsters urinate, the source of honey, and flamingos that cool themselves by defecating on their legs. Rather than focusing on flowers or sunsets, the book presents bodily functions and animal behavior as its subject matter. Each poem approaches the natural world through details that are intentionally gross or surprising.All readersView book details
Hannah Sharpe, Cartoon DetectiveJanet Tashjian, illustrated by Jake TashjianHannah Sharpe is a curious young detective on the autism spectrum who uses cartoons featuring her cowboy alter ego, Dusty Pickle, to work through mysteries. Her strong memory and close attention help her notice details others might miss. When Doug Williams becomes a guest at her family’s Airbnb, Hannah suspects that he is concealing something and begins investigating the secrets around her.All readersLexile Text Measure 811LATOS Book Level 5.2View book details
Invisible IsabelSally J. PlaShy Isabel struggles to make herself heard both at home and at school. Her anxiety appears as painful “worry-moths” in her stomach, amid the noise and fears around her. The story follows Isabel’s need to find her voice so that she can be seen and heard. Expressive black-and-white drawings accompany her experience of worry, quietness, and the effort to speak up in the places where she feels overlooked.All readersLexile Text Measure 650LATOS Book Level 4.2View book details
It Came from the TreesAlly RussellJenna’s family history is tied to Sturbridge Reservation: her Pap was its first Black park ranger, and Jenna knows the Owlet Survival Handbook closely. When a creature takes her best friend Reese and other attacks appear connected, she is not believed by her parents and finds the police pursuing different leads. Determined to save Reese, Jenna joins a local scout troop and returns to the woods.All readersLexile Text Measure 870LATOS Book Level 5.6View book details
Legendarios: Wrath of the Rain GodKarla Arenas Valenti, illustrated by Vanessa MoralesTwins are trying to adjust after moving to a new city when a magical book carries them into the past. Their journey begins the Legendarios chapter-book series and turns the difficulties of a major move into a time-traveling adventure. The book’s central situation combines the twins’ shared experience of settling somewhere unfamiliar with an unexpected passage through time. As the magical book pulls them away from their present-day lives, the story joins family change, fantasy, and an adventure beyond their new city.All readersView book details
Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All, Chanel MillerTen-year-old Magnolia Wu calls herself a sock detective at her parents’ New York City laundromat. She wants to reunite every lone sock left there with the customer it belongs to. Magnolia pins the misplaced socks to a bulletin board so customers can find them again. Her efforts turn the laundromat’s unclaimed socks into the objects of an ongoing search for their owners.All readersView book details
NimbusJan Eldredge, illustrated by Devin Elle KurtzAfter she protects her boy from a nightmare demon, Nimbus, a black kitten, is left far from home. She discovers magical powers and meets new friends as she tries to find Fletcher, her owner, before the creature returns. The story follows Nimbus’s magical quest to reunite with him before its return.All readersATOS Book Level 5.4AR Interest Level MGView book details
Pedro’s Yo-Yos: How a Filipino Immigrant Came to America and Changed the World of ToysRob PeñasPedro Flores is a businessman whose biography tells the backstory of the yo-yo. A Filipino immigrant who had struggled, Pedro reimagined the yo-yos he loved as a child and helped popularize them in the United States. The story traces how a toy that can spin, roll, leap, and twirl became part of Pedro’s work, with an author’s note on Philippine history.All readersView book details
Scare School Diaries: Welcome to Scare SchoolJarrett Lerner, illustrated by Jarrett LernerBash is a young ghost who does not feel skilled at typical ghost activities. He heads to Scare School, an institution devoted to teaching elementary-level scaring, and tries to fit in among other ghouls. The story follows Bash as he enters this supernatural school environment and faces the difference between what other ghosts expect and what he feels able to do.All readersView book details
Stuntboy, In-Between TimeJason Reynolds, illustrated by Raúl the ThirdPortico Reeves sees himself as an unrecognized superhero whose job is to keep people safe. He is distressed that he could not prevent his parents’ divorce and that they now live on separate floors of the same apartment building. Portico calls the divorce “Xs” and avoids discussing it, while the changes in his family leave him with what he calls the frets.All readersView book details
Tales from Cabin 23: The Boo Hag FlexJustina IrelandAt Camp Apple Hill Farm, a secluded cabin is rumored to be concealed far into the woods. Only a small number of campers have located it. Campers who reach the cabin speak of an unidentified woman associated with the place. She recounts frightening tales involving horrors beyond ordinary imagination. Rumors of the woman, her stories, and the hard-to-find cabin pass among the camp’s visitors.All readersView book details
The Girl Who Figured It OutMinda Dentler, illustrated by Stephanie DehenninThis true story follows Minda Dentler, a wheelchair athlete who became the first woman competing by wheelchair to finish the Ironman World Championship triathlon. She completed the event using her arms, including its 2.4-mile swim. The book centers on Dentler’s achievement in a demanding triathlon and presents her path as an athlete who made history in the event.All readersView book details
The Liars SocietyAlyson GerberWeatherby receives a scholarship to the prestigious Boston School, hoping to enter the world of the father she has never met and to make genuine friends. She also carries a secret that could upend her new life. Elsewhere at the school, two students must investigate a theft in order to gain entry to a hidden society, where family secrets and an island mystery raise the stakes.All readersWord Count 47422View book details
The Lumbering Giants of Windy PinesMo NetzAfter her father’s death, eleven-year-old Jerry Blum and her mother move from town to town, staying in rundown motels where her mother finds housekeeping work. Jerry uses a wheelchair and arrives at a creepy motel near the woods. When her mother vanishes, Jerry must enter the forest, confront its demons, and uncover what lies behind the motel’s unsettling secrets to protect her family.All readersView book details
VolcanoesNell Cross BeckermanVolcanoes examines one of Earth’s explosive natural phenomena. Its illustrations and poetic language depict five kinds of eruptions. The book also conveys volcanoes’ power and mystery, presenting their activity as a subject for scientific exploration. The volume comes from the creators of Caves and focuses specifically on volcanoes rather than a broad survey of Earth science. Its material includes eruption types as well as the larger force of these landforms.All readersView book details