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- Girlfriend Material – Melissa Kantor
More depth than I would have expected. I find myself thinking about this book somewhat regularly.
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- Front and Center – Catherine Gilbert Murdock
It’s hard for me to believe that this was from the same author who wrote Princess Ben.
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- Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians – Jarrett J. Krosoczka
So funny. I immediately bought copies for both my libraries.
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- Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute – Jarrett J Krosoczka
A quick, delightful read. These are excellent entry books into the world of Graphic Novels.
So well done. My mom read my copy and loved it, and I gave the adult version to both of Bart’s dads for Christmas.
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- Touch – Francine Prose
Can hardly remember this book at all. Never a great sign.
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- No Talking – Andrew Clements
Only my second Andrew Clements, but FAR better than Frindle in my opinion.
- No Talking – Andrew Clements
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- Mockingbird – Kathryn Erskine
It’s a bit hard for me to read these kinds of books, but this one was quite well-done and I loved the parallels to To Kill A Mockingbird.
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- Atonement – Ian McEwan
I don’t really know what to say about this one. I knew what the ending was before it got there. Also, the swearing really lessened my enjoyment of this book. - The Girl with the Silver Eyes – Willo Davis Roberts
- Atonement – Ian McEwan
I’d rather read Matilda, frankly. I think this book hasn’t aged all that well.
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- How to Steal a Dog – Barbara O’Connor
I could not believe how much the kids at my schools loved this book.
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- My Haunted House – Angie Sage
Most certainly the shortest book I read this year.
I get depressed just thinking about this book.
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- Found – Margaret Peterson Haddix
A great book, but I have zero interest in reading the sequel.
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- Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice – Phillip M. Hoose
Really a fine book.
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- Amos Fortune, Free Man – Elizabeth Yates
I had never even heard of this Newbery winner. Pretty good.
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- Miracles on Maple Hill – Virginia Sorensen
So delightful. Can’t wait to read this one to my kids.
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- Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village – Laura Amy Schlitz
I have avoided this book since all the negative responses to its winning the Newbery. But then I loved it.
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- Rabbit Hill – Robert Lawson
I felt like an old person when I read this book, since I was so on the side of the farmers, rather than the animals.
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- How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff
Started out strong, but then dragged on until I nearly lost my will to live.
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- Call it Courage – Armstrong Perry
Call it Boring.
I loved this book. Time to pick up his book about Eleanor Roosevelt.
Wish it could have been a smidge better. I donated my copy to my library, but no kids have read it yet. I want to know what they think of it.
I am so not the ideal audience for these kinds of books. Gritty is not my style.
My very favorite book of the year.
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- The First Part Last – Angela Johnson
Such a typical Printz kind of book.
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- Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices – Paul Fleischman
Fun to listen to on CD.
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- A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama – Laura Amy Schlitz
I didn’t realize until just now that this is the same author as “Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!” I am very observant.
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- So You Want to be President? – Judith St. George
Delightful and funny.
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- Babymouse: Skater Girl – Jennifer L. Holm
Liked the Lunch Lady books better.
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- Sleeping Naked is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days – Vanessa Farquharson
Interesting, but I’m not giving up my toilet paper any time soon.
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- The Matchlock Gun – Walter D. Edmonds
Bless this Newbery title for being short.
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- Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem – Jack Prelutsky
I loved this book. Jack Prelutsky is brilliant and clever.
So good. So so good.
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- Lips Touch: Three Times – Laini Taylor
I keep wondering: do teens really like this book or is it a book that adults THINK teens should like?
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- The Rules of Survival – Nancy Werlin
I keep trying to write about this book. It was so intense but brilliantly done.
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- Splendor – Anna Gobersen
This series petered off a bit for me.
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- Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith – Deborah Heligman
So interesting, but far more YA than I was expecting. For some reason, I thought it’d be middle grade level. Not so.
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- The Middle Place – Kelly Corrigan
I liked it while reading it, but have kind of forgotten about it since.
I was never so surprised as when a girl at church recognized this book and said it was one of her favorites. How had I never even heard of it?
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- Soulless – Gail Carriger
What an odd combination of Victorian England and vampires.
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- Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? – Louise Rennison
I laughed myself silly reading this one. Oh, Georgia, how I love you.
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- Shug – Jenny Han
Good, but it’s no “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
Delightful! I loved this book, as you well know.
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- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Steig Larsson
A very fast, gripping read, but I had to skip a few too many pages for me to feel comfortable recommending.
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- Daddy-Long-Legs – Jean Webster
Sweet, but so obviously old. Also, so obvious what the ending was.
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- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life – Barbara Kingsolver
Fascinating, but I still bought strawberries this week.
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- Sunshine – Robin McKinley
I don’t know what it was, but this book did nothing for me. I checked it out three times and renewed it twice more before I finished it.
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- Kit’s Wilderness – David Almond
Printz committee, I just do not understand you at all.
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- Silent to the Bone – E. L. Konigsburg
What an odd book. E. L. Konigsburg, you kind of perplex me.
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- The Year of Secret Assignments – Jacyln Moriarty
Frankly, pretty forgettable.
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- Lovestruck Summer – Melissa C. Walker
Austin, how I miss you.
Quite delightful. A fast, weekend read.
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- Absolutely Normal Chaos – Sharon Creech
Skip this, go straight to Walk Two Moons.
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- M.C. Higgins the Great – Virginia Hamilton
I realized I do not like books set over a period of just a day or two. Also, nothing happens in this book. Be warned.
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- Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking rat – Lynne Jonell
So terrific. I loved this book.
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- Calamity Jack – Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale
Good, but not as good as Rapunzel’s Revenge.
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- The White Darkness – Geraldine McCaughrean
Another Printz pick that had me completely stymied. Where do they FIND these things?
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- Sisters in Sanity – Gayle Forman
If I Stay was far superior. I wonder why she switched publishers.
And that’s 2009.
Thank you for the list. 🙂
PS: Google Reader must be working again!
199-wow.
50 more–double wow.
That's why you own a blog called EVERYDAY reading…
Why the randomness of a list of 61?
(curious)
I had always wondered this, but now I am convinced the following statement is absolutely true: we don't read the same books. I have only heard of (checking again to be sure) six of the books on your list, and only read three of them.
And now I have carefully noted the ones that you liked the best and will be investigating further to see if I should add them to my List…so thank you for that. :o)
xox
You read M.C. Higgins! Oh gosh, I cannot even begin to recreate the discussions we had after reading it for class. Everyone hated it, and to top it off, we were studying Freudian lit theory… enter a million and a half inappropriate jokes. It was ridiculous.
I thought it was a very strange book, but I could see how it would stand ahead of the pack when it was written in the 70s. Lots of interesting stuff going on in there. Entertaining stuff? Maybe not.
I used to LOVE reading a Joyful Noise with a friend when I was young. I should check that out again.