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:
Ukazu, Ngozi. (2018). Check Please! Book 1: Hockey. New York: First Second/Roaring Brook.

[.]

STARTED:
?????

[.]

*

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

[.]

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

[.]

*

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.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Gillman, Melanie. (2017). As the Crow Flies. Chicago: Iron Circus Comics.

[.]

*

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

[.]

STARTED:
Eggers, Dave. (2017). Her Right Foot. San Francisco: Chronicle.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Nesbet, Anne. (2016). Cloud and Wallfish. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

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

[.]

*

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

[.]

STARTED:
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. (2015).  Echo.  New York: Scholastic.

[GLADLY re-reading before I get to meet her at a special luncheon at ALA next week.  Kind of exciting to read it again for the first time after having helped to select it as a 2016 Newbery Honor winner!]

*

FINISHED: 
Brown, Peter. (2016). The Wild Robot. New York: Little, Brown.

[.]

STARTED:
Albertalli, Becky. (2015). Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Sedaris, David. (1997). "C.O.G." from Naked. Boston: Little, Brown.

[.]

STARTED:
Jinks, Catherine. (2013). How to catch a bogle. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]


*

FINISHED:

Federle, Tim. (2013). Better Nate than ever. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Where was this book when I was a tween/teen??  Nate steals away from his sheltered, conservative Pennsylvania town to head to New York so that he can audition for the role of Elliott in a new musical based on the movie "E.T.: the Extraterrestrial".  This is a hilariously fun novel that takes place over the course of just a couple of days, and which has Nate reconnecting with an Aunt who has been estranged from Nate's mother when she stole away to New York in an effort to be someplace more open-minded and accepting.  It's one of those books that every small town kid who's just coming into realizing s/he is gay ought to read in order to see that it truly does "get better".  Like I said, this one would've given me so much hope when I was a (closeted) teenager stealing away to Chicago at every opportunity so that I could be around some diversity.]


STARTED:
Green, John. (2012). The fault in our stars. New York: Dutton/Penguin.


[.]


*

FINISHED:
Lyga, Barry. (2011). Mangaman. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[Ryoko Kiyama, a graphic novel character from the manga universe, is transported into the physical world and stuck here until the portal that he came through can be fixed to let him go back home. Marissa Montaigne, the most popular and beautiful girl in school, is intrigued by Ryoko despite the horror of her peers. As the two begin a romance, including a failed attempt at copulation where pulling down Ryoko’s pants reveals a pixilated blob, they teach each other about their very different worlds while dealing with the scorn of their classmates and Marissa’s disapproving parents. Things get very “meta” when Ryoko shows Marissa how to experience things his way and break out of the (literal) boxes that he sees them in, and a wrench is thrown into the romance when Marissa is shocked seeing Ryoko pulverize her ex-boyfriend. While Ryoko appears very manga-East, from his androgynous appearance to the hearts that appear in his eye sockets upon seeing Marissa for the first time, Marissa is depicted as quintessentially Western with her flowing blonde locks and various, often period inspired, outfits (cowgirl, Marilyn Monroe). Though it easily falls into the teen high school story cliché of “new fish-out-of-water falls for the most popular girl in school, much to the displeasure of the popular school jock”, author Barry Lyga (The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Houghton Mifflin, 2006 ) has teamed up with longtime comic artist Colleen Doran to pen a trippy tale of East meets West with a rather intriguing twist. [Reviewed from ARC.]]

STARTED:
Westerfeld, Scott. (2011). Goliath. New York: Simon Pulse.

[.]

*

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

[.]

STARTED:
Williams, Michael. (2011). Now is the time for running. New York: Little, Brown.

[.]

*

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

[.]

STARTED:
Williams-Garcia, Rita. (2010). One crazy summer. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins.

[The buzz!]

*

FINISHED:

Crutcher, Chris. (2009). Angry management: Three novellas. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[ACL review to come...

An overweight teen takes a facially scarred girl to Reno to confront the mother that abandoned her with an abusive father; a goth girl who writes for the school paper fights censorship and falls for the school jock while looking out for her foster sister; and a gay, African American student in a white, rural school finds a pink noose on his locker. These three short stories comprise Crutcher’s latest which also happens to bring back and throw together characters from some of his earlier novels. It’s all quite timely and important, but at the same time overly ambitious, incredibly didactic and message-y: even a devout Christian gives a monologue on how racism and homophobia are wrong (“Jesus didn’t care whether you were some other color than pasty white, or whether or not you were gay. His Father made them and He loved them all.”) In addition, there is a bracketing device involving a teen counselor which goes nowhere and has very little to do with the stories themselves. While it’s appreciated that Crutcher has brought up for discussion a number of pressing issues, it feels a bit overstated and preachy.]

STARTED:
Westerfeld, Scott. (2009). Leviathan. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

Barshaw, Ruth McNally. (2007). Ellie McDoodle: Have pen will travel. New York: Bloomsbury.

[As suspected, this is kind of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" for girls.]

STARTED:
Meyer, Stephenie. (2005). Twilight. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[It's time...]

*

FINISHED:

Rodgers, Mary. (1982). Summer switch. New York: Harper & Row.

[Entertaining, but nowhere near my favorite of hers. I was also surprised by the homophobic slurs throughout...]

STARTED:
Stroud, Jonathan. (2009). Heroes of the valley. New York: Hyperion.

[Read the first book in the Bartimaeus trilogy and thought that it was excellent (been meaning to read the other two... but they're a bit intimidating in their size...) - this one's been getting great reviews.]

*

FINISHED:

Lord, Bette Bao. (1984). In the year of the boar and Jackie Robinson. New York: HarperCollins.

[Really liked this one - didn't LOVE it. It just felt a bit light to me - kind of a bunch of short little events in a year of this girl from China's life, her first year in the U.S. Yes, it's a book intended for upper elementary kids, but I still feel that it could've been filled out a bit more. Her story (based, as I understand) on real events) is an interesting one, given the historical context and such, and I wanted Shirley Temple Wong to feel more real and fleshed out. One of the reasons I got this one is because I'm in love with Marc Simont, and his illustrations here are winners, giving insightful visuals to the people and events. I'm making it sound like I hated it, but I did find it enjoyable - especially the instances where Shirley misinterpreted certain "American-isms" and came up with her own versions of English language phrases and cues.]

STARTED:
Konigsburg, E.L. (1976). My father's daughter. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks/Simon & Schuster.

[Let it be said now that this is the March 2008 paperback reprint of the book originally titled Father's Arcane Daughter. Wanted to read something short and I'm always up for a Konigsburg that I haven't read yet.]

*

FINISHED:

St. James, James. (2007). Freak show. New York: Dutton/Penguin.

[Billy Bloom is sent to live with his father in rural Florida where he then must attend a conservative private school. The thing is, Billy is a young drag queen with a taste for the outrageous and inventive when it comes to clothing and makeup choices. Right from the first day he's ridiculed, spit at, and eventually becomes the victim of a HORRIBLE attack. He is saved from that beating by, and subsequently befriends, Flip, the hot, high school football star hunk whom he begins to heavily crush on until things get a bit too close for Flip. In the end, Billy decides to run for homecoming queen in an effort to show how everybody should be able to be exactly who they are. I REALLY liked this one. 75+% of the novel is Billy's inner dialogue which is a bunch of hilarious and insightful musings on the life of a gay kid with a taste for the clever and unconventional. At times drop dead funny, horribly brutal, touching (especially the relationships with his mother and father), romantic and swooning, and just plain bizarre, this one likely has a limited appeal, but those who "get it" will find it truly fabulous.]

STARTED:
Juster, Norton. (1961). The phantom tollbooth. New York: Dell Yearling/Random House.

[It was time to read a classic, and, shamefully, this is one that I've never read before. Recently saw the animated adaptation of his picture book The Dot & the Line and LOVED it (actually, I'm sure that I've seen it before... maybe in middle school math class??).]

*