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

[.]

STARTED:
Yang, Kelly. (2018). Front Desk. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[.]

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FINISHED: 
Bertman, Jennifer Chambliss. (2018). The Alcatraz Escape [Book Scavenger #3]. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

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

[.]

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FINISHED:
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:
Tamani, Liara. (2017). Calling My Name. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[.]

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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.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Wood, Maryrose. (2015). The Unmapped Sea (Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #5). New York: Batzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Goldberg, Susan. (2017). Gender Revolution [Special Issue]. Journal of the National Geographic Society, 231(1).

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Gephart, Donna. (2016). Lily and Dunkin. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Messner, Kate. (2016). The Seventh Wish. New York: Bloomsbury.

[.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Dahl, Roald. (1982).  The BFG.  New York: Puffin/Penguin.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Alexander, Kwame. (2016). Booked. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.



[.]




STARTED:
Corey, Shana. (2016). The Secret Subway. New York: Schwartz & Wade/Random House.



[.]


*

FINISHED:
Alexander, Kwame. (2014). The Crossover. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

STARTED:
Sheinkin, Steve. (2014). The Port Chicago 50 : Disaster, mutiny, and the fight for civil rights. New York: Roaring Brook.

[Reading for a mock Newbery...]


*

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

[Being the middle of three boys in his family, Cameron is used to not getting very much attention, but his time in the limelight has arrived when he is chosen to participate in the 2^nd Gollywhopper Games.  Naturally, Cameron makes it through the preliminary rounds to snag a spot in the final games, and it is here that he has to work through a series of word puzzles and challenges that take place in the magical, and unbelievable, Golly Toy and Game Company Headquarters.  This sequel to Feldman’s own The Gollywhopper Games (Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2008) lacks the punch and wonder of its predecessor, not giving the reader a full sense of the world she has previously created. The answers to some of the puzzles leads Cameron and the other contestants to specific toys in the Golly Toy catalogue… thus making them so that we have to follow along while Cameron solves them, without getting a fair chance to do so ourselves, which is half the fun of a book of this sort.  In addition, some of the tasks/puzzles are strictly physical and, quite often, unbelievable (an enormous, indoor “wasteland” of rocks, caves and ponds??) and difficult to visualize.  While there are valuable messages about honesty, which ends up getting Cameron more attention that if he had kept quiet and won the million dollar prize, and finding your place in your family dynamic, those who appreciated the first title will certainly find enough to like here, but they may need to wait until the (teased) third book in the series to find what they are truly craving.]


STARTED:
DiTerlizzi, Tony. (2014). The battle for WondLa. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[LOVE LOVE LOVE this series and push it on anyone and everyone who comes into the library.]


*

FINISHED:
Raskin, Ellen. (1978). The Westing game. New York: Puffin/Penguin.

[.]

STARTED & FINISHED:
Roberts, Russell. (2004). John Newbery and the story of the Newbery Medal. Hockessin, DE: Mitchell Lane Publishers.

[.]

STARTED:
Barakiva, Michael. (2014). One man guy. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
 [.]


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FINISHED:
Wood, Maryrose. (2013). The interrupted tale (The incorrigible children of Ashton Place #4). New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.


[.]


STARTED:
Setterington, Ken. (2013). Branded by the pink triangle. Toronto, ON: Second Story.


[.]

*

FINISHED:
Snicket, Lemony. (2012). Who could that be at this hour? (All the wrong questions #1). New York: Little, Brown.


[.]


STARTED:
Barrows, Annie. (2012). Ivy + Bean make the rules (Ivy + Bean #9). San Francisco: Chronicle.


[.]


*

FINISHED:
 Wood, Maryrose. (2012). The unseen guest [The incorrigible children of Ashton Place #3]. New York: Balzer + Bray.

[Not my favorite of the 3 so far, but it's still a highly entertaining series.  Much like the TV show LOST (best. show. ever.) she seems to be presenting a whole bunch of clues to something (but, what??), and asking a whole bunch questions and not answering any of them.  In this one, the Widow Ashton comes to visit her son with her new boyfriend and their pet ostrich in tow.  When the ostrich mysteriously gets away, Penelope and the three incorrigibles head off into the forest to find it, eventually having to spend the night in a cave - a cave which Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia seems to know only too well...]

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

[NEW ANNE TYLER! NEW ANNE TYLER!!]

*

FINISHED:
Valente, Catherynne M. (2011). The girl who circumnavigated Fairyland in a ship of her own making. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

[Reviewing for ACL - review to come...

Twelve year-old September is whisked away from her mundane existence one evening by the Green Wind, and deposited on the outskirts of Fairyland. There she befriends, and takes along as a travelling companion, a Wyvern who has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things from A-L. September quickly makes a deal with the bratty, young Marquess, the "new management" in Fairyland: if September will journey to retrieve a sword for the Marquess then the Marquess will free the Wyvern on whom she has put shackles that keep its wings bound. Thus, September embarks upon an epic journey where she meets a host of odd characters in extraordinary situations that invite just comparisons to other episodic gems like The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth (Random House, 1961). Indeed, the comparisons are not lost on Valente herself who, when September asks how the story will end, has the Green Wind say, “It seems familiar to me so far. A child whisked off to a foreign land beset by a wicked ruler…” As with many classic fairy tale stories, this isn't sugarcoated sunshine but, rather, there is a constant sense of foreboding as if it is entirely possible that things may not end cheerily and tidily. Indeed, along the way, we see just how grim things in Fairyland can be as we meet a djinn who is kept in a lobster cage by the Marquess and forced to grant her wishes, and how September ends up surrendering her shadow in order to save the life of a little “Pooka girl” destined to be drown and eaten. Advanced readers only need apply here - the densely-worded passages with rich vocabulary roll off the tongue and paint a vivid world, yet often do little to advance the plot and are loaded with thinly-veiled social commentary. Originally published online and compiled for this tome, Valente has augmented this printed edition with Ana Juan's soft and mysteriously evocative chapter-heading illustrations. As a few important details aren't resolved by story's end (September didn't get her shadow back!) a sequel is certain to follow and a legion of readers are surely waiting with bated breath.]

STARTED:
Brooks, Albert. (2011). 2030: The real story of what happens to America. New York: St. Martin's Press.

[He cracks me up...]

*

FINISHED:
Wood, Maryrose. (2010). The incorrigible children of Ashton Place: The mysterious howling. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Mass, Wendy. (2010). The candymakers. New York: Little, Brown.

[.]

*

FINISHED:

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

[I just CAN'T BELIEVE that I've never read this one before! Milo receives a tollbooth in the mail which ends up being a porthole to a strange world where language is everything. The princesses Rhyme and Reason have been locked away, thus causing unwelcome changes across the lands, and it is up to Milo, Tock (a literal "watch dog"), and Humbug the bug, to travel to save them. Naturally, they have many odd adventures and meetings with strange creatures and beings, all of which tend to play on a well-known phrase in the English language. And it is just this, the wordplay, that makes this one an absolute classic - one that I would recommend to any avid reader with a firm knowledge of, and interest in, language. There are many memorable scenes here: Milo getting a chance to bring color into the world by conducting an orchestra that controls the comings and goings of the day; coming across the home of the man who is, all at once, the skinniest fat man, the fattest skinny man, the tallest short man, etc.; and meeting with the kid who, in his world, appears to be floating because he grows down instead of up. Quirky, odd, nonsensical, and fun in that classic, Roald Dahl-ish way, this one should be on every reading list.]



STARTED & FINISHED:
Robinson, Barbara. (1972). The best Christmas pageant ever. New York: HarperCollins.

[Gotta get in a holiday themed title here. This one has special meaning to me because not only do I remember watching the TV version of this classic, but I played Leroy Herdman in a community theatre production of the play. A must read at some point, despite the fact that it's main focus is a church nativity play. The Herdmans are the rottenist kids in town and, when they find out that there is free food given out, show up at church and end up taking over all of the major roles in the church nativity pageant. This one is really amusing, has a great narration, and bullies that are humanized by the end of the story. The image of Imogene Herdman dressed as Mary and crying while holding the baby doll gets me every time.]


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

[Recommended by a colleague who is reading with her adopted daughter from China.]

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