One good book can lead to another! Both of these stories involve girls who take a road trips. Julia’s from a once-prominent family that’s fallen on hard times, and Bicycle is an orphan determined to meet her cycling idol, who’s way off on the other side of the country.
Middle Grade Reading. My participation in #MGBookMarch has been hit-or-miss over the years. Some of their themes are just easier than others. This year, there’s a good crop, and I’ve been making an effort to take part. Here are their themes for 2022:
Use the hashtag wherever you participate on social media. I’m taking part on Twitter.
Day 01 – Double Letters in the Title
Day 02 – Character’s Name Starts with “C” – Christopher, Colophon, Coyote
Day 03 – A Book You Think Only You Have Read – I went with somewhat obscure classics & an out-of-print title by a favorite author, but lots of people recommended underrated & indie books
Day 05 – Book Featuring a Weather Event
Day 06 – Stunning Book Covers – HOW do you even choose? There are so many stunners. For the sake of the challenge, I simply chose three favorites that look lovely together.
Day 07 – Book with a Setting You Want to Visit – I’d like a corner table at The Boneyard Cafe … to lurk in Winterhouse’s library (or do puzzles in the lobby) … and throw paint around in a Soho art loft on Greene Street.
That’s Week 1! Hope to see you taking part next week!
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F and G. Making steady progress through the alphabet with this year’s reading challenges.
One good book can lead to another! Both of these books are set in South America. The Dreamer is about the boyhood of a poet, and When You Look Up shares the imaginative point of view of a boy whose imagination is captured by an artist’s journal.
So Far, So Good. I’ve been reading three books for each letter of the alphabet, and this week, I hit the letter E. Not bad for progress through the Great Middle Grade Reads 2022 A to Z Reading Challenge.
2022 READING CHALLENGES. This year, #MGCarousel is giving us more time to tackle our bingo boards, and I think it’s great. Here’s the new board for January & February.
Nab your own board & check out this month’s theme over at Middle Grade Carousel >>
January 2022 Calendar. Since I’m reading my MG books in alphabetical order this year, it’s a lot harder to fit them onto the BINGO board. But there’s always room on my calendar.
Goodreads. The beginning of a new year means signing up for new reading challenges over at Goodreads. This year, I’m tackling another A to Z Challenge at Great Middle Grade Reads, where I’m a moderator. While I still hope to get through the alphabet twice, I’m going to do it with a twist. Just for the fun of it, I’ll be reading my MG books in alphabetical order. (Why not?)
I’ve set my annual goal on Goodreads at 100 books, though I may adjust that if I happen to have a really good reading year. (I’ve had over 200 books in years past, but last year, I scraped in at 101 because of one thing and another.) I’ll also be taking on the #BookADayMay reading challenge over at Middle Grade Carousel, and I may attempt their Bingo Boards again this year. All fun stuff!
Happy New Year, reading friends! ~CJ
In Fortune Falls, you’re either born Lucky or Unlucky. Sadie is doing everything she can to change her luck so she can go to school with her best friend, who’s a Lucky. But Fate seems determined to thwart her at every turn. In Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, Theodore’s parents are lawyers and many of his friends are lawyers (and police detectives and judges and bailiffs and secretaries and janitors at the courthouse). If he could get away with it, he’d skip school to sit in on trials all day long. Someday, he’s going to be a lawyer. In the meantime, he offers legal advice to friends… and applies his quick mind to ongoing local cases. And, hey! I finally got around to starting the Artemis Fowl series. When millionaire boy genius Artemis Fowl learns of the existence of fairies, he sets out to catch one in order to learn more secrets of the People. When Holly Short (a member of LEPrecon) takes a shuttle to the surface in order to contain a troll outbreak, she falls into Artemis’s trap. What a mess.
Okay for Now is a sequel/spin-off of The Wednesday Wars, so it’s set during the Vietnam War. Doug’s (overbearing, verbally abusive, heavy-handed) father moves the family to a different town to find work. It’s not great, but it’s not all bad. And then it gets better. A little at a time, thanks to people who don’t look at Doug and see nothing but a skinny thug. In Emily Out of Focus, Emily and her parents travel to China in order to bring home a new baby sister. They’re in a large group with other adoptive families, and Emily meets Katherine, who was adopted herself and hopes to (secretly) find out something about her birth mother. The Printer’s Apprentice is a story based on real historical events. Gus is apprenticed to a printer in New York in 1735. Tidbits of life in pre-Revolutionary America, with plenty of name dropping. Sprinkled with adages from Poor Richard’s Almanac. Although my favorite part may be how Krensky deftly wove in examples of how printer’s jargon worked its way into the English language (eg. “out of sorts”).
C. J. Milbrandt 