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:
?????

[.]

*

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

[.]

*

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:
Larson, Hope. (2017). Goldie Vance: Volume Two. Los Angeles: Boom! Box.

[.]

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

[.]

*

FINISHED:

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

[.]

STARTED:
Larson, Hope. (2017). Goldie Vance: Volume Two. Los Angeles: Boom! Box.

[.]

*

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:

Bell, Eric. (2017). Alan Cole is Not a Coward. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

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

[.]

*

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

[.]

STARTED:
Pullman, Philip. (1995). The Golden Compass [His Dark Materials: Book 1]. New York: Ballantine/Random House.

[Re-reading - gearing up for THE BOOK OF DUST trilogy!!!]

*

FINISHED: 
Lee, Mackenzi. (2017). The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. New York: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins.

[.]

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

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Tynion IV, James. (2017). The Backstagers: Volume 1: Rebels Without Applause. Los Angeles: BOOM! Box.

[Umm... this one is just... odd.  Not really at all what I was expecting.]

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

[Her last middle grade book, Rules for Stealing Stars, came out during my Newbery year and was one of my favorites - so much so that I read it a couple of times.  It STILL lingers in my mind, even 2 years later.  There's just something viscerally affecting about it.  It's will definitely be one that I return to from time to time.]

*

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.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Donoghue, Emma. (2017). The Lotterys Plus One. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[The Lotterys are far from your typical family, formed when a gay male couple and a lesbian couple won the lottery, bought a giant house in Toronto, and adopted seven multiracial kids together.  Domestic (often chaotic) bliss is disrupted, however, when one of the dad’s estranged fathers comes to live with the Lotterys after recovering from a fire that he accidentally set as a symptom of developing dementia.  Best known for Room (Little Brown, 2010), Donoghue’s first novel for children is written largely from the point of view of 9-year-old Sumac, who has to vacate the room that she’s had since birth to accommodate her grandfather’s stay, directly reflecting the experiences and emotions of the primary reading audience who may relate to feeling put out and ignored themselves.  Her voice and role in the large family, as well as her transition from finding a way to get rid of their grandfather to being the one to convince him to stick around, are center stage here.  Spot art throughout, including a much appreciated – and necessary – labeled family portrait at the front of the book, helps to keep everyone and all of their varied experiences clear.  Filled with rapid-fire dialogue and tons of wordplay (the children are all named after types of trees, the taller mother is nicknamed MaxiMum, and many other family in-jokes) those who have worked their way through the Penderwicks series (Knopf, 2005) will find kinship here and look forward to more adventures with the Lotterys to come.]

STARTED:
Anderson, John David. (2017). Posted. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

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: 
Konigsberg, Bill. (2017). Honestly Ben. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[.]

STARTED:
Hatke, Ben. (2016). Mighty Jack [Book 1]. New York: First Second/Roaring Brook.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Oh, Ellen [Ed.]. (2017). Flying Lessons & Other Stories. New York: Crown/Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Bryan, Ashley. (2016). Freedom Over Me. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[The last of this year's Newbery winners that I need to read.]

*

FINISHED:
Aciman, André. (2007). Call Me By Your Name. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[.]

STARTED:
Zusak, Markus. (2005). The Book Thief. New York: Knopf.

[Been meaning to read this for many years - we've even had our own copy sitting a shelf for quite awhile.]

*

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

[I read for ACL, to weigh in on whether or not it should be included on our annual "Best Books of the Year" list.  And, my vote will be "No".  I was REALLY getting in to it - despite the very choppy sentence structure throughout - and then the last half of  the book turned out to be a major disappointment for me.

(SPOILER-ISH)
For one thing, I was expecting/REALLY hoping that the death-by-car-crash was going to turn out to be the rotten classmate who kept leering at Mike.  Sure, let Mike believe for a day or two that it was Sean - give us some despair - but then have him discover that it was, instead, the bully who had been fighting his own internalized homophobia, and let Mike end up with Sean, even if it won't be easy because of their conservative families.  This, because...

I believe that we just don't need gay tragedies right now.  This felt to me like the kind of book that would've been written in the 70s or 80s when the gay pride movement had an enormous uphill battle ahead of it.  Then, a tragic end to a gay love story would've at least been a reflection of the times - a bit of a cynical parable on the state of the country and the treatment/popular thought about homosexuality at that time.  BUT, we've come a LONG way since then, and, even now, have to push even harder to get over the last hurdle (stupid, white, conservative men...).  What we need are gay romances with happy endings - a la Tim Federle's THE GREAT AMERICAN WHATEVER or Becky Albertalli's fantastic SIMON vs. the HOME SAPIENS AGENDA.  Gay conversion therapy and suicide??  That kind of cynicism right now is just damaging.  Gay kids need to finally be able to revel in the fact that they, too, deserve true love.]

STARTED:
Gottesfeld, Jeff. (2016). The Tree in the Courtyard: Looking Through Anne Frank's Window. New York: Knopf.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Peck, Richard. (2016). The Best Man. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[.]

STARTED:
Telgemeier, Raina. (2016). Ghosts. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

*

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

[Finally got around to reading this one after getting a free copy at the Morris Awards while at ALA Midwinter.  FANTASTIC read.  This is another case of "why wasn't this book around when I was a teenager?" envy.  Great voice.  Cleverly has every other chapter be emails between Simon's secret identity and Blue (another student at school who is keeping his identity under wraps).  A fun coming out story with a sweet romance that builds slowly, and virtually!]

STARTED:
Wolk, Lauren. (2016). Wolf Hollow. New York: Dutton/Penguin/Random House.

[4 starred reviews (from all of the majors) - and having fun trying to pick what might be up for the 2017 Newbery.]

*