Are you a library book? Because I’m checkin’ you out.
I couldn’t help it. Cheers to love this Valentine’s Day highlighting a handful of my favorite romances in every format and for different audiences.
Category Archives: Childrens
Love: Picture book biographies
How else can you learn about amazing human beings than with the perfect blend of fact and storytelling and illustration? Picture book biographies are where it’s at. I love learning about people I didn’t know about and others that I did know. Maybe it’s a musician, a children’s book publisher, or a computer. Either way. I’m glad they exist.
Love: Quirky books
I had mentioned in my Love: YMAs post a few of my favorite award winners and honorees including John the Skeleton. It’s a quirky book– in part because it’s a translation? Maybe. But also because it’s odd to write about a “retired” science classroom skeleton going to live with a set of grandparents. It got me thinking about how much I enjoy a quirky book– on my Goodreads shelf, they’re called “offbeat”. To me, it constitutes a book that is unlike anything written in topic, style, mood, tone, plot, or characterization. What might be quirky to me, might not be quirky to you, so I’ll let you decide after I highlight five.
- Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides remains in my top five books of all time. I recently reread it and realized just how much I adore the narration of the Lisbon girls’ demise in their house from the vantage point of neighborhood boys. This is in addition to the fact that all of the girls commit suicide by the end of the story and thus lending itself to the melancholy mood that is so direct in so few pages.
- Henry Hoke’s Open Throat is another vantage point that’s wholly puzzling– a mountain lion in the hills of Hollywood. Yup. Making scathing work of judging humankind.
- David Sedaris wrote and Ian Falconer illustrated Pretty Ugly, a picture book with the goofiest and sweetest twist at the end. The style, the character, the entire premise is quirky but oh so lovely by the time you close the book.
- Ian X. Cho’s Aisle Nine made it into the top five finalists for the Morris Award this year. I’ve never read anything with as much zest and disdain for life than Jasper and the alien creature that lives in his apartment with him while he works a dead end job as a supermarket that’s a portal from hell. I couldn’t help but make a puzzled face through most of it with a little Mona Lisa smile.
- Jackie Morse Kessler’s final book in her Riders of the Apocalypse series called Breath brought a unique approach to the series in which a contemporary teen embodied a horseman as a way to understand an issue they were faced with.
- Lauren Destefano’s Wither was the first in a Chemical Garden trilogy that I got in to. The premise was a medical dystopia with intense characters in an unflattering situation that was creepy and got creepier as the trilogy moved forward.
Love: the YMAs
Blogging each day during a month has been a fun adventure to challenge me and I’ve decided February is a LOVE-ly month for another round using the theme of love. Have an idea for a post? Drop it in the comments.
This past Monday was the premier event in children and teen publishing: the Youth Media Awards. While it will undoubtedly look different next year without having a midwinter conference beforehand, it will continue to be an event to be viewed. It’s where winners of big awards that add seals to books get announced to the gasps, claps, and exuberance of all who are watching. There are years I’ve been “in the room” and years like this year that I was watching the livestream making audible noises and shaking my hands in celebration. Here were the titles that I was most excited to see come across the screen either because I devoured them (not having known about them previously in the days following the YMAs or precisely because I loved them leading up to the YMAs).
Best of 2024: Picture books
It’s that time of year! Where readers, social media influencers, publishers, libraries, and anyone related to books share their best books. I’m no different. Though my years-end lists always feature books published in that year, not what was read in that year. This year I’ve settled on four categories: picture books, middle grade, young adult, and adult. I decided not to organize by format or genre but instead on audience. Here are my favorite picture books from 2024. Favorites because of their message, their art, and the way the art and words meld.
Over this last year
On November 24, 2023, I posted Over this next year that explained a challenge I was embarking on to read forty books that had affected me since I was turning forty. Challenge complete.
Pacing myself throughout the year, I listened to some of the books and read others but I did purchase a few of the titles that I hadn’t previously owned. As I read each one, I flipped it to show my progress over the year.
Ultimately, a few of them will not remain on my shelf because that’s the thing about rereading books, it’s not always the same the second time around. But I’m glad for it because it shows I’m not the same person. Tastes and interest shift in books the same that it does with food or decorating or clothing. That’s to be celebrated and one of the reasons I wanted to undertake the reflective practice of rereading because I rarely reread and prefer to remember the feelings about the books rather than the content. What I learned:
Mood as a literary device is important to me a reader. The books that remain impactful are a direct result of the book’s atmosphere such as The Virgin Suicides, The Girl From the Other Side, and Mudbound.
Nonfiction, especially food memoir, literally takes the cake. Read: Crying in H Mart and Dessert Can Save the World. But books about food are right next to them like Chicken Every Sunday, First Bite, and Lessons in Chemistry.
The classics on my list didn’t hold their own unfortunately. Sorry Brave New World, The Catcher in the Rye, and Jane Eyre. But neither did the epic first book in the Mayfair Chronicles The Witching Hour, though I heart Anne Rice forever and always.
Strong, whip smart, sassy, or otherwise memorable characters are hard to forget. Benny from Circle of Friends, Naomi from Out of Darkness, Maddie from A Northern Light, Lena from Between Shades of Gray, Anne from Anne of Green Gables, Melinda from Speak, Carey from If You Find Me, Charlotte from The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and Hazel from Anatomy: A Love Story.
Significant relationships tug at my heartstrings which is why I carry a torch for all of the creatures in The House In the Cerulean Sea and Saga; the dystopian community in The Giver, Werther opining in The Sorrows of Young Werther, the ultimate friendship trio in The Serpent King, and the whole crux of what Turkle stands for in Reclaiming Conversation. And as long as there will be star-crossed lovers, there will be Edward and Bella from Twilight.
Innovative formatting or a unique approach to storytelling keep me thinking about a book long after I’ve finished it. Think The Lovely Bones‘ from beyond the grave, mental illness in Challenger Deep, Long Way Down‘s mystery elevator, Crank‘s verse, The Vagina Monologues‘ well, monologues, Milk and Honey‘s Instagrammable poetry and illustrations, the library in The Midnight Library, and Calvin and Hobbes‘ daily and Sunday strips.
Picture books say so much without having to say much at all. This is where pictures speak a thousand words and the author creates the write words to allow the pictures to shine which is why Farmhouse and My First Day by Quang and Lien were on my list. Both I’ve gifted several times over.
And let’s just say I ripped a page right out of The Power of Moments to create this personal challenge, which is why I’ve relished this project over this last year; celebrating book love by reading Book Love, which was a gift from a friend. I couldn’t have asked for a more fulfilling opportunity and urge others to find a moment to reflect on your own reading journey– whether it’s been a few months or years or a lifetime.
10 authors that I automatically add to my TBR
Today I saw a publisher post on Instagram highlighting Sy Montgomery’s new book What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird due out in November. Without thinking, I opened my Goodreads app and added it to my TBR. It got me thinking about those authors that automatically get added to my TBR without a second thought. They are, in no particular order:
- Ruta Sepetys
- Sy Montgomery
- Jason Reynolds
- Jeff Zentner
- Erik Larson
- Jon Krakauer
- James L. Swanson
- Mary Roach
- Caitlin Doughty
- Candace Fleming
Six sensational stories of friendship
It’s fitting to end this week of posts with books that feature a friendship. We all need friends in this world and these are some of my favorites.
- Hilo series by Judd Winick: When an alien kids come down to earth, friends rally around Hilo and welcome him into their circle.
- Laid Back Camp manga series by Afro: Camping buddies.
- Heavy Vinyl comic series by Carly Usdin illustrated by Nina Vakueva: Girl power friendship set among the backdrop of a 90s record store but they have a secret about what else they do.
- A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan: Differences become shared experiences.
- Cornbread & Poppy series by Matthew Cordell: Opposites attract.
- Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow: Friends are there when you need them the most, especially for comic relief.
My wish is that you enjoyed the collection of lists over the past month to find and use in your own classrooms, libraries, personal collections, and TBR piles. Happy summer!
Six sensational stories with witches
It might not be spooky season, but that’s okay because a book with witches is immemorial!
- A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi: I devoured every book Rinaldi wrote when I was a tween and this was one of my favorites.
- Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama: I own the entire series and the spinoff Witch Hat Kitchen because the atelier of little witch girls is the sweetest.
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare: A contemporary classic about the dangers of assumptions.
- The Witches by Roald Dahl: Whether in original format or the movie version which is unforgettable, I’m glad to have reread Dahl’s book to remember reading it as a child and being scared out of my mind!
- Garlic and the Witch by Bree Paulsen: This and its sequel featuring vegetables as characters and a mansion on the hill will delight all readers.
- The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner: If ever I’ve wanted a wardrobe, it’s hers.
Six sensational books about dads
It’s Father’s Day here in the United States, so it’s natural to highlight stories featuring dad’s prominently– the good, the bad, and anything in between.
- Brownstone by Samuel Teer and Mar Julia: A dad wanting to teach and get to know a daughter who he hasn’t raised but wants to reconnect starting over a summer while fixing up a brownstone.
- The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn by Sally J. Pla: A dad who doesn’t see his daughter’s autism as a hindrance for her personal growth.
- My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame: Single dads raising daughters and gay culture in Japan.
- Spy X Family by Tatsuya Edno: How do you be your spy self, find a wife, and adopt a girl all in the name of a work assignment?
- Peak by Roland Smith: Pushing his son to the limits of mountaineering but maybe he has different ambitions.
- Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry illustrated by Vashti Harrison: It takes all types of hair to be a dad and help a daughter with hers.
Readers Be Advised 