Books on My Nightstand, 1/27/14

This is what my nightstand looked like at noon today:

And then I saw a friend this evening who offered to loan me these:

How could I refuse?!  So, add those to the pile, too.

Books Read, Week of 1/20/14

I read quite a few books this week!  Look at them all in this photo -- mostly kid lit and YA, which is why I could get through so many.  Let's start with the YA:

~ More Than This by Patrick Ness.  As I read, I kept changing my mind on what kind of book this was.  An "issues" book?  A coming-of-age story?  A dystopian novel?  Science fiction?  In the end, I decided it was any and all of these.  Loved it.

~ The Littles Have a Wedding by John Peterson.  With Felix. Three down, one to go!

~ May B. by Caroline Starr Rose.  I think the author was inspired by the Little House books.  A wilderness survival story with a blizzard and dyslexia to boot!  And it's written in verse.  May B. is a great heroine.

~ A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.  How have I not read this before?  How have I never read any Woolf before?  How can I admit to being an English major?  Well, now I can.  I was worried; I've always been intimidated by Woolf, thinking she wouldn't be accessible to me.  I learned that yes, she is as smart as I assumed, but she's also a hoot, and I had a blast hanging out with her.

~ The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida. He's a winner.  I marked a few of his quotes.  Insightful and sweet.

~ Divergent by Veronica Roth.  With Skye, for mother-daughter book club.  Easy to get swept up in the story.  I liked Hunger Games better, but this one also has momentum.  Skye is about 1/3 of the way in and she isn't yet sold.

More winter favorites

We also read more picture books!  We love Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport with pictures by Bryan Collier.  And we each picked out another winter-themed book to read together.  Again, can you guess who picked each of them?

Books on My Nightstand, 1/20/14

Here they are!  I took off A Reader's Book of Days because I thought it would be dull to see that on my nightstand every week this year, but imagine that Nissley's book is always there, too.  I took a few out that I haven't finished in order to (hopefully) focus my reading a bit more.  It's interesting to see what books actually get read in these piles!  I always wish I could read them all in one week, but alas...

Books Read, Week of 1/13/14

 This week, I finished listening to The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen on audio.  I ended up really liking the reader for this book.  She sounded like a teenage girl to me, and her growth was evident in the changes to her voice.  Really nice story.  The Running Dream is one of this year's Maud Hart Lovelace Award nominees.  We read these with our Kids and Teen Book Clubs at the library, and every year, I attempt to read as many as I can.  So many great picks this year.

Felix and I finished reading the next Littles book, which means there are now two left to read of my four old Scholastic copies from when I was a kid.  He immediately grabbed the next book and demanded we read it, so these are a hit with him.

We've been immersed in the Warrior Cats books for our nighttime read-alouds.  The kids love 'em, which makes it hard to talk them into something else.  So, I've promised to read the first series with them -- six books -- and then we will move into something else.  We are now halfway there, as we completed #3: Forest of Secrets this week!

We also read a few picture books together.  Felix is studying the solar system in school, so I checked out some nonfiction books at the library.  He saw Boy, Were We Wrong About the Solar System! in the pile, and wanted to read it right away.  He liked it -- was very engaged and asked lots of questions.

I also got out our winter picture books.  Wow, do these bring back memories!  I had them each pick a favorite, and I picked one, also, and then we read them aloud together.  Can you guess who picked each one?

I think I'm going to try to keep track of the picture books we read together this year.

Books on My Nightstand, 1/13/14

I'm finally catching up with these posts!  Hopefully now, I'm on a roll and can continue these on time.

Here's what my nightstand looked like on Monday this week. Lots of the same ones, but there are two or three that haven't been here before.  Let's see which ones I can finish this week.  It's Friday evening, so I have a couple more days/nights of reading.  I believe at least one of these will move off of my nightstand.

Okay, I'm off to read right now!

Books Read, Week of 1/6/14

This past week, I finished Lisa See's Dreams of Joy for my IRL book club.  I liked the book, but didn't love it the way I remember loving Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  I admire Lisa See and all the research she does, and as I told a friend, this is a much more effective way for me to learn history.  After reading this one, I got online and read all about the Great Leap Forward, China's propaganda posters, and more.  Also, the book made for great discussion with our book group.

In anticipation of seeing author Laurie Halse Anderson speak, I read these two picture books of hers aloud to the kids, and we enjoyed both.  The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School is so much fun, and timely, since Felix is now learning about the solar system.  (You'll have to check out the book to see how the solar system comes into this story.)  And Independent Dames shows off her passion for history.  She's good!

(Yes, I hope to write a bit soon about the LHAnderson event that Skye and I attended.  Skye is finishing up Chains now, and says it's very good.  When I found out she was coming a few weeks ago, I pulled Speak off the shelf (it's been waiting for me for a long time) and read it in just a few days.  Fantastic book.)

Books on My Nightstand, 1/5/14

One more post for today:  My nightstand book stack on Sunday evening, January 5.

I've added a book that will stay there for all of 2014.  Do you see that top book?  That's A Reader's Book of Days by Tom Nissley; click on that link for a review of the book.  I saw it recommended by Nancy Pearl one day in December on Facebook and made a note of it.  When my parents gave me a gift card to a favorite local independent bookstore for Christmas, I used it to buy this book.

There are a few more books that have been in every picture, but they aren't meant to stay there all year like this one will.  But some may take a month or two...

Books Read, Week of 12/30/13

Wrapped up 2013 with three fun (in their own way) books:

~ The Elements of Style Illustrated.  An English major who's never read Strunk & White?  Yup, it's true.  This summer, after listening to E.B. White's three children's novels on audio with the kids, I requested just about everything from the library that had his name attached to it.  And that's about as far as I got -- except, my English major guilt got me to crack open the Strunk & White.  It helps that this edition is illustrated by Maira Kalman.  Read it in bits & pieces, and checked it out again to finish it up this year.  Now, I am guilt-free (because I've read their rules and can now choose whether or not to follow them.)

~ Fortunately, the Milk.  You can always count on Neil Gaiman to tell a great story.  This one is so much fun!  I read it aloud to Felix, and Skye listened in a bit, then grabbed when we were through and gulped it down herself.  We all laughed a lot!

~ Hilda and the Troll.  I believe our library has three Hilda books now.  I've loved them all, and Skye has, too.  Great graphic stories; check 'em out.

And started 2014 with three more fun reads:

~ The False Prince.  As usual, our Teen Book Club picked a winner.  Skye and I both raced through it.  The first in a trilogy, and we just checked out the second from our library.  The third is due out in February:  Yes!

~ The Littles.  Read this one aloud to Felix.  I have the old versions of these, from Scholastic book orders when I was a kid, and I think this is part of the fascination for him.  I don't know how long this will be there, but I found the book on Etsy.  Quick, take a peek, and let me know if it's familiar to you.

~ The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics.  This was a part of Skye's book stack last year, and we finally both read it.  It's cute, but I wish the Dot was shown to have better qualities.  Not sure she deserves that wonderful, creative, intelligent, devoted Line.

Books on My Nightstand, 12/29/13

Here's my nightstand on December 29, a Sunday evening.  Another vacation week ahead, which you'd think would make for a good reading week, but that's not always the case.

It looks pretty much the same as last week, but rearranged.  Can you see which book is missing?  Of course, The Florist's Daughter, which I said a bit about in a previous post.  I also discussed Lips Touch there, but since I finished it Sunday night, it's still here on my nightstand for this photo.  Still figuring out how to do this... I think I will take photos on Monday instead!

I'll post soon about what I read this week.  It's past history, so you don't have to wait too long!

What I've Read in 2014

This will be a running list of the books I've read in 2014.  I will keep it updated throughout the year.

For me:
1. Dreams of Joy (Lisa See)
2. More Than This (Patrick Ness)
3. May B. (Caroline Starr Rose)
4. A Room of One's Own (Virginia Woolf)
5. The Reason I Jump (Naoki Higashida)
6. Insurgent (Veronica Roth)
7. Allegiant (Veronica Roth)
8. Food Matters (Mark Bittman)
9. One Hundred and One Classic Love Poems (compiled by Sara L. Whittier)
10. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (Mason Curry)
11. Persuasion (Jane Austen)

For/with Skye (grades 9-10):
1. The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (Norton Juster)
2. Divergent (Veronica Roth)
3. The Perfect Storm (Sebastian Junger)
4. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

With Skye (grades 9-10) and Felix (grades 3-4):
1. Warriors #3: Forest of Secrets (Erin Hunter)
2. Warriors #4: Rising Storm (Erin Hunter)

With Felix (grades 3-4):
1. The Littles (John Peterson)
2. The Littles Take a Trip (John Peterson)
3. The Littles Have a Wedding (John Peterson)
4. Tom Little's Great Halloween Scare (John Peterson)
5. The World According to Humphrey (Betty G. Birney)

For Kids Book Club, and *sometimes with Felix (ages 8-12):
1. The Running Dream (Wendelin Van Draanen)
2. Turtle in Paradise (Jennifer L. Holm)
3. *Cinderella Smith (Stephanie Barden)

For Teen Book Club, and *sometimes with Skye (ages 12+):
1. *The False Prince (The Ascendance Trilogy #1) (Jennifer A. Nielsen)
2. *Eleanor & Park on audio (Rainbow Rowell)
3. *Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell)

Picture books:
1. Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School (Laurie Halse Anderson & Ard Hoyt)
2. Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution (Laurie Halse Anderson & Matt Faulkner)
3. Boy, Were We Wrong About the Solar System (Kathleen V. Kudlinski & John Rocco)
4. Snow (Cynthia Rylant & Lauren Stringer)
5. There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow! (Lucille Colandro & Jared Lee)
6. The Mitten Tree (Candace Christiansen & Elaine Greenstein)
7. Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Doreen Rappaport & Bryan Collier)
8. Winter Is the Warmest Season (Lauren Stringer)
9. The Mitten (Jan Brett)
10. The Biggest Snowman Ever (Steven Kroll & Jeni Bassett)
11. The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats)
12. Snowflake Bentley (Jacqueline Briggs Martin & Mary Azarian)
13. The Snowman (Raymond Briggs)
14. The Day It Rained Hearts (Felicia Bond)
15. Clifford's First Valentine's Day (Norman Bridwell)
16. A Village Full of Valentines (James Stevenson)
17. Valentine Holiday Grab Bag: Stories, Crafts, Games, and More! (Judith Stamper)
18. Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library! (Vicki Myron, Bret Witter, & Steve James)

Books Read, Week of 12/23/13

 

Here are the books I read/finished this week.  Not bad for a busy week!  Felix and I finished Cornelia Funke's When Santa Fell to Earth, which he certainly liked.  I think he was just the right age for it.  I've never read anything by Funke, but I've always intended to try Inkheart.  Someday.

My book club read The Florist's Daughter last month, and I'd only gotten halfway through it by the time of our November meeting.  I was enjoying it and intended to finish; late November and December's busy schedules meant I got to it later than I wanted, but I was able to jump right back in where I'd left off.  Patricia Hampl's memoir about her parents, written at the time of her mother's death, after her father has already passed, was interesting and engaging.  Hampl is a local writer, and I found her descriptions of mid-century St. Paul, the neighborhoods and the people, fascinating.  She writes beautifully and intelligently, and the style is very memory-based, moving around in time, just as memories move along with us through our lives.

Laini Taylor's Lips Touch: Three Times was a treat.  We'd read one of her Faeries of Dreamdark books, Blackbringer, with our teen book club this past year, and when I saw this on the shelf at our library during book club in December and expressed a keen interest in reading it, one of the teens strongly encouraged me to check it out that day.  So I did!  She's a wonderful writer, and I love how she plays with the fantasy genre.  Her characters are fabulous, and her storytelling keeps you reading.

Cinderella: The Graphic Novel was even more of an impulse check-out at the library.  I often check the graphic novel shelves, and seeing this one, was curious about it; I'd just seen a wonderful version of Cinderella at our Children's Theatre Company, and so I was primed.  The drawings in this book are about as different as you can get from the scenes set in the play I saw, but I thought about how neat it is that this story can be told in so many different ways, and still succeeds in hitting the spot.

Books on My Nightstand, 12/22/13

I have a fun idea for my blog, and I'm going to give it a try.  I have been sorting out exactly how to do this, so I'm a little behind, but intend to catch up.

Inspired by Nick Hornby's monthly reading column in The Believer magazine, I wondered how I could do something similar.  He tracks "books bought" and "books read" each month.  How about if I track the books on my nightstand each week?

In the photo on the right, you can see what books were on my nightstand on December 22.  Each Sunday or Monday, I'll take a photo of my TBR stack and post it here.  The intention is to watch it change throughout the year.  What books will move quickly?  What books will take their time?  When will the pile be modest and manageable?  Will there be some weeks (many weeks??) where the pile threatens to topple?

So, this stack looks fairly reasonable to me.  I wouldn't expect to get through all of them in a week, but I'd hope to see some movement and changes in the coming week.

To find out how I did with this stack, check out my next post.

My 2014 Readolutions

I have set a goal on Goodreads again of reading 100 books in 2014.  That will include the chapter books I read with my kids, too. I have been reading lots of middle grade & YA fiction, which I love, but as always, I want to make sure I find time for "grown-up" books as well.

I will read at least 25 shelf-sitters this year!  I have too many books on the shelves that I've been neglecting.  I picked the number 25 because that's about how many I read last year, but I'd be happy to see that number move up this year.  Included in this goal is to read at least six of my Persephone books.

I will continue to read with my kids. The three of us read a chapter book together just about every night.  I also read books alongside Skye for our mother-daughter book group and our teen book club at the library, and we discuss together; and I've been reading chapter books aloud with Felix, some for the kids book club at the library.  I'd like to find more time for us to look at picture books together, which they both still love.  I hope they always do!

I will keep up with the reading for my online and IRL book clubs!  We just started our IRL group this past year, and it's been fun to get together every month or so, discussing books and developing friendships.

I will track my reading on Goodreads. This has been a great resource for me. I really enjoy being able to look back at what I've read, putting books onto different "shelves," and I love seeing updates about what my friends are reading.

I hope to post much more on this blog.  Writing is another goal for me this year, and this is such a fun combination of two of my favorite things to do.

My Favorite Books, 2013

Okay, here's my Best of 2013 list -- all of the books that earned five stars from me on Goodreads this year.  I put an asterisk next to ones that were re-reads for me.

Fiction:
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Mariana by Monica Dickens
*A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
*Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
*Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alverez
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Emma by Jane Austen

Nonfiction/Memoir:
Night by Elie Wiesel
No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
The Midwife by Jennifer Worth

Children’s/YA:
Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
*A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
*From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsberg
*Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
*The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
*The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
*The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
Knight’s Castle by Edward Eager

Graphic Novels:
Hilda and the Troll by Luke Pearson
Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt
Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke Pearson
Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke Pearson
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Building Stories by Chris Ware

My Reading Year, 2013

The only official goal I set this year was on Goodreads, where I challenged myself to read 100 books in 2013.  (This sounds like a lot, but I read so many kids/YA books, including graphic novels, that this is a reasonable goal for me.)  I made it!  I read 140 books in 2013.  Here's a break-down of those books:  47 grown-up books, 33 YA books, and 60 "kid lit" books.  Also, 13 of those 138 books were re-reads for me.

I always have a goal to read aloud with my kids, and I did pretty well with this.  I read 14 chapter books aloud to them this year, and we listened to 7 audiobooks this summer.

I read quite a few books this year that I've been meaning to read for awhile, and most of them ended up on my "favorites" list for the year (see my next post).  I am very happy to say I have finally read Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan, a book my husband has been encouraging me to read since I met him; we visited the Vonnegut Library in Indianapolis this summer, so it was good timing.  I am especially proud to have completed No Plot? No Problem! along with writing a NaNoWriMo "novel" in November.  I've been meaning to try this forever!

However, I have many Persephone books, but I only read three of them this year.  I think I'll set a goal to double that number next year.

I just counted, and 26 of the books I read this year are ones I'd truly consider "shelf-sitters."  Not bad!

Book Stacks Unwrapped, 2013

Skye's book stack (age 14)

Felix's book stack (age 9)

Book Stacks 2013

Here they are.  One for Skye, and one for Felix.

Stay tuned to see the unwrapped versions.

What I Read in 2013

For me:
1. The Cursing Mommy's Book of Days (Ian Frazier)
2. Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty (Greg Neri & Randy DuBurke)
3. Emma (Jane Austen)
4. Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
5. Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White (Lila Quintero Weaver)
6. Where'd You Go, Bernadette (Maria Semple)
7. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Paul Torday)
8. The Sisters Brothers (Patrick deWitt)
9. Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion (Steve Sheinkin)
10. A Brief History of Montmaray (The Montmaray Journals, #1) (Michelle Cooper)
11. Dimanche and Other Stories (Irène Némirovsky)
12. Twelve Kinds of Ice (Ellen Bryan Obed & Barbara McClintock)
13. Life After Life (Kate Atkinson)
14. Excellent Women (Barbara Pym)
15 Code Name Verity (Elizabeth Wein)
16. The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Jennifer Worth)
17. Every Eye (Isobel English)
18.  Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Ben Fountain)
19. The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship (Jeffrey Zaslow)
20. Mr. Fox (Helen Oyeyemi)
21. Unaccustomed Earth (Jhumpa Lahiri)
22. 11/22/63 (Stephen King)
23. This One is Mine (Maria Semple)
24. Building Stories (Chris Ware)
25. Trains and Lovers (Alexander McCall Smith)
26. Relish: My Life in the Kitchen (Lucy Knisley)
27. Mariana (Monica Dickens)
28. When I Forgot (Elina Hirvonen)
29. The Sirens of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut)
30. Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #1) (Louise Penny)
31. Iron Lake (Cork O'Connor, #1) (William Kent Krueger)
32. A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #2) (Louise Penny)
33. Rez Life (David Treuer)
34. Tenth of December (George Saunders)
35. The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip (George Saunders)
36. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
37. Eleanor & Park (Rainbow Rowell)
38. The Animals in that Country (Margaret Atwood)
39. Night Film (Marisha Pessl)
40. Little Fish: A Memoir from a Different Kind of Year (Ramsey Beyer)
41. One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street (Joanne Rocklin)
42. The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye (A.S. Byatt)
43. The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)
44. No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days (Chris Baty)
45. Stitches: a handbook on meaning, hope, and repair (Anne Lamott)
46. The Cuckoo's Calling (Robert Galbraith/J. K. Rowling)
47. Attachments (Rainbow Rowell)
48. A Christmas Guest (Anne Perry)
49. Cinderella: The Graphic Novel (Beth Bracken & Jeffrey Stewart Timmins)
50. The Florist's Daughter (Patricia Hampl)
51. Lips Touch: Three Times (Laini Taylor)
52. The Elements of Style Illustrated (William Strunk, E.B. White & Maira Kalman)

For/with Skye (grades 8-9):
1. A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel (Hope Larson)
2. Everybody Sees the Ants (A.S. King)
3. Chiggers (Hope Larson)
4. Foiled #2: Curses! Foiled Again (Jane Yolen)
5. Giants Beware! (Jorge Aguirre & Rafael Rosado)
6. The Order of the Stick #4: Don't Split the Party (Rich Burlew)
7. Hereville #2: How Mirka Met a Meteorite (Barry Deutsch)
8. Friends with Boys (Faith Erin Hicks)
9. In the Time of the Butterflies (Julia Alvarez)
10. The Order of the Stick #D: Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales (Rich Burlew)
11. Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer (Laini Taylor)
12. The Frog Princess (E.D. Baker)
13. Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen)
14. Hilda and the Midnight Giant (Luke Pearson)
15. Hilda and the Bird Parade (Luke Pearson)
16. A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare)
17. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (Jon Krakauer)
18. A Tale Dark and Grimm (Adam Gidwitz)
19. Hairspray: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Hit Broadway Musical (Mark O'Donnell)
20. Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1) (Marissa Meyer)
21. Jane, the Fox & Me (Fanny Britt & Isabelle Arsenault)
22. Night (Elie Wiesel)
23. Hilda and the Troll (Luke Pearson)

With Skye (grades 8-9) and Felix (grades 2-3):
1. Knight's Castle (Edward Eager)
2. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Kate DiCamillo)
3. Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi)
4. 43 Old Cemetery Road #3: Till Death Do Us Bark (Kate Klise & M. Sarah Klise)
5. The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate)
6. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #3: The Unseen Guest (Maryrose Wood)
7. Jackie & Me (Dan Gutman)
8. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)
9. James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl)
10. The BFG (Roald Dahl)
11. The Lemonade War (Jacqueline Davies)
12. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
13. The House at Pooh Corner (A.A. Milne)
14. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg)
15. The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook (Joanne Rocklin)
16. Stuart Little (E.B. White)
17. 43 Old Cemetery Road #4: The Phantom of the Post Office (Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise)
18. The Trumpet of the Swan (E.B. White)
19. Dealing with Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #1) (Patricia C. Wrede)
20. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Catherynne M. Valente)
21. Warriors #1: Into the Wild (Erin Hunter)
22. The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett (Tom Angleberger)
23. Warriors #2: Fire and Ice (Erin Hunter)

With Felix (grades 2-3):
1. Rosalie, My Rosalie (Jacquelyn Mitchard)
2. A Dog on His Own (Mary Jane Auch)
3. Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye #5: Raining Cats and Detectives (Colleen AF Venable & Stephanie Yue)
4. The Secret of the Stone Frog (David Nytra)
5. Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye #1: Hamster and Cheese (Colleen AF Venable & Stephanie Yue)
6. Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye #2: And Then There Were Gnomes (Colleen AF Venable & Stephanie Yue)
7. Calvin Coconut #2: The Zippy Fix (Graham Salisbury)
8. Bad Kitty: School Daze (Nick Bruel)
9. Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye #3: The Ferret's a Foot (Colleen AF Venable & Stephanie Yue)
10. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book #1) (Jeff Kinney)
11. Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye #4: Fish You Were Here (Colleen AF Venable & Stephanie Yue)
12. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #2: Rodrick Rules (Jeff Kinney)
13. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #3: The Last Straw (Jeff Kinney)
14. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #4: Dog Days (Jeff Kinney)
15. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #5: The Ugly Truth (Jeff Kinney)
16. Diary Of A Wimpy Kid #6: Cabin Fever (Jeff Kinney)
17. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #7: The Third Wheel (Jeff Kinney)
18. Calvin and Hobbes: Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons (Bill Watterson)
19. The Legend of Diamond Lil: A J.J. Tully Mystery (Doreen Cronin)
20. Aliens on Vacation (Clete Smith)
21. Alvin Ho #3: Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects, and Other Man-made Catastrophes (Lenore Look)
22. The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary (Jeff Kinney)
23. The Talented Clementine (Clementine, #2) (Sara Pennypacker)
24. Clementine's Letter (Sara Pennypacker)
25. My Weirder School #7: Miss Kraft Is Daft! (Dan Gutman)
26. My Weird Writing Tips (Dan Gutman)
27. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #8: Hard Luck (Jeff Kinney)
28. The Extraordinary Adventures Of Ordinary Basil (Wiley Miller)
29. When Santa Fell To Earth (Cornelia Funke)
30. Fortunately, the Milk (Neil Gaiman)

For Kids Book Club (ages 8-12):
1. A Dog on His Own (Mary Jane Auch)
2. Top of the Order (John Coy)
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book #1) (Jeff Kinney)
4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)
5. James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl)
6. One Crazy Summer (Rita Williams-Garcia)
7. Okay for Now (Gary D. Schmidt)

For Teen Book Club (ages 12+):
1. Everybody Sees the Ants (A.S. King)
2. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
3. Reached (Ally Condie)
4. Ask The Passengers (A.S. King)
5. Please Ignore Vera Dietz (A.S. King)
6. The Books of Umber #1: Happenstance Found (P.W. Catanese)
7. How to Save a Life (Sara Zarr)
8. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi)
9. Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer (Laini Taylor)
10. A Tale Dark and Grimm (Adam Gidwitz)
11. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
12. Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson)

Picture Books with Felix

One of my reading goals for 2013 is to read more picture books with my kids again, especially with Felix.  They both still enjoy them, and I hope they will throughout their lifetimes.

So far this January, Felix and I have read three together:

Step Gently Out by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder

"Step gently out, be still, and watch a single blade of grass."

Helen Frost wrote two novels in poetry for young people that my daughter and I loved:  Diamond Willow and Hidden.  When we looked for more information about her, we found this picture book.  Step Gently Out uses beautiful photos by Rick Lieder as illustrations for a gorgeous poem by Frost about insects.  Felix was a little intimidated -- he's hated insects ever since being stung by a hornet a couple of years ago -- but the photos are so up-close and detailed that he couldn't help but be intrigued.  The last two pages give more information about each of the tiny creatures that are mentioned in the poem.

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury

"Once upon a time, there were three cuddly little wolves with soft fur and fluffy tails who lived with their mother."

I always cheer when I see Helen Oxenbury's illustrations!  She is marvelous, gentle and fun.  In this twist on the story of the Three Little Pigs, there are lots of funny changes to talk about and predictions to make.  The wolves start by building a brick house, but the Big Bad Pig knocks it down with a sledgehammer.  What will they all try next?  And how will this tale end?  Felix and I had fun spotting the china teapot the wolves saved from the pig's destruction on many of the pages.

Moose, Goose and Little Nobody by Ellen Raskin

One day a big wind blew.
Trees fell and a gas pump flew.
From somewhere a red roof
spun through the air
and came down with a
BUMP!

"What is that?" said Moose to Goose.

Felix loved this one!  Ellen Raskin is silly and adores playing with words.  For more about this book (and to see some of the great illustrations), check out this review on one of my favorite blogs, Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves.

Today