Middle grade needs it’s own category this year because I spent an inordinate amount of time reading the excellent selections of middle grade titles this year. It was a banner year for sure. Today I celebrate middle grade and tomorrow I’ll round out my four posts with the best of young adult.
When I look back at this titles as graphic novels, verse, manga, fiction, and nonfiction, I can’t help but celebrate the range, depth, and breadth of creativity and sensitivity for an age of transition. I should know since I have two thirteen year old boys myself. The message of perseverance; the power of individuality; the adventure; the need to remember the past and explore the future– it’s all here in these titles. If you’ve missed any one of these, you MUST pick it up.
There will always be the diamonds in the rough, there will also be plenty of average books when you read a lot. So it feels special when in a weekend, you get a few five-star books.
This retelling of the Medusa myth was a book I read in one sitting. Partly because the storytelling was engrossing as was the bittersweet romance between Perseus and the isolated Medusa and the unique addition of illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill. Without giving too much away, Burton turns the myth around and encourages deep thought about the cruelty of the gods but also about our pasts.
This is Ogle’s third memoir, the first Free Lunch was groundbreaking, the second was equally heartbreaking and hopeful, and this third one is groundbreaking, heartbreaking, hopeful, and gut wrenching. As tweeted minutes after finishing the book, of the thousands of books I’ve read I can still only count on one hand the number of times I’ve cried while reading. This is one of them by the time I got to the last page in which Ogle’s command of verse and his lived experiences collide to express the deep gratitude he has for his abuela.
I will continue to think about the book long after I’ve finished it. And thank you go Ogle for being as open and forthright about his experiences for this audience.
How did I miss this superhero graphic novel when it came out several years ago? Either way, I’m glad I read it and everyone needs to get themselves a copy of the swapped bodies trope. Two very different girls end up in each other’s bodies and have to learn to collaborate in order to both 1) fix the current situation, and 2) attain their goals as superheroes.
The entertainment factor is high as is the colors and character sketches. Also a book I read voraciously in one sitting.
… and by vacation I mean staycation,. I have no picture of a book sitting on my sunkissed thighs with a drink to my left. This past week was our spring break from school that’s typically associated with the Easter holiday however it also coincided with Passover and is the monthlong celebration of Ramadan. For me that did include a handful of religious and family obligations plus a visit from my mother-in-law, but she was going to be flying out by early in the week and I would be able to tackle some to-do items like cleaning and organizing certain parts of the house but also hang with my kids also on break, and of course, read.
I had amassed quite a few galleys via Edelweiss and Netgalley, plus I have an upcoming author panel I’m moderating, and then other print books on my shelf and from the library that I wanted to dive in to. I certainly got my reading time in with several gems in my favorite subcategories. Here were some highlights:
What in particular do I like about vacation reading? I think it’s the relaxed reading atmosphere, the deft movement between audiobooks and print or ebooks when I take a quick break to walk the dog in the middle of the day or decide it’s time to tackle that downstairs closet. The choice is all mine. And it feels extra special because it’s vacation time and it’s my choice and that’s what I choose to do. After all, Jung got it right– “you are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” I am a reader.
To try to keep up with reading everything you want to read is the same analogy as trying to find information on the internet which is that it’s like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant- more will keep coming at you. So the task is always to enjoy it. Yes there are times when I have to read certain things like for a committee or a book review for a magazine that has a deadline, but this year I’ve found I have a lot more flexibility and I’m enjoying myself.
The Only Good Indians I already posted about here. That was a highlight from this month that warranted its own post. And a few others for various reasons which I’ll share now, going backwards from audience since The Only Good Indians‘ target audience is adult.
Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz was a perfect Gothic tale to a YA audience. As I’ve shared in the conversations I’ve had since reading it is that while I knew that the subtitle was “a love story”, I think Schwartz could have kept it solely about Hazel’s pursuit of being a physician and it been solidly fabulous. I know why Schwartz included the romance and the ending relied, in part, on it’s existence, but Hazel’s strength of character was memorable all by itself.
I have a good friend who is a high school art teacher. As soon as I closed the book, I sent her a few texts asking if she knew much about Savage. Then I told her she needed to read Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor’s Life by Marilyn Nelson pronto and that I was just as taken with Nelson’s choice to write in verse but that there was historical context in addition to the biographical content and that I loved a quote that was included by Savage: “I have created nothing really beautiful, really lasting, but if I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work.” Immensely powerful.
And last, a picture book by Phung Nguyen Quang and illustrated by Huynh Kim Lien called My First Day. I will end up owning this book soon because the captivating artwork unlocks a reader’s imagination as much as it connects to every experience we’ve had with a “first”. Yes, the boy is on his way to his first day of school through a maze of obstacles, but perseveres. The writing matches the tone of the design and creates an all-encompassing experience. A feast for the eyes.
In honor of the Super Bowl today, here are a few pigskin picks.
Whether fiction or nonfiction, these all hit on topics associated with the game.
A verse novel that features ZJ’s dad whose brain is failing him after multiple concussions playing the sport which inalterably changes the family
DJ is a girl playing a male-dominated sport
Based on Green’s own past with the sport, this fictional story of Ben, a middle school quarterback deciding whether the cost of the game is worth it seeing his dad suffering from debilitating pain from his years playing professional football
Love, Zac always gives me goosebumps. Most of the story is Zac’s own words from the journals he kept and Forgrave’s commentary about the status of the sport of American football
Some men gave some, some men gave all and Tillman gave up a career in professional football to serve his country and paid the ultimate price
Each of these stories is worthy of a read, just maybe not during the game today. Go Rams. Go Bengals. I’m just hear for the cider and snacks.
The focal point of my reading experience is young adult since I am a high school librarian. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I am not including any nonfiction in my top ten’s for 2021 because of committee work, but it still left plenty of time to read fabulous young adult fiction. And here they are:
While Lee’s The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks is the end of her Montague Siblings series that was postponed from 2020 and an eagerly anticipated title, there are several on the list from 2021 that are becoming or could become series themselves. Gray’s Beasts of Prey has already had a sequel announced (Beasts of Ruin) and one of the first books on my TBR for 2022 is Jean’s Tokyo Dreaming, the sequel to Tokyo Ever After. Sharpe likely has no intention of a second book for The Girls I’ve Been however there was so much to Nora’s story that it could easily have a sequel. Her obstacles were no match for her will to survive, so I would love to know where she goes after the bank heist is over.
Adler’s summer romance Cool for the Summer is as hot as Playing with Fire but for different reasons. The history unpacked in both Moore’s The Perfect Place to Die (about H.H. Holmes’s killing spree) and Williams Garcia’s A Sitting in St. James as sweeping and atmospheric. While the last two not yet discussed– Take Me With You When You Go and Me (Moth) are centered around a relationship between two characters: siblings and strangers, respectively that unfurl deep-rooted connections which wreck readers by the end.
The year end review is here! Over the next three days I’ll be featuring three top tens including today’s childrens, middle grade, and adult edition, tomorrow young adult fiction edition, and Thursday’s graphic novels and manga edition. I have had to intentionally leave off young adult nonfiction since I have spent the year reading close to two hundred middle grade and young adult nonfiction titles for my work on the 2022 Excellence in Nonfiction Award and therefore cannot talk about them.
In no particular order, these ten books feature elements like lyrical prose, thought-provoking questions about life, and the necessary empathy to be a human being in this world. Whether it’s grief or loneliness, needing to find your purpose, or going on an adventure, these ten authors kept me riveted from start to finish.
Today is my sixteenth year in education. Fifteen of them have been right where I am today, as the high school librarian.
I have seen one facelift and one major update with the third around the corner– a completely new space to move in to next fall to the facility. I have had more than a dozen direct supervisors, building principals, and superintendents. With a graduating class hovering around six hundred students, I have likely interacted with close to 9,000 teenagers and hundreds of teachers. And whatever each school year brings, it always circles back to the kids. I saved this post to make on the first day of school, but it’s really a post that could have been shared on the last day of school last year. And it’s been sitting with me all summer long.
The three major subgenres of books that were most circulated last year– specifically reflecting why they were the most circulated as I often do at the end of a calendar year when making “best of” lists or the books most likely to be missing from the shelves and of course, when I’m putting new orders together for purchase.
Yes, we still checked out physical books through the curbside pickup method, the small number of students who were physically in the building, and the handfuls of drive-up to their curbside. And then there was the robust digital offerings. I booktalked until I couldn’t booktalk anymore– Google Meets, 1:1, and in-person.
What were they?
Murder
Romance
Humor
Let’s break this down: the three most asked-for books in the library came down to murder, romance, and humor. And then I say, it was 2020. And you nod your head. Of course!
True crime is prevalent in Netflix series and podcasts, books and casual conversation. It’s a thing. And it’s a thing with our teenagers too. Being home with their families rather than playing team sports and attending school every day, I’m sure there was some level of interest in the subgenre because of these massive shifts in daily business. It’s easy to go to a darker place. And books are nothing if not a reflection of inner thoughts and feelings.
We all needed some love. We missed family gatherings and meeting up with friends. And for teenagers, a whole chunk of their socialization went out the window when schools shut down. Really, all they needed was some love. So can you see how a little romance went a long way?
And humor, there is comfort in the familiar. Yes, we have Diary of a Wimpy Kid in our high school library and no I couldn’t keep them on the shelves. They wanted the escape from the seriousness of the news and the pandemic. They wanted to laugh. And who can blame them?
I will remember this past school year because it was the year I lost my co-librarian for the majority of the school year to budget cuts and had to manage alone. It was isolating because staff were scattered and hunkered in their rooms talking to computer screens. But I still saw kids each day and I will remember that all they wanted were some books and those books had to do with murder, romance, or humor. And I replied, well then I’ve got a book for you…
Yesterday’s post was a celebration of reading at least a book a day for 365 straight days. I’ll continue though the rigidity will likely wane, but not today where I was able to finish an audiobook and read two additional books. It got me thinking, how many books did I read over 365 days? That answer was 852 which meant I averaged 2.3342 books per day. What were my favorites? See below. How to you find the time? Well, I have my ways. Therefore, a summary post was in order because I like a good listicle. Here are some mini-listicles about “my year of reading a book a day”.
Locations for reading
Car (audiobooks, people!)
Wherever I have to wait– an office or a long line for example
Anywhere in the house from the kitchen table to standing by the stove waiting for my hot water to boil but also most definitely when I’m cleaning or cooking
The lunch table at work (I often post with the hashtag #literarylunchbox)
Twenty favorites (in no particular order)
Punching the Air by Zoboi
You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why it Matters by Murphy
Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation by Cooper
Witch Hat Atelier by Shirahama
Skyward by Henderson
The School of Essential Ingredients by Bauermeister
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team by Soontornvat
The Girl from the Other Side by Nagabe
My Life in Dog Years by Paulsen
The Midnight Library by Haig
That Way Madness Lies edited by Adler
Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Parker
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Baum
Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Tran
My Life in France by Child with Prud’Homme
The House in the Cerulean Sea by Klune
Fighting Words by Brubaker Bradley
Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights by Blumenthal
End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Swanson
Up All Night: 13 Stories Between Sunset and Sunrise edited by Silverman
The Beauty in Breaking by Harper
Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Holiday
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Brown
Chicken Every Sunday: My Life with Mothers Boarders by Taylor
Fangs by Andersen
But how did you do it?
Read (and by reading I mean eyes on a page or ears open) every day
Always have a stack of books in the house or in a queue online
Sometimes reading won out over straightening up the house, for sure
Encourage a household of readers (because it’s easier to read yourself when everyone else is doing it too)
Participating in events like the Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon and the #24in48 readathon
What genre or category do you favor? (but really this is like asking me to pick a favorite child)
Nonfiction
Food memoirs
Animals especially histories, discoveries, and celebrations of
Young Adult short story collections
Verse novel and graphic novel formats
Fiction
Historical
Realistic
Who were your cheerleaders? (whether they knew it or not)
Stacey Rattner, a school librarian colleague who I often co-present with at conferences with her own blog and the co-host of the pandemic-inspired Author Fan Faceoff with Steve Sheinkin
My kids, readers in their own right, who read at the table for almost every meal and so many other occasions and places too
Reading communities big and small
Was there a question that I missed? If there was, ask me in the comments.
What did you think of yesterday’s young adult fiction list? Anything you agree or disagree with? Up today is nonfiction. I read widely in this genre so it’s not organized in any particular way from children’s through adult, simply my favorite 10 published in 2020 because there’s nothing more spectacular than learning from the people, places, and things that you read about.
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team by Soontornvat
I know the outcome but I’m still in the cave with the boys and out of the cave with the rescuers every minute that Soontornvat writes this out.
Beauty Mark by Weatherford
Most younger readers won’t know Marilyn Monroe, but this verse novel biography is more about her ability to overcome immense adversity rather than about who she was as a celebrity.
The Beauty in Breaking by Harper
Tugging at every heart string you have, Harper details her life, her work in medicine, and her self care routines while fighting against racism in healthcare.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You adapted by Reynolds
One word: listen. If you haven’t listened to Reynolds read the book, you haven’t really read the book. Then do what I did and read the book too. And then make sure everyone else does too.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by Johnson
Using essays to share his life’s story was the perfect choice for this new voice in literature about his upbringing as a queer Black man.
Lifting As We Climb by Dionne
When the whole story isn’t told, Dionne decides to tell it. The story which was important as election season ramped up, she goes back in time to talk about the Black women’s fight for the right to vote.
A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Cooper
You can’t get more inspirational and heartfelt than the story being told by one of the rowers on this first all-Black high school rowing team from Chicago. Sports story with heart.
Becoming a Good Creature by Montgomery
Creating a picture book from her adult biography in thirteen animals, the artwork compliments the storytelling and makes you appreciate what animals can teach us about being human.
Wisdom of the Humble Jellyfish: And Other Self-Care Rituals from Nature by Shah
This was a sleeper hit for me and a quick audiobook I listened to during a readathon this summer. Similar to Montgomery’s book, sometimes we have to look toward non-humans to help us be better humans.
You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Coe
A female biographer’s approach to telling George Washington’s story is equally fascinating to learn it from her perspective as it was to provide the best humor to learning about a founding father with one of the punniest title for a book.
Readers Be Advised 