I quickly finished a book that I wasn’t really feeling via audiobook early last night. But I didn’t want to end January with a book I wasn’t a fan of. I realized I had borrowed several last-minute titles via Hoopla before the end of the month a few days ago including a picture book award for Sydney Taylor at the Youth Media Awards called Two New Years by Richard Ho and illustrated by Lynn Scurfield. And boy, that was a good choice to end January with. The book’s content was quietly celebratory and the illustrations perfectly complimentary to the text. What I loved most is the meditative shor ..read more

Monday was the Youth Media Awards presentation in Baltimore, Maryland at the American Library Association’s LibLearnX (midwinter) conference. It is the yearly celebration of literature for children and teens. Committees work for a year or more to choose award winners in categories from the Sibert to Giesel to Odyssey to Alex. Don’t know what each of them is about? You can learn more on the website including watching the award ceremony or reading the press release for all of the honorees and winners. I had the honor of being on the Alex Award through YALSA this year which meant we were reading ..read more

I love the week between Christmas and New Year not only because I have it off since I work in education, but because I get to read because it’s vacation. Plenty of audiobook listening when cleaning and organizing plus plenty of tea sipping print book time. So when I saw a blogger @epiblogue’s Instagram post: I felt seen. It’s a fun series of ladies lounging and reading their books. This one was my favorite and yes, this is exactly what “that week between Christmas & NYE” looks like for me minus the extra thick frock and fan, however I do have a chaise and a book. Endless books. This week ..read more

As promised, there were just too many amazing books for teens this year to have *just one* top ten list. Today I continue to highlight different categories and formats with my end-of-year listicles and today is graphic novels. For several of these, I continue to be obsessed with the series such as Something is Killing the Children, Sheets, Fangirl, and Frights from Feral while there were standalones that stuck out for their coverage of emotional stories, humor, or thoughtfulness in addressing adversity ..read more

… and today is middle grade, which was probably the hardest top ten to make. As with all of my top ten lists of the year, these are all books published this past year that were read and enjoyed. The overwhelming statement of these middle grade were *chef’s kiss* one liners, paragraphs, and pages that readers can go back to revisit whether it’s a snarky gecko sidekick like in The Spirit Glass or Maldonado’s emotionally charged reading of Hands. Words have power ..read more

The day before Thanksgiving I turned the page to chapter 40 (a bookish pun I couldn’t resist). Coming up on the day, I thought about the fun little things I could do to make it special because I was excited about moving to another age bracket. So I came up with a list of 40 books that I would reread this year– generally books I own because books I own are books that I had previously read and knew I needed to own. But I admit that I rarely reread books. It’s either a committee assignment that forces a book reread, an upcoming author visit, or in the case of Saga, a comfort read during the ..read more

I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t have visions, but I do have my friend and co-presenter Stacey, dozens of books read, and lists to forecast for the upcoming Youth Media Awards. Last night I spent several hours with librarians, reading teachers, and other specialists talking about the Youth Media Awards and putting together predictions. It included a Kahoot to open, a break for dinner, then a K-12 discussion of books to put on our radars or preliminary thoughts of titles that have been read from the group. It was a good, bookish night that even after a day of work is uplifting and enric ..read more

Pulled from books read this month with one that hasn’t come out yet, how I think about the books in the context of Monday through Sunday. Monday: Putting your best foot forward for the work week ahead on a Monday. Ann Lowe wanted to put her best foot forward the best dresses created by her hands every day. Only The Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe is a perfect Monday read to inspire you to tackle the week. Tuesday: Well, did Monday run you or did you run Monday? It happens that the day doesn’t go well but instead of stewing in it for days on end, recognize it, put a rh ..read more

Last week I posted about Of sleepless nights and grey hairs about our upcoming author visit. That even though we’ve been doing them for a decade, it’s still stressful each time. However, like childbirth, you forget the pain and realize that you’d be willing to do it all again. I was certainly frustrated in the days beforehand because our school is currently experiencing a spate of pulled fire alarms, the business office surprised me with additional paperwork that put the visit in jeopardy, and while advertisements were everywhere, students were still surprised when I talked to them about the ..read more

One for the money, two for the show, three to make ready and four to go. I was thinking about this children’s rhyme when I was contemplating what type of reading goals I could set for myself for 2023. As a practice, I don’t make goals because there’s usually a committee, reviews, and general work around reading (even though it’s never really work) that I’ll always be reading anyway. And I read widely already. So I thought I would highlight each month a children’s book, a middle grade, a YA, and an adult that I read. Here’s January’s books via rhyme– One for the money: An Immense World by Ed Y ..read more