The Book Tasting Colorado Book Awards Resource Kits (two copies) provide a program-in-a-box featuring award-winning books from Colorado authors for youth and adult audiences in a variety of genres. The first of these kits celebrates the winners of the 2024 Colorado Book Awards.

Books, a folder, a plastic tote, plastic displays and documentation

These kits are prepared in partnership with Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book. Each year they organize the Colorado Book Awards and honor titles of excellence published in the previous year. Volunteer selectors and judges read through hundreds of titles submitted to Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book. From those winners, two books are further chosen to represent the state among the finalists for the National Book Festival’s Great Reads from Great Places award.

Each Book Tasting the Colorado Book Awards Resource Kit includes:

All essential materials for running a book-tasting program at your library;
A single copy of each of the Colorado Book Award winning titles for the stated year;
Information about Author Talks from Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book for low-to-no-cost author visits and talks from the featured authors;
Contact information for partners and authors

Our goals

To ensure equity among our libraries in our ability to provide communities with enriching and dynamic literary programming
To promote Colorado-based authors, writing about themes, settings, and ideas relevant to local communities and the readers therein
To connect libraries to authors and authors to libraries for programming, learning, and community connection opportunities

Inside the binder

Acrylic stands with book cover photo and description for each winning title
One each of the 2024 Colorado Book Award winning titles
Master copies that may be used for making event handouts and other consumables for a book tasting event at your library
Description of a book tasting event
“Check out” cards for participants to identify titles they’d want to “check out”
Information about Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book’s author talks and other programs, including contact information for libraries

Full Kit Contents

Resource Kit binder including master copies that can be used for making local copies (please keep master copies in folder)
- Book Tasting Instructions/ Ideas
- Books to Check Out cards (single sheet, two cards)
- Colorado Center for the Book Book Tasting Evaluation sheet
- Book Pages
  - Book page: Reading Colorado: A Literary Road Guide (Peter Anderson)
  - Book page: How You Walk Alone in the Dark (Erin Block)
  - Book page: Uranians (Theodore McCombs)
  - Book page: Losing Music: A Memoir (John Cotter)
  - Book page: So Much Stuff (Chip Colwell)
  - Book page: Women of the Colorado Gold Rush Era (J.V.L. Bell & Jan Gunia)
  - Book page: To Die Beautiful (Buzzy Jackson)
  - Book page: The Applicant (Nazli Koca)
  - Book page: Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other (Bethany Turner)
  - Book page: Blood Betrayal (Ausma Zehanat Khan)
  - Book page: Dark Moon Shallow Sea (David R. Slayton)
  - Book page: No Child of Mine (Nichelle Giraldes)
- 2024 Colorado Book Awards Book Tasting List
- Colorado Center for the Book Author Talks flyer
6 Acrylics with book cover and description inserts (two books per acrylic)
10 Book menus (master copies should be used for making duplicates but should be returned with the kit, the 10 printed out menus attached with binder clip can be used and disposed of by the library borrowing the kit)
Check out cards (master copies should be used for making duplicates but should be returned with the kits)
Book Tasting event guidelines/ description
1 each of the following sample Colorado Book Award 2024 Winners
- Reading Colorado: A Literary Road Guide (Peter Anderson)
- How You Walk Alone in the Dark (Erin Block)
- Uranians (Theodore McCombs)
- Losing Music: A Memoir (John Cotter)
- So Much Stuff (Chip Colwell)
- Women of the Colorado Gold Rush Era (J.V.L. Bell & Jan Gunia)
- To Die Beautiful (Buzzy Jackson)
- The Applicant (Nazli Koca)
- Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other (Bethany Turner)
- Blood Betrayal (Ausma Zehanat Khan)
- Dark Moon Shallow Sea (David R. Slayton)
- No Child of Mine (Nichelle Giraldes)
Clipboard with evaluation form to complete (we really want your feedback)