FINISHED:
Tagame, Gengoroh. (2018). My Brother's Husband: Volume 2. New York: Pantheon/Penguin Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Medina, Meg. (2018). Merci Suárez Changes Gears. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[2019 Newbery Award Winner!]

*

FINISHED: 
Tyler, Anne. (2018). Clock Dance. New York: Knopf/Penguin Random House.

[.]

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

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED: 
Westerfeld, Scott. (2018). Spill Zone #2: The Broken Vow. New York: First Second/Roaring Brook.

[.]

STARTED:
Springstubb, Tricia. (2015). Moonpenny Island. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[Just one of my absolute favorite books, which I try to read every year.]

*

FINISHED: 
Springstubb, Tricia. (2018). Cody and the Heart of a Champion. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]














STARTED & FINISHED:
Avi. (2018). The Button War. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]











STARTED & FINISHED:
Sell, Chad. (2018). The Cardboard Kingdom. New York: Knopf/Penguin Random House. 

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Johnson, Maureen. (2018). Truly Devious. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Wang, Jen. (2018). The Prince and the Dressmaker. New York: First Second/Roaring Brook.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Rhodes, Jewel Parker. (2018). Ghost Boys. New York: Little, Brown/Hachette.

[.]

STARTED:
Hanlon, Abby. (2018). Dory Fantasmagory: Head in the Clouds. New York: Dial/Penguin Random House.

[LOVE THIS SERIES.]

*

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.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Tanaka, Shelley. (2018). The Breadwinner: a Graphic Novel. Toronto: Groundwood Books. 

[.]

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

[.]

*

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

[After being turned away at NASA, when she asks to see Carl Sagan so that she can give him a recording of her deceased father’s laughter for inclusion on the Voyager launch, 11-year-old Stella Rodriguez unwittingly has a black hole follow her home.  While Larry (as Stella names the black hole) begins to devour whatever it can, Stella discovers that as she throws items with memories of her dad attached to them into the black hole, it begins to appear as though the objects, and all of the feelings associated with them, never existed in the first place.  Cuevas has a gift for dry humor, fully evident in the 100 page, surreal journey (reminiscent of Roald Dahl and Norton Juster) that Stella and her brother take in a clawfoot tub while inside Larry; a journey that helps Stella work through her grief and regain an appreciation for “home” (“Sometimes what you think is a black hole in your life turns out to actually be a wormhole.  A portal.  A way home.”).  Cuevas’s own spot illustrations are sprinkled throughout the text, which is laugh out loud hilarious, touching, and a bit bizarre.]

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

[.]

*

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: 
Balliett, Blue. (2018). Out of the Wild Night: A Ghost Story. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

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

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Westerfeld, Scott. (2017). Spill Zone. New York: First Second/Roaring Brook.

[.]

STARTED:
Holm, Jennifer L. (2017). Swing It, Sunny. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Helget, Nicole. (2017). The End of the Wild. New York: Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group.

[.]

STARTED:
Larson, Hope. (2016). Goldie Vance: Volume One. Los Angeles: Boom! Box.

[.]

*

FINISHED:  
Babbitt, Natalie. (1975). Tuck Everlasting. New York: Square Fish/Farrar Straus Giroux.

[.]

STARTED:
Helget, Nicole. (2017). The End of the Wild. New York: Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group.

[.]

*

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

[.]

STARTED:
Babbitt, Natalie. (1975). Tuck Everlasting. New York: Square Fish/Farrar Straus Giroux.

[Was home sick without a new book... chose this one - one of my all time favorites - to read again for comfort...]

*

FINISHED: 
Reynolds, Jason. (2017). Long Way Down. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[.]

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

[Newbery buzz.]

*

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:
Haydu, Corey Ann. (2017). The Someday Suitcase. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[Floridian fifth graders Clover and Danny are completely in tune, super-best friends, so when Danny becomes mysteriously ill, causing him to be unable to hang out and to miss a bunch of school, Clover starts to question who she is without her symbiotic other.  For her school science fair Clover decides that her project will be on Danny and an attempt to figure out what is ailing him, and then hatches a plan to get Danny to a new-agey clinic in Vermont that treated a classmate’s mother.  Haydu’s follow up to the exceptional Rules for Stealing Stars (HarperCollins, 2015) similarly doesn’t pull punches when it comes to heavy emotional situations but, rather, fully embraces them with a visceral, kick-in-the-gut reality, and her continual integration of science into the narrative – what it is, and what it means to be a scientist – keeps the reader questioning what they know.  Could Clover’s presence alone be helping Danny to feel better?  Clover’s never-waning devotion to her best friend is fully explored, with Clover even beginning to feel guilty for making a couple of new friends, and a depiction of a home life where she has to deal with a little brother who is on the autism spectrum and a truck driving father whom is frequently away add further character depth.  With a hint of magical realism, this is an examination of the line between where science ends and magic begins, positing that magic may just be science that we don’t yet understand.]

STARTED:
Cole, Henry. (2017). Bayberry Island [Brambleheart #2]. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[Liked the first one, thought that I'd review the second...]

*

FINISHED:
Saenz, Benjamin Alire. (2017). The Inexplicable Logic of My Life. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

STARTED:
Delaney, Rachelle. (2017). The Bonaventure Adventures. New York: Penguin Random House.

[.]

*