STARTED & FINISHED:
Quintero, Isabel. (2018). Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide. New York, NY: J. Paul Getty Museum/Harry N. Abrams.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Kelly, Erin Entrada. (2018). You Go First. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Yang, Kelly. (2018). Front Desk. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Moore, David Barclay. (2017). The Stars Beneath Our Feet. New York: Knopf.

[.]

STARTED:
Burkey, Mary. (2013). Audiobooks for Youth: a Practical Guide to Sound Literature. Chicago: ALA Editions.

[Gearing up for the ALSC Notable Children's Recordings committee.]

*

FINISHED:
Bang, Molly. (1991, 2016). Picture This: How Pictures Work [Revised and Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition]. San Francisco: Chronicle.

[.]

STARTED:
Thompson, Lisa. (2017). The Goldfish Boy. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Fitzgerald, Laura Marx. (2016). The Gallery. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

STARTED:
Avi. (2016). School of the Dead. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Aston, Martin. (2013). Facing the Other Way: the Story of 4AD.  London: The Friday Project/HarperCollins UK.

[Over 600 pages of year-by-year stories about the history of the greatest record label - and I loved every minute of it.  I'm calling this "4AD February" and making it a point to listen to as much 4AD music as possible (I've got over 240 4AD albums in iTunes).]

STARTED:
Gulik, Robert Hans van. (1965).  The monkey and the tiger (Judge Dee Mysteries). Chicago: University of Chicago Press/Macmillan.

[Patron recommended.]

*

FINISHED: 
Balliett, Blue. (2015). Pieces and players. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Alexander, Kwame. (2014). The Crossover. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[Reading for a mock Newbery...]


*

FINISHED:
Tartt, Donna. (2013). The goldfinch. New York: Little, Brown.
[This one was a BEAST that took me WAY TOO LONG to get through - amazing, because I tore through her last book, The Little Friend, in just a few days.  "Long, plodding, uneventful" best describes her current novel.  Don't get me wrong, I think that she's an AMAZING writer, but this one just went on and on without much of a point.  A character study with too much minutia.  I'm finding it somewhat hard to believe that people are falling over it THAT MUCH.]


STARTED:
Ursu, Anne. (2013). The real boy. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]


*

FINISHED:
McMann, Lisa. (2012). Island of silence (Unwanteds: Book 2). New York: Aladdin.


[.]


STARTED:
Choldenko, Gennifer. (2013). Al Capone does my homework. New York: Dial/Penguin.


[Reading to see if it's as good as the first two...]


*

FINISHED: 

Losure, Mary. (2012). The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.
 [.]

STARTED:
DiTerlizzi, Tony. (2012). A hero for WondLa. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[The first in the series was my favorite book of 2010.  Been anticipating the followup for awhile!]

*

FINISHED:
McMann, Lisa. (2011). The Unwanteds. New York: Aladdin.

[The society of Quill sorts 13-year olds into three categories each year:  the Wanteds (who are valued), the Necessaries (who'll be put to work), and the Unwanteds... who are punished for their creative urges by being put to death.  While Alex's twin, Aaron, is labelled a "Wanted" and goes to work for the oppressive government, Alex himself, because he once drew a house in the mud, is an Unwanted.  What Alex and the other Unwanteds don't know, however, is that being labelled an Unwanted isn't quite the sentence to death that they thought they were in for.  In fact, though the government of Quill isn't aware of this, the Unwanteds are brought to a magical, colorful place run by Mr. Today, where they will hone their creativity and learn to fight in anticipation of the day when they are discovered by Quill.  I'd say that the blurb on the cover which describes this as "Hunger Games meets Harry Potter" is actually pretty apropos.  Though hardly a substitute for either, I found this one to be SUPER compelling and quite fun.  Granted, the action moves a bit quickly and there really isn't time for much character development or relationship building (Alex does find a Hermione/Ron-ish group of pals), but the premise is intriguing and you've got me any time a major plot point revolves around a restrictive government that is called into question.  A VALUABLE lesson for the youth of today!]

STARTED:
Steward, Trenton Lee. (2012). The extraordinary education of Nicholas Benedict. New York: Little Brown.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Applegate, Katherine. (2012). The one and only Ivan. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Oliver, Lauren. (2011). Liesl & Po. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Clements, Andrew. (2011). Troublemaker. New York: Atheneum.

[.]

STARTED:
Newbery, Linda. (2010). Lucy and the Green Man. New York: David Fickling/Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Beil, Michael D. (2011). The mistaken masterpiece [Red Blazer Girls #3]. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

[.]

STARTED:
Webb, Philip. (2011). Six days. New York: Chicken House/Scholastic.

[Reviewing for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Schmidt, Gary D. (2011). Okay for now. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin.

[After his abusive father is fired from his job, Doug Swieteck and his family are uprooted and replanted to a small, rural town in upstate New York. Doug gets a job making deliveries for a local market owned by the father of a cute girl from school, and follows the girl into the town library. Here, Doug discovers an old John James Audubon book of bird drawings which inspire him to refine his own drawing, and launch a search to recover some of the missing pages. (Each chapter title is that of a bird found in Audubon’s book, with the accompanying illustration included for reference.) In this companion novel to his own The Wednesday Wars (Clarion, 2007), Schmidt has made Doug a good, well-intentioned kid with whom the reader can immediately sympathize and root for. Doug’s library and drawing excursions show the transportative and transformative power of art and the written word/knowledge, and, most importantly, become a ticket of escape and a way to a better future for Doug. Loaded with humor, quirky characters and some sadness (the scenes involving Doug’s oldest brother returning from a tour in the Vietnam War are particularly striking), Okay For Now is a masterstroke for Schmidt in an already glowing body of work. [Reviewed from ARC.]]

STARTED:
Glass, Linzi. (2010). Finding Danny. New York: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins.

[Reviewing for SFPL...]

*

FINISHED:
Cunningham, Michael. (2010). By nightfall. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.

[.]

STARTED:
Bacigalupi, Paolo. (2010). Ship breaker. New York: Little Brown & Co.

[Been WAITING to read this one - such great things have been said about it.]

*

FINISHED:
Railsback, Lisa. (2010). Noonie's masterpiece. San Francisco: Chronicle.

[.]

STARTED:
Teller, Janne. (2010). Nothing. New York: Atheneum.

[Lots of great reviews.]

*

FINISHED:
Connor, Leslie. (2010). Crunch. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Mull, Brandon. (2009). Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary. Salt Lake City, UT: Shadow Mountain.

[LOVE LOVE LOVE these books.]

*

FINISHED:
West, Jacqueline. (2010). The books of Elsewhere: The shadows. New York: Dial.

[My review for ACL:

Olive, perpetual new student, and her nomadic, mathmetician, computer screen-glued parents move into a dusty old house still full of the previous occupants’ Victorian-era belongings. One of the first things that Olive notices is the abundance of paintings (which seem permanently attached to the walls) whose images, when viewed through a pair of found antique reading glasses, begin to move. Ever the curious explorer, Olive discovers that she is able to climb into these paintings and, while wandering around in one, comes across a frightened little boy in an old nightshirt who claims to have been stolen from the real world and imprisoned in the painting by a malevolent, ever-watching shadow. West’s debut novel, the first in an assumed series, is briskly paced and, for the most part, engaging, with a spunky outcast for a protagonist in whom avid readers of the genre will recognize shades of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (HarperCollins, 2002). A trio of talking cats add comedy and a bit of confusion: aside from the occasional difficulty of keeping them straight, their motives are unclear as they seem genuinely helpful but appear to be “working for” the shadowy force. Thorough, vivid physical description provides a definite sense of environment and the premise is intriguing enough to attract young fantasy beginners. (Reviewed from ARC.)]

STARTED:
Connor, Leslie. (2010). Crunch. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[Reading for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

Park, Linda Sue,... [et al.]. (2007). Click. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[Maggie and her brother Jason receive presents bequeathed to them by their recently deceased grandfather, Gee, a renowned photojournalist. Maggie's is a box of shells which she is instructed to return to where they were found (thus helping her to "see the world"), and Jason's is one of Gee's old cameras (also, providing him with a way to "see the world"). I thought this one started out quite strong... but then just got a little incomprehensible. A great way to tell a story, with different authors covering different events which then all come together like a puzzle, but does this really have to do with multiple realities? Or is it really about being able to peel another version of someone off themselves which then has a life of their own?? Maybe this one should go back in my queue for rereading one day...]

STARTED:
Law, Ingrid. (2008). Savvy. New York: Walden Media/Dial/Penguin.

[Newbery Honor winner that's been sitting on my shelf for quite awhile.]

*