FINISHED:
Killermann, Sam. (2013). A Social Justice Advocate's Handbook: A Guide to Gender. Austin, TX: Impetus.

[.]

STARTED:
Birdsall, Jeanne. (2018). The Penderwicks At Last. New York: Knopf/Random House.

[Yes, I should be listening to audiobooks, but... IT'S A NEW PENDERWICKS, and thus needs to be read IMMEDIATELY.]

*

FINISHED:
Connor, Leslie. (2018). The Truth As Told by Mason Buttle. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Harris, Chris. (2017). I'm Just No Good at Rhyming and Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups. New York: Little, Brown/Hachette.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Snyder, Laurel. (2017). Orphan Island. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Kullab, Samya. (2017). Escape from Syria. Buffalo, NY: Firefly.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Ness, Patrick. (2017). Release. New York: HarperCollins.

[.] 

STARTED:
Williams-Garcia, Rita. (2017). Clayton Byrd Goes Underground. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins.

[Getting some Newbery buzz...]

*

FINISHED:
Applegate, Katherine. (2017). Wishtree. New York: Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan.

[.]

STARTED:
Tagame, Gengoroh. (2017). My Brother's Husband. New York: Pantheon/Penguin Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Reynolds, Jason. (2017). Patina [Track: Book 2]. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[.]

STARTED & FINISHED:
Kahng, Eik. (2017). David Wiesner & the Art of Wordless Storytelling. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

[.]

STARTED:
Milford, Kate. (2017). The Ghosts of Greenglass House. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Wenxuan, Cao. (2017). Bronze and Sunflower. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Mosier, Paul. (2017). Train I Ride. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Wiesner, David and Donna Jo Napoli. (2017). Fish Girl. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

STARTED:
Bertman, Jennifer Chambliss. (2017). The Unbreakable Code [Book Scavenger #2]. New York: Henry Holt/Macmillan.

[.]

*

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:
Medina, Juana. (2016). Juana & Lucas. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Mittlefehldt, Rafi. (2016). It Looks Like This. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Reading for ACL to see if I deem it to be "distinguished".  When, while trying to entice someone to read it, they said it had to do with a boy in the Midwest who was dealing with coming out to his not-so-understanding family, I jumped up and said, "Sounds familiar.  I'll take it!"]

*

FINISHED:
Thorne, Jack. (2016). Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Turner, Pamela S. (2016). Samurai Rising. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Tyler, Anne. (2016). Vinegar Girl. New York: Hogarth/Penguin/Random House.

[Anne Tyler does Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew!]

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

[New Tricia Springstubb!!!   I'm allowed to say that I thought that MOONPENNY ISLAND was one of the ABSOLUTE BEST books of last year.  My Newbery committee didn't award it anything, but, personally, I thought that it was OUTSTANDING, and one that I will read again and again over the years.]

*

FINISHED:
Tyler, Anne. (2015). A Spool of Blue Thread. New York: Knofp/Random House.

[An Anne Tyler novel is always a refreshing change.  So many books these days are solely driven (at least, hopefully) by plot, with little character development. An Anne Tyler book is generally the exact opposite:  pure character study.  Sure, things "happen", but that's never really the focus.  Rather, they are about people - great "slice-of-life" novels that spend most of their time getting into the minds/habits/eccentricities of everyday folk.  I'd venture to say that it's almost a guarantee that you'll come across a character, or family situation, in one of her novels that reminds you of someone that you actually know, or of something that has actually happened to you or someone you know.  This one, like many of her tomes, deals with family - how families come to be, how they grow and change, how the develop vivid memories, and how they say hello and goodbye.  One NYT basically called it Anne-Tyler-by-numbers, but another was more favorable.  I'll side with the latter when it comes to an Anne Tyler novel, anytime.]

STARTED:
Kibuishi, Kazu. (2016). Firelight [Amulet: Book 7]. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.

[.]

*

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

[.]

STARTED:
Martel, Yann. (2016). The High Mountains of Portugal. New York: Spiegel & Grau/Penguin Random House.

[.]

*

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:
Rowling, J.K. (2012). The casual vacancy. New York: Little, Brown.


[.]


STARTED:
Kinney, Jeff. (2012). Diary of a wimpy kid: the third wheel. New York: Amulet.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Erskine, Kathryn. (2010). Mockingbird. New York: Philomel.

[.]

STARTED:
Alexie, Sherman. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time indian. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[Been on my list for awhile.]

*

FINISHED:
Oppel, Kenneth. (2010). Half brother. New York: Scholastic.

[Full review to come, but I REALLY liked this one and will nominate it for the ACL Distinguished Books List. And here it is:

It’s 1973, and thirteen year-old Ben’s father, a behavioral research scientist, brings home a week old baby chimpanzee whom he hopes the family will treat as a human while he attempts to teach him sign language. Only-child Ben is at first wary, but eventually comes to love and protect Zan (named after Tarzan) as if he really were a little brother, even going to great and extreme lengths to keep Zan around when it appears that he will be shipped off when the project is shut down. This is a straightforward, methodically plotted story that tackles such thought-provoking questions as “What makes a human a human?” and “What is a person?”, while delving into the issues of animal rights and the ethics of testing on animals. Emotionally riveting without being manipulative, there is a particularly well-handled, unsentimentally moving scence where, after the research project has been disbanded and he has been taken to a preserve where he’ll spend the rest of his days, Zan is stripped of everything that had once made him “human” with Ben despondently remarking, “We fooled him into thinking we were his real family.” Certain to incite discussion, this is stirring novel of family relationships and the ramifications of scientific posturing in the name of discovery. [Reviewed from ARC.]]

STARTED:
Law, Ingrid. (2010). Scumble. New York: Dial/Penguin/Walden Media.

[Do I deem it worthy of the ACL Distinguished List?]

*

FINISHED:
Houtman, Jacqueline. (2010). The reinvention of Edison Thomas. Honesdale, PA: Front Street/Boyds Mills.

[My review for ACL:

After a neighborhood school crossing guard is laid off, science wiz Edison Thomas, fearing for the safety of the other school children, attempts to construct a contraption that can that can take the place of a human at the intersection. Though never mentioned outright, Edison clearly lies somewhere on the high funtioning end of the Asperger’s/autism spectrum as he has weekly visits with a school therapist to help him distinguish facial cues, and is constantly baffled by figures of speech. Thus, scattered throughout the text are fun random facts and figures (all detailed in an appendix) from Edison’s cluttered brain which loosely pertain to situations/conversations in which he’s found himself. One of the strongest elements of Houtman’s tome is that it deals with the topical issue of bullying: Edison is unware, until it is brought to his attention by a new friend, that another boy whom he believes to be a friend is actually ridiculing Edison and attempting to get him in trouble. A strong novel of friendship and understanding, but one that will likely have limited appeal.]

STARTED:
Pullman, Philip. (2010). The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ. New York: Canongate/Publishers Group West.

[It's a blasphemous new Philip Pullman!]

*

FINISHED:

Tyler, Anne. (2009). Noah's compass. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Lin, Grace. (2009). Where the mountain meets the moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[Have heard such great things about this one - and it just won a Newbery Honor.]

*