Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea

Published in 2010. 269 pages.


Because of Mr. Terupt is a tender middle grade novel about the impact a good teacher can have on his students. Told from alternating viewpoints, it is also about growing up, making choices to become a better person, and learning to forgive.

It's probably not a good idea for me to read a book that makes me sob while lying in bed without any tissues nearby!

Author Rob Buyea's website is here. Because of Mr. Terupt was a 2010 Cybils Finalist and is a 2012 Beehive Award Nominee. I was thrilled to discover that a sequel, titled Mr. Terupt Falls Again, is to be released in the fall of 2012.

2011.71

The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

Published in 2008. 248 pages.


This 2011 Beehive Award nominee is a very compelling read! I basically read it in less than 24 hours.

Eli's father has feared a nuclear holocaust for years. Now it has finally come, and Eli and his family now must live in the protective compound that his father had built.

I feel like I know the characters of this post-apocalyptic-dystopian novel, and I was sobbing toward the end of the book. I highly recommend it to middle school students - both boys and girls - and to adults who enjoy this genre. I'm eager to read Bodeen's 2010 young adult sci-fi novel The Gardener.

Having completed this book, I qualify for
Level 2 of YA-D2!

From the peanut gallery: My 14-year-old book-loving daughter said, "Interesting and suspenseful. But it was kinda' disappointing because it wasn't what I expected it to be."

2010.79

Library Loot - September 1

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Marg and Claire to encourage bloggers to share what they’ve checked out from the library.



I am reading a faster pace than I was earlier this year, but is it fast enough to justify getting seven new books this week? I guess we'll see!


11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
(This one was a Cybils finalist last year,
and it's a now a Beehive award nominee.)

Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford
(This one was a Cybils finalist last year.
It's also the first in a series, with the third installment
on The Contemps list for release next summer.)

Dead Man Walking by Helen Prejean
(I saw the film version of this one a week or so ago
and am interested in reading the book.)

Deception by Jonathan Kellerman
(This is the latest installment - the 25th! - in the Alex Delaware series.)

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares
(This one was on the "new releases" shelf,
and I couldn't resist picking it up.)

Behind You by Jacqueline Woodson
(This is the sequel to If You Come Softly - which I still have checked out from the library from a previous visit. Hopefully I will get to them both shortly!)

Austenland by Shannon Hale
(I have never read any of Jane Austen's books. But I've recently seen both a play and a film version of Pride and Prejudice, and hearing that Shannon Hale is currently working on a sequel to Austenland, I decided that it was time for me to read it.)

Books and Reading and More Books and More Reading

With the kids back in school and autumn weather just around the corner, it seems that there is a lot happening in the reading world. I am so very excited!

(Click on the buttons for more information.)

September 22 - December 20


October 9







2011 Nominees
What books or reading events are you excited about?

A Crooked Kind of Perfectby Linda Urban

Published in 2007. 214 pages.


A Crooked Kind of Perfect is a 2010 Beehive Award Nominee in Children's Fiction, and I found it to be a delightful middle grade novel about 10-year-old girl Zoe, who wants to play the piano.

As an accountant, I found myself relating a little to Zoe's mother, who is a controller. At Career Day, Zoe's mom explained her job this way: "In any organization there are distractions. Personalities. Drama. It is a controller's job to ignore these distractions and focus exclusively on the money" [pages 7-8]. (Boy, she is so right about the drama!)

One passage was just so laugh-out-loud funny:

At our next lesson, Mabelline Person gives me a CD and a stack of Perfectone songbooks: Marvelous Movie Memories, Hits of the Fifties, Hits of the Sixties, Hits of the Seventies, Hits of the Nineties.

"What about the eighties?" I ask.

There were no hits in the eighties," says Miss Person. [page 63]

I highly recommend A Crooked Kind of Perfect!

2010.20

20-10 Plus 20-10A Personal Challenge

I am planning to limit myself to six reading challenges in 2010, two of which began in 2009. Here are the six, with links to the challenge blogs:

• 2010 Countdown Challenge (a total of 55 books, of which I've already read 25 - so I'm almost way-half there),


• Book Awards 4 (a total of 10 books),


• Women Unbound (a total of 8 books, one of which I've already read),


• 42 Challenge (a total of 42 items, which will likely include at least six books),


• A to Z Challenge (a total of 52 books),


• and Social Justice Challenge (at least three full-length books plus other requirements).

Additionally, I'm going to challenge myself to read "20-10 Plus 20-10" from four book lists in which I'm interested. Those books better fit into the parameters of the other challenges too, or else I'm going to have to far exceed my goal of 104 books for the year (an average of two a week).

• 20 Books from the Salt Lake County Library Reader's Choice. Recently published books are chosen twice a year by the Salt Lake County Library staff as books they enjoyed reading and think library patrons will enjoy too. Patrons vote for their favorites. My picks will come from the 2010 nominees or past winners.


• 10 Books from the Midvale Middle School Book Challenge. The students at the middle school that my daughter attends are encouraged to participate in a "book challenge" in which they are to read 30 books from a list of recommended YA titles. I want to read some of the 2009-2010 school year recommendations (which I've put on one of my goodreads shelves), and, if necessary, some of those for 2010-2011.


• 20 Books from Finalists for The Cybils Awards. These "Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Award" finalists for 2009-2010 were announced on New Year's Day, with the winners to be announced on Valentine's Day.


• 10 Books from the Beehive Awards. The Beehive Awards - in five categories - are sponsored by the Children's Literature Association of Utah (CLAU). Winners are chosen from the nominated books by the children of Utah, who vote for their favorites. My picks will come from the 2010 nominees (which can be found here) and/or prior year winners (which can be found here).

Happy reading in 2010!

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Natureby Robin Brande

Published in 2007. 268 pages.


I really liked this debut young adult novel, which (like Unwind) is a 2010 Beehive Award Nominee in Young Adults' Books. I completely agree with this comment from the School Library Journal:

The most impressive thing about this novel is the fairness and empathy with which Brande presents Mena's heartfelt struggle to reconcile her belief in both God and science.

Find out more about Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature at author Robin Brande's blog.

2009.61

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Published in 2007. 335 pages.


Unwind is a Children's Literature Association of Utah 2010 Beehive Award Nominee in the Young Adults' Books category. It was also recently challenged (with six other books) in a high school in Kentucky, as reported by author Laurie Halse Anderson. This dichotomy of views made this science-fiction novel the perfect read for me during Banned Books Week!

First sentence: "There are places you can go," Ariana tells him, "and a guy as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving to eighteen."

Last sentence: At last, he allows himself the wonderful luxury of hope.

In my view, the best works of sci-fi provide commentary about our day and our society. Shusterman has written a book that challenges his readers' ideas about life - where it begins, where it ends, and what it means to be alive - and thereby comments primarily about the political debate between "right to life" and "right to choice," but also about organ donation, terrorism, medical advances, race, legalities, family, and doing the right thing.

Here are two favorite passages:

In a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is. [page 75]

"Please ...," says the boy.
Please what? the teacher thinks. Please break the law? Please put myself and the school at risk? But, no that's not it at all. What he's really saying is: Please be a human being. With a life so full of rules and regiments, it's so easy to forget that's what they are. She knows - she sees - how often compassion takes a back seat to expediency. [page 83]

In March 2008, there was a review of Unwind in The New York Times. I agree with this conclusion:

Ultimately, though, the power of the novel lies in what it doesn’t do: come down explicitly on one side or the other.

That's why the book is so brilliant - and why it will be provoking my thoughts for many days to come!

2009.60

Pigboy by Vicki Grant

Published in 2006. 101 pages.


This 2009 Beehive Award Nominee in Young Adults' Books is one of the Orca Currents, "short high-interest novels with contemporary themes, written expressly for middle-school students reading below grade level." It was the perfect read for me in the waning hours of the 24-Hour Read-a-Thon!

My son helped me use Pigboy for a Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge. Vicki Grant's Pigboy webpage is here.

2009.24

Hot Lunch by Alex Bradley

Published in 2007. 276 pages.


This 2009 Beehive Award Nominee in Young Adults' Books was a fun read with important messages about healthy food choices and improving school lunches.

Great-aunt Dorothy apologized for the food. She was ninety-one, but she had strong feelings on the subject of food. "The food here [at the senior center] tastes like it was made by people who actually hate pleasure," she said. "People who've never eaten a fresh tomato, or real butter, or bacon, or garden peas, or blue cheese, or raspberries from the back yard, or homemade bread with honey on it!"

"I knew that's what it tasted like," I said, "I just didn't know how to say it." [page 125]

What did food mean to me? How had I become a "candy vegetarian"? And how much had I changed in the past several weeks? Why hadn't I ever thought about food before, and how it impacted not just me and my health, but the health and well-being of my community and my planet? Not to mention my taste buds. I remember the cake that Cassie and I had made - the first from-scratch cake I'd ever made - and how good it was. I remembered Edmund's simple but delicious tomato soup. I remembered how that local applie Clyde had let me taste had made the supermarket apple taste like dust. I remember Great-aunt Dorothy's speech in favor of flavor. And I remembered Patty's suggestion that cooking was like magic. [page 253]

2009.22

The Rhyming Season by Edward Averett

Published in 2005. 214 pages.


I didn't fall in love with this one immediately. I'm still not sure how I feel about a few aspects of the story. But I did enjoy this 2007-2008 Beehive Award Nominee in Young Adults' Books.

The premise - mixing poetry with basketball - was a fun one, definitely unique.

Brenda Jacobsen's voice reminded me a little of D.J.'s in the fabulous Dairy Queen.

There wasn't anything the least bit objectionable - no profanity, no depictions of sex, and when the team goes out to the forest to hang out, they share a Pepsi, not beer. While I know that profanity, sex, and alcohol are reality among some groups of teens, I also know that the lack thereof is reality for others - and I was happy to see that possibility portrayed in a contemporary YA novel.

In the end, I just can't resist a good girls' basketball story!

2009.1

Team Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

Subtitled How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon.
Published in 2006.
80 pages (including sources, notes, and a section "For Further Exploration").


This 2007-2008 Beehive Award Nominee in Informational is an awe-inspiring look at all those behind that the first walk on the moon in 1969.

Yes, three heroic men went to the moon; but it was a team of four hundred thousand people that put them there. They were the flight directors, controllers, planners, and engineers; the rocket designers and builders and technicians; the managers, supervisors, quality control and safety inspectors; the programmers, electricians, welders, seamstresses, gluers, painters, doctors, geologists, scientists, trainers, and navigators . . .

Apollo 11 is their story too. [page 7]

2009.2

She's All That! Poems About GirlsSelected by Belinda Hollyer

Illustrated by Susan Hellard.
Published in 2006. 128 pages.



Why I read this book: This anthology was a 2007-2008 Beehive Award Nominee in Children's Poetry.

From Hollyer's introduction:

If you asked 100 young women what being a girl is all about, you'd probably get 100 different answers. ... The girls in these poems are all that - and so are you. Whatever interests you most in your life, there's a poem in this book that will speak directly to you.

Among the poets included in the book: Ogden Nash, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Jack Prelutsky, Alice Walker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Judith Viorst.

Two of my favorite poems: "What Are Little Girls ..." by Adrian Henri and "Poem for Two Voices" by Carol Diggory Shields.

(By the way, this was book six of my dream to read a book-a-day to the end of the year. I'm officially eight books behind.)

2008.77

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen

Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.
Published in 2006. 48 pages.


Library Lion is a delightful picture book about libraries and friendship and rules. It was a Children's Literature Association of Utah (CLAU) Beehive Award Nominee for 2007-2008.

First line: One day, a lion came to the library.

My favorite lines: Sometimes there is a good reason to break the rules. Even in the library.

2008.61

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Published in 2006. 274 pages.

Paperback Cover
Hardback Cover

First line: This whole enormous deal wouldn't have happened, none of it, if Dad hadn't messed up his hip moving the manure spreader.

Last line: Maybe Curtis should try flunking English.

Why I read this book: I chose Dairy Queen for the Triple 8 Challenge in my "Bee Bonanza" category - picks from the nominees for the 2008 Beehive Awards. I also chose it to celebrate Dairy Month, which is June, for the Every Month is a Holiday Challenge.

Basic concept: A coming-of-age story of a sixteen-year-old dairy farmer and her relationship with her family, all of whom love football, and with the quarterback of a rival football team.

Why I loved this book: One of the blurbs on the back cover of the sequel The Off Season says it well:

"D.J. Schwenk is a real, true-to-life heroine ... full of self-doubt, yet incredibly determined and brave. Plus, she's funny. Her voice just dragged me in and didn't let go. I loved this book."
- E. Lockhart, author of The Boyfriend List and Fly on the Wall

I found it impossible not to like D.J.! Additionally, the secondary characters are well-developed, and the whole story just rings true. The chapters have fun titles too, such as "People Who Are Crazy and Need to Have Their Heads Examined" and "Who Ever Said Love Was Fun?"

What else you might want to know: The sequel to Dairy Queen is The Off Season - which I started reading immediately after finishing Dairy Queen. (My review of The Off Season is here.) Catherine Gilbert Murdock's website is here. I'm whole-heartedly recommending this book to my seventeen-year-old daughter.

Other book bloggers' reviews of Dairy Queen:
If you have read and reviewed this book, I would love to link your review here. Please leave me a comment or email me your link!

• Melissa at Book Nut (April 8, 2008)


• Jen Robinson's Book Page (June 3, 2007)

2008.33

The Quintessential Challenge for 2008

Michelle (or 3M) is hosting the quintessential challenge for 2008! In the Triple 8 Challenge (or 888), participants "read eight books in each of eight different categories in 2008." (Further details are available on the challenge blog.)


These are my eight categories:

1. Oh, To Be Young Again! (some cross-listing with the Young Adult Challenge)
   Eight young adult or older children's novels.


2. Escapism Reads (some cross-listing with the Series Challenge, the First in a Series Challenge, and the Cardathon)
   Eight books from the genres of mystery, suspense thriller, science fiction, fantasy, chick lit, or maybe even romance.


3. In Their Shoes (cross-listing with the "In Their Shoes" Challenge)
   Eight memoirs, biographies, or autobiographies. The "long list" of my picks is here.


4. Bee Bonanza
   Eight books from the 2008 Beehive Book Nominees. (The Beehive Awards are sponsored by the Children's Literature Association of Utah (CLAU). Awards are given in five categories: Children's Picture Book, Children's Fiction Book, Children's Informational Book, Young Adults' Book, and Children's Poetry Book. Winners are chosen from the nominated books by the children of Utah, who vote for their favorite books. A list of the 2008 nominees can be found here.) These are my preliminary picks (in alphabetical order):
   
   
   • Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley*
   
   
   • Dairy Queen: A Novel by Catherine Gilbert Murdock*
   
   
   • Fairest by Gail Carson Levine*
   
   
   • Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes*
   
   
   • Pieces of Georgia by Jennifer Bryant*
   
   
   • The Rhyming Season by Edward Averett*
   
   
   • She's All That: Poems about Girls by Belinda Hollyer
   
   
   • Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh
   
   
5. Salt Lake County Library Reader's Choice
   Eight books from either the 2008 nominees or past winners. (Twice a year the Salt Lake County Library staff selects a group of recently published books that they enjoyed reading and that they think library patrons will like reading too. Patrons vote for their favorites. A list of past winners is here.)


6. Banned Books (in conjunction with the Banned Books Project)
   Eight books from the many that have ever been challenged or banned.


7. IRL Book Club Picks
   Eight picks from those chosen for my main in-real-life book club. (We meet eleven times during the year, so hopefully there will be at least eight picks that I haven't previously read. If there aren't enough, then this category will be expanded to include some picks of the book club of my church women's group.)


8. Books About Books (cross-listing with the Themed Reading Challenge)
   Eight books (fiction or non-fiction) about books or reading. Among the possibilities I'm considering are the following:
   
   
   • 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (This would be a re-read from my college days.)
   
   
   • Book Crush: For Kids and Teens - Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl
   
   
   • Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl
   
   
   • The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them edited by Roxanne J. Coady and Joy Johannessen
   
   
   • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak*
   
   
   • Booked to Die (the first in the Cliff Janeway series) by John Dunning
   
   
   • Ex Libris : Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
   
   
   • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (This would be a re-read from my high school days.)*
   
   
   • Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak
   
   
   • How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen
   
   
   • Inkheart by Cornelia Funke*
   
   
   • Inkspell by Cornelia Funke*
   
   
   • Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen*
   
   
   • Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World by Lawrence Goldstone
   
   
   • The Readers' Choice: 200 Book Club Favorites by Victoria Golden McMains

Note: Potentially overlapping picks (eight of which are allowed by the challenge) are marked with an asterisk.

I've done the math, and if I'm going to be successful with this challenge, I'm going to need to read at least five of these books each month (or a little more than one book a week) throughout the year. As of today I've read almost sixty-seven books this year - which is at a pace for a total of about seventy-nine for the whole year, or about one-and-a-half books a week. Even with the addition of a handful of additional books - for other challenges (either already in progress or yet to join), for other purposes (such as the Book Buddies picks and the selections of two Yahoo book groups I've recently joined - Book Awards and Classic Lit), or justforthehelluvit - it seems do-able. (I think.)

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar

Published in 2005. 279 pages.


My then fifteen-year-old daughter read this one last year and frequently laughed out loud, so I knew I wanted to read it too. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I think David Lubar has a new fan. BTW Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie is a Beehive Award Nominee this year in the Young Adult category.

2007.14