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:
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:
Bell, Cece. (2014). El Deafo. New York: Amulet.

[.]


STARTED:
Perkins, Lynne Rae. (2014). Nuts to you. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]


*

FINISHED:
De Angeli, Marguerite. (1949). The door in the wall. New York: Laurel-Leaf/Random House.

[Not my favorite Newbery winner, but better than I expected it would be.  For whatever reason, I thought that this was a fantasy title (a la Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain]...


STARTED:
Feldman, Jody. (2014). The Gollywhopper Games:  The new champion. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[LOVED the first one!  SO happy to see that there is now a sequel!!]


*

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


[.]


STARTED:
Pinkwater, Daniel Manus. (1979). Alan Mendelsohn, the boy from Mars. New York: Dutton.


[A recommended title.]

*

FINISHED:
Hartinger, Brent. (2005). The Order of the Poison Oak. New York: HarperCollins.

[Russel is back!  This time, it's summer break and he volunteers to be a summer camp counselor with his friends Min and Gunnar - newly "out", it's his effort to be somewhere where he won't be harassed for being "the gay kid".  And, it turns out to be a summer filled with misbehaved 10-year old burn survivors, encounters with love (even if they turn out to be jerks), forest fires, poison oak, and therapeutic folktales.]

STARTED:
Walker, Karen Thompson. (2012). Age of Miracles: a novel. New York: Random House.

[Who doesn't love a good end-of-the-world book??]

*

FINISHED:
 Tyler, Anne. (2012). The beginner's goodbye.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

[Well, the New York Times review that I've linked to (click title above) says that this is one is "arguably this talented author’s tritest and most predictable novel," and I might be somewhat inclined to agree.  I'll tell you, even when the book was first announced and I saw that it was going to be under 200 pages I thought, "Well, this one's going to be kind of thin..."  Thirty-something Aaron loses his wife, Dorothy, in a "freak" accident and attempts to move forward, occasionally seeing Dorothy at random places and times.  There are definite shades of The Accidental Tourist (Random House, 1985) here (the main character works in publishing a series of "how to"-ish books, his sister ends up with someone Aaron knows) which made this one seem like a bit of retread, though I enjoyed hearing about Aaron and Dorothy's "unconventional" relationship because it reminded me a bit of my own...]

STARTED:
Lawrence, Caroline. (2012). The Case of the Deadly Desperados: Western Mysteries, Book One.  New York: Putnam.

[Reviewing for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Reisfeld, Randi. (2012). What the dog said. New York: Bloomsbury.

[Grace has retreated from school, friends, everything since her policeman father was murdered in a drive-by shooting a few months back. Her older sister, Regan, is only concerned with getting into the Parsons School of Design and convinces their mom to let her get a rescue dog - the hope being that by enrolling the dog in classes to train it to be a "helper animal", that it will look good on her college application. At the pound, a homely dog, Rex, chooses Grace to be his owner by TELLING her to pick him. Can Rex, the talking dog whom only Grace is able to hear, help her figure out the circumstances surrounding her father's murder, and eventually move her through her grief? Well, of course...]

STARTED:
Marrone, Amanda. (2010). The multiplying menace: a magic repair shop book. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Reviewing for SFPL...]

*

FINISHED:
Auxier, Jonathan. (2011). Peter Nimble and his fantastic eyes. New York: Amulet/Abrams.

[.]

STARTED:
Joyce, William, and Geringer, Laura. (2011). Nicholas St. North and the battle of the Nightmare King. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Selznick, Brian. (2011). Wonderstruck. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Wells, Robison. (2011). Variant. New York: HarperTeen.

[Reading for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Yee, Lisa. (2011). Warp speed. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[Marley is a middle schooler who is definitely on the outs. He LOVES Star Trek, lives above the broken down old movie theatre his father runs, is an active member of the school AV club, feels completely invisible, and gets spit on and beat up and chased by bullies almost daily. Things begin to change slightly when Marley gets paired up with a cute new girl at school, his old friend Stanford who is now the star basketball player begins to talk to him again, and it turns out that Marley is the fastest runner his school has ever seen.]

STARTED:
Hunter, Erin. (2011). Spirits in the stars [Seekers #6]. New York: HarperCollins.

[She's got me hooked on these adventures of Kallik, Lusa, Toklo and Ujurak...]

*

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:
Balliett, Blue. (2010). The danger box. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
DiTerlizzi, Tony. (2010). The search for WondLa. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Sachar, Louis. (2010). The cardturner. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[Hoping to be included in the will of a wealthy uncle, Alton's mom forces him to be the cardturner (cardplayer) for his blind "favorite uncle" who is an avid bridge player. Not my cup of tea. Funny, in the note from the author at the beginning, Sachar says that people told him, "Who would want to read a book about bridge?" Having read this one, I can understand where they are coming from. It just didn't grab me in any way, and all of the bridge-speak went right over my head. Without a rudimentary knowledge of trump-like card games your average kid would be lost and likely give up.]

STARTED:
Mull, Brandon. (2007). The candy shop war. Salt Lake City: Shadow Mountain.

[LOVED the Fablehaven series so much I thought I'd try out this one - which I remember seeing Mull comment on as being a fan favorite.]

*

FINISHED:

Look, Lenore. (2009). Alvin Ho: allergic to camping, hiking, and other natural disasters. New York: Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Peck, Richard. (2009). A season of gifts. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

*

FINISHED:

MacDonald, George. (1969). The light princess. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[Well, it doesn't seem like it would fly all that well with youth today. As I started to read it I thought, "This might make a good, short read-aloud..." and then quickly reconsidered. The language was SO antiquated and odd. Many times I not only tripped up on the words, but had a difficult time trying to figure out who he was talking about and/or what was happening. Yes, it's the story of a princess who is born without gravity and discovers that in water she feels "normal". Soon, the evil princess who cursed the disability onto the princess does a spell to drain the lake and kingdom of all it's water. It is then that a roaming prince who has become smitten with the princess volunteers to sacrifice himself to save the princess and kingdom.]

STARTED:
Huxley, Aldous. (1932). Brave new world/Brave new world revisited. New York: HarperCollins.

[An old classic that I remember reading in high school English class and have been wanting to revisit now that I'm older and wiser.]

*

FINISHED:

Jacques, Brian. (2003). Loamhedge. New York: Firebird/Penguin.

[.]

STARTED:
Lerangis, Peter. (2009). The 39 clues: The sword thief. New York: Scholastic.

[I really couldn't tell you what's been happening in this series, but I just may be in it for the long haul. I'm curious. Does anyone else really care about these anymore? Have they taken off, or bombed?]

*

FINISHED:

Trueman, Terry. (2000). Stuck in neutral. New York: HarperCollins.

[Whoa...]

STARTED:
Hunter, Erin. (2009). Seekers: Great Bear Lake. New York: HarperCollins.

[Saw a review copy of this at BPL and almost peed my pants. For some reason, I REALLY liked the first in this series and have been waiting for this one. Put it on hold when I saw that BPL was getting it, but now I can read it right away!]

*

FINISHED:

Murphy, Rita. (2008). Bird. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[I REALLY liked this one - was just completely sucked in. Looking back, my interest in the whole tone and style may have been influenced by the film version of Coraline. My review will go here - I'm nominating it for Distinguished, though I'm not certain others will find it as compelling as I did.]

STARTED:
Hunt, Stephen. (2008). The court of the air. New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates.

[Saw it over at a friend's house the other night and was intrigued...]

*

FINISHED:

Urban, Linda. (2007). A crooked kind of perfect. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.

[Yeah, pretty much every praise for this one was spot on. A simple, breezy little tale about a girl, Zoe, who wants to play the piano but ends up having to play the organ instead. Her teacher says that Zoe is good enough to play in a nearby competition, so her agoraphobic father who spends his days taking at-home college courses, breaks out of his shell, and is forced to take her. Fun, interesting characters, including the town roughneck kid who ends up hanging out and baking with Zoe's father, and a harrowing scene with Zoe being invited to her ex-best friend's birthday party, by the girls mother (which, believe it or not, happened to me once!), and bringing socks when the party theme was shoes. Straightforward, with a heroine that will make you smile in sympathy and identification.]

STARTED:
Almond, David. (2008). The savage. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.

[Reading to see if it should go on the Distinguished Books list.]

*