FINISHED: 
Auxier, Jonathan. (2018). Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster. New York: Amulet/Abrams.

[.]

STARTED:
Kinney, Jeff. (2018). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown. New York: Amulet/Abrams.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Jackson, Tiffany D. (2018). Monday's Not Coming. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Gemeinhart, Dan. (2018). Good Dog. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Cuevas, Michelle. (2017). The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole. New York: Dial/Penguin Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:

Bell, Eric. (2017). Alan Cole is Not a Coward. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Bartók, Mira. (2017). The Wonderling. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
O'Reilly, Jane. (2017). The Notations of Cooper Cameron. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda/Lerner.

[Cooper Cameron (no indication of race is conveyed) just finished 5^th grade, and is spending the summer with his mother and older sister at a house on the lake where his grandfather died 2 years earlier – an incident for which Cooper feels responsible, and which seems to have triggered in him some obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) ticks.  With a verbally abusive father out of the way for most of the summer, Cooper, who frequently jots down life lessons in a notebook, learns how to make ice cream for an elderly neighbor and is hired by a nice kid in town to tie fishing lures, which help to keep “That Boy” – his name for the OCD side of himself who causes him to do things in groups of three – at bay.  The awful behavior of his father and the things that he says about Cooper are palpably biting, and there’s a poignancy to Cooper’s continually trying to ward off “That Boy” when he begins to feel his OCD being triggered by a stressful situation.  Though a subplot involving a series of thefts in town feels hyped and then unsatisfyingly resolved, and there seem to be lapses in time throughout the novel, Cooper’s realization that not everything is his fault and sometimes there is nothing he can do to help is a powerfully learned message.]

STARTED:
Lee, Mackenzi. (2017). The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. (2015). The War That Saved My Life. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

STARTED:
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. (2017). The War I Finally Won. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Goldberg, Susan. (2017). Gender Revolution [Special Issue]. Journal of the National Geographic Society, 231(1).

[.]

STARTED:
Westerfeld, Scott. (2017). Horizon [Horizon Book 1]. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Gemeinhart, Dan. (2017). Scar Island. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Aciman, André. (2007). Call Me By Your Name. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Alexander, Michelle. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.

[To be fair, I only read the Introduction and one of the chapters... because that is what we were asked to do as part of a book discussion group that I'm now a part of!  When I have time to engage in something that I don't need to review, I'll likely give it full read because it seems like required reading.]

STARTED:
Gidwitz, Adam. (2016). The Inquisitor's Tale. New York: Dutton/Penguin/Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Springstubb, Tricia. (2016). Every Single Second. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Connor, Leslie. (2016). All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. (2015). The War That Saved My Life. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[As with ECHO below, I love that I now have a chance to list this one on the blog.  Obviously, by virtue of the fact that it was (SO DESERVING OF) one of our Newbery Honors, it is a book that I have read A NUMBER of times.  AND, I know that I will read it a BUNCH more times over the years.  TRULY TRULY one of my favorites last year... and definitely one of my favorites of all time.]

STARTED:
Jamieson, Victoria. (2015). Roller Girl. New York: Penguin.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
DiCamillo, Kate. (2016).  Raymie Nightingale.  Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Raymie is determined to learn to twirl a baton - she NEEDS to so that she can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition.  If she does then she is certain that her father will see her picture in the paper and come home (he ran off with a dental hygienist...).  Nothing goes as planned, however, as the baton classes don't happen, her reading aloud to the elderly creeps her out (plus, she loses the book under one of their beds), and she becomes friends with cynical Beverly and Louisiana, who's determined to get back the cat she had to give away (though he was almost certainly put down...) because she couldn't afford to keep him anymore. 

REALLY liked this one.  Kind of quiet and mindful, spare and lovely.  Louisiana was a FANTASTIC character - her unbending enthusiasm and perseverance were hilarious and moving.  SURELY this year's Newbery Award committee will be looking at this one very closely.]

STARTED:
de la Peña, Matt. (2008). Mexican Whiteboy. New York: Delacorte.

[Realized that aside from his other picture book (other than LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET, natch), I haven't read anything else by him...]

*

FINISHED: 
Castleman, Virginia. (2016). Sara Lost and Found. New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster.



[REALLY didn't live up to my expectations.  Name-checks Dicey's Song, so maybe I'll read that one to cleanse the palate...]



STARTED:
Alexander, Kwame. (2016). Booked. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.



[Whoo hoo!  New one from last year's Newbery Award winner!]



*

FINISHED:
Kelly, Erin Entrada. (2016).  The Land of Forgotten Girls. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Sepahban, Lois. (2016). Paper Wishes. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Bechdel, Alison. (2006). Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[By the way, the link above is to a Rolling Stone article about the musical... which we saw in New York right after ALA Boston.]

STARTED:
Sepahban, Lois. (2016). Paper Wishes. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

[Back to reviewing for ACL!]

*

FINISHED:
Aronson, Marc, and Marina Budhos. (2010). Sugar changed the world: A story of magic, spice, slavery, freedom, and science. Boston, MA: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin.


[.]


STARTED:
Wood, Maryrose. (2013). The interrupted tale (The incorrigible children of Ashton Place #4). New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.


[LOVE this series.]

*

FINISHED:
Jones, Rob Lloyd. (2013). Wild Boy. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Now a sideshow freak in London in 1841, Wild Boy, so named because he is covered in hair from head to toe, finds himself on the run when he is wrongly accused of the murder of a professor who was working on a mysterious machine.  With only a sideshow acrobat as an ally, the two discover a plot involving a man with a golden globe for an eyeball, a shadow society called the “Gentlemen”, and a device which, Wild Boy is told, “is a very powerful machine, one that changes you.  Imagine a machine that could make you normal, like everyone else.”  Wild Boy is a complex character who, even after an early life of abandonment and brutal abuse, is strong and determined, and it is a Sherlock Holmes-ian gift for reading people that ultimately leads him to triumph. Though seemingly aimed at a younger audience, this is a novel that doesn’t shy away from brutality – Wild Boy is ruthlessly (and sometimes disturbingly) taunted and beaten, both verbally and physically, again and again throughout.  This is a strong, Victorian-set mystery which brings into the mix the early understandings of electricity and its properties and uses, giving the proceedings a hint of Frankenstein-ish gothic darkness.]


STARTED:
Weston, Robert Paul. (2013). The creature department. New York: Razorbill/Penguin.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Rowell, Rainbow. (2013). Eleanor & Park. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.


[.]


STARTED:
Levithan, David. (2013). Two boys kissing. New York: Knopf.


[Reading the SIGNED advanced copy that I got at ALA!]


*

FINISHED:
Mauser, Pat Rhoads.  (1982). A bundle of sticks. New York: Atheneum.


[.]


STARTED:
Willingham, Bill. (2002). Fables #1: Legends in exile. New York: DC Comics.


[Was in the mood for a comic series - and this one, I just read, is being turned into a TV series soon...]


*

FINISHED: 
Gale, Eric Kahn. (2012). The Bully Book. New York: HarperCollins.


[.]


STARTED:
Hunter, Erin. (2012). The melting sea (Seekers: Return to the wild #2). New York: HarperCollins.


[I'm reviewing #3 in the series for ACL, so I need to get caught up...]


*