Reading Wrap-Up

I popped into a branch of the San Francisco library & read this while my family patiently waited.

They had this fun art in the library in San Francisco.

We've been out in California visiting relatives so I am late to the party with my year-end wrap-up. It's fun to look at all of  the books that I got to read this year for different reading challenges, reviewing  and just because.

Overall, I read 660 books. That sounds like a lot, but many of them were picture books. 

Alyson Beecher over at Kid Lit Frenzy hosts a Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge. This year I did manage to read more non-fiction picture books. It appears that I read 86 books this year that I shelved as young non-fiction. Some of them may not have been picture books, but the vast majority were. I'm glad she has inspired me and others to read more non-fiction.

I also participated in the Latin@s in Kid Lit Reading Challenge. They encouraged us to read one book a month written by Latin@s or that featured Latin@ characters or culture.  I read 88 books for this challenge. Half-way through the year I decided to read all of the Pura Belpré award books and have been working my way through them. It's been fantastic.

Another great challenge was Diversity on the Shelf. She had various levels of participation suggested. My goal was to read 25+ books this year. It looks like I read 283, if I remembered to tag all of them properly. I didn't review every single one, but posted as many as I could to Alysia's blog. She did a wonderful job with the challenge and gave out some prizes along the way. I even won a set of books!

For The 2014 Africa Reading Challenge hosted by Kinna Reads we were meant to read at least five books set in at least two regions in Africa. I read 15 for this challenge. I noticed that it was easiest to find books set in Nigeria or that were written by Nigerian authors. Other than Americanah, I didn't seek out the books and just read what came my way. This year I want to read some of the books Kinna recommended.

This #MustReadin2014 Challenge was hosted by the lovely Carrie Gelson. This is the challenge that was less successful for me. One of the reasons was that the list that I created at the beginning of the year was huge - a whopping 110 books! That was way too structured for me since I am more of a grazer. Also, it contained all of the Printz award books. Midway through the year, I decided to switch over to the Pura Belpré award list instead. I took my eyes of the list, but I still managed to finish 58 of them. This year I plan to be more deliberate about my "must reads."

I also planned to keep plugging away at the Caldecotts. This year I only read 15 of them. I stopped around the same time I started to read the Pura Belpré books. Even so, to date, I have read 158 Caldecott honor books and winners. I think there are about 300 of them (and we'll get more later this year) so I still have a long way to go. I'm not going to worry too much about them though and will just read them as I stumble on them.

Whew! Now I'll start trying to focus on my plans for this year. Happy reading!

Reading Challenge Update

It's been awhile since I have done an update for my reading challenges so this took awhile to put together and I have a lot of great titles to share.

For the Latin@s in Kid Lit Challenge, the expectation is that participants read at least one book a month written by a Latino@ author or featuring a Latin@ character. I have read 32 so far this year (most are picture books, but 8 were novels and a few were non-fiction).  Here are some of my favorites so far:

For The 2014 Africa Reading Challenge hosted by Kinna Reads we are meant to read at least five books set in at least two regions in Africa. I started this challenge later in the year than the others. I've read four picture books and three chapter books (listed here) so have met the minimum, but I would still like to read some of her suggested books like Maps by Nuruddin Farah or The Prophet of Zongo Street. My overall favorites so far have been Long Walk to Water, Americanah, and Akata Witch.

Diversity on the Shelf is hosted by My Little Pocketbooks and encourages readers to read books written by or about people of color. By the way, this is a great way to support the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. I chose the 25+ level for 2014. The other challenges I am doing feed into this one so the numbers are way higher. I have read over 130 at this point. The list is here. And here are some of my favorites:

The #MustReadin2014 Challenge hosted by Carrie Gelson will officially post updates in July, but since I was already reporting on everything else, I figured I might as well add this too. This challenge is one to help encourage readers to finally get to some of the books on our TBR that have been waiting. I moved 110 books from my TBR to my Must Read shelf and have been plugging away at them though I haven't read as many lately as I would like. I have managed to get to 36/110 of them and I look forward to getting more finished during summer #bookaday. All of the favorites from this list were also on the Diversity on the Shelf list.

Whew! This has been a great year of reading so far. :)

Reading Olympics?

There are so many reading challenges that I want to do, but I would have to stop doing everything else to be able to complete them all. I am participating in several. In fact, I am not sure how many, but by the end of this post we will know.

I started out with the Latin@s in Kid Lit and Diversity on the Shelf Challenge. They overlap so it's almost like one right? Then I added the Africa Reading Challenge. Somewhere along the line I also added the #MustReadin2014 challenge and then added #50BooksbyPOC. With many of these five challenges, a book qualifies for more than one. Recently, I started the Geisel Challenge too. That one is the easiest simply because the books are so short and I have almost all of them in our school library so they are easy to locate, but this challenge doesn't overlap with many of the others since there isn't a lot of cultural diversity going on with that award. Part of that issue is that so many of the books have main characters that are animals so it makes a bit of sense.

Where am I keeping track of all of the challenges? Goodreads. I have a shelf for each of them. So here is the update:

Latin@s in Kid Lit 21/12
Diversity on the Shelf 84/25+
Africa 6/5
Must Read in 2014 26/110
50 Books by POC 24/50
Geisel Challenge 9/39

I should do okay as long as I don't add any more of them. Oh, I guess this is where I mention that I am still muddling through the 2012 NerdPrintz (43/71 since Jan 2012) and the 2012 NerdCott (100 to of ???) too. All of the Printz books that are left are on my Must Read shelf. I am also plugging away at the Caldecotts whenever the opportunity arises since I never finished it either. It's a crazy crazy reading year, but I am loving it. After all of this updating, it appears that I am actively participating in six challenges and am still chipping away at two old ones for a grand total of 8. Ooops. Wish me luck.

Reading Challenge Update

I am participating in several reading challenges this year. The one hosted by Latin@s in Kid Lit fits nicely with Diversity on the Shelf. They both help to keep me on track to tackle my "Must Reads for 2014" too. In addition, I am also slowly plugging away at the Printz and Caldecott winners.

Here's what I have read so far:

Latin@s in Kid Lit

I reviewed all of them on Goodreads. I am looking forward to continuing this challenge. There are some great books out there and it is cool that Latin@s in Kidlit rounded up all of the books we read in January so we can see more titles to choose from and they recommended several that work for this challenge and Black History month too. 

Diversity on the Shelf (including the ones above) 

I reviewed these on Goodreads too except for Shadow Hero since it won't be released until July. The Diversity on the Shelf link up for January is here. I did not link all of mine since that would be craaaazy and I don't know if she meant to deal with picture books either. Kindred, Shadow Hero, Inheritance, Little You, and Maria had a Little Llama were my top five.

Must Reads

I have 110 books on my "Must Read" shelf and so far I have gotten to 18 of them. Some of them were for the challenges above.

Printz Award

I wasn't a big fan of either of these, but they both had serious subject matter. Do happy books ever get the Printz? 

Caldecott

These books were captivating. I have read Owl Moon many, many times and it always takes my breath away. Golem was very cool and totally reminded me of Frankenstein, but I think that this book was based on a story that pre-dates Shelley.

Overall, I am clicking along and am having a great time diving into these books. I can already see a change in my reading habits and it's a good one. You are welcome and in fact encouraged to join in any of these challenges at any time. 

First Book of the Year 2014

Sheila from Book Journey has created a meme that allows us to share what we will be reading first this year. I found out about it after finishing my first book of the year, but wanted to participate anyway. I am involved in two different reading challenges that involved reading diverse literature (books written by or about people of color) so I wanted to read one that had been reviewed by Jessica over on Rich in Color - Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia by Jenny Torres Sanchez. It fits both challenges, Latin@s in Kid Lit and the 2014 Diversity on the Shelf Challenge.

Cover image via Goodreads

Summary from Goodreads: 

Frenchie Garcia can’t come to grips with the death of Andy Cooper. Her friends didn’t know she had a crush him. And they don’t know she was the last person with him before he committed suicide. But Frenchie’s biggest concern is how she blindly helped him die that night. Frenchie’s already insane obsession with death and Emily Dickinson won’t help her understand the role she played during Andy’s “one night of adventure.” But when she meets Colin, she may have found the perfect opportunity to recreate that night. While exploring the emotional depth of loss and transition to adulthood, Sanchez’s sharp humor and clever observations bring forth a richly developed voice.

My thoughts: I was inclined to enjoy this book because Emily Dickinson has been one of my favorite poets for as long as I can remember. Frenchie really clinched it though. I was drawn into her emotional struggles. She has a snappy humor, but she is stuck in a dark place that she is struggling to escape even as she wants to just give up the fight. In spite of the dark subject matter, Sanchez provides enough humor to keep the reader periodically smiling and laughing. There is a lot in this book that inspires deep thinking. It is one that I will be recommending and will likely re-read.