The Boothbay Region Elementary School Library and Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library have teamed up to make books on the Maine State Book Award 2018-2019 title list available to area kids over summer break.

“We’re thrilled to begin this collaboration with the BRES library, not only to cost-effectively have these books available to students throughout the summer, but to reinforce the network of community support the students have.  We see this as an opportunity to make sure the students know the public library is here for them, too,” said BHML Executive Director Joanna Breen.

The MSBA is administered by the Maine Library Association, Maine Association of School Libraries, and Maine Literary Council. The three groups compile two lists of juvenile fiction published nationally in 2017—one list for fourth through sixth grade readers, and another for sixth through eighth graders.  These two lists combined make up the MSBA 2018-2019 title list.

Maine students in grades four through eight who have read at least three books from the list can vote for the winner, which is announced every year at the Maine Library Association’s annual conference.

“My personal intent is to collaborate with the public library for everyone's benefit. This loaner program is hopefully the first of many more to come,” said BRHS librarian Kerrin Erhard.

The books on this year’s title list, including “The Trail” by Meika Hashimoto, “Restart” by Gordon Korman, and “Sled Dog School” by Terry Lynn Johnson, will be available at BHML from June 15 to August 15.

“We’re so happy that these books will be in kids’ hands and not on our shelves all summer,” said Haili Hardwick, BRES librarian.

BRES will also loan their copies of Lynn Plourde’s 2017 MSBA winner Maxi’s Secrets to the public library.

“With the BRES addition, we’ll have three copies of Plourde’s book on hand for the summer, which is especially exciting because she’ll be at Books in Boothbay again this year,” said BHML Children’s Librarian Harolyn Hylton.

The Books in Boothbay Book Fair will be held this year on July 14, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Boothbay Railway Village. There, authors from all over Maine will be on hand with their books for sale, autographing copies and getting to know their fans.