Most of the books on my "to-read" list will be children's and YA literature--the nature of my job, but a very pleasant one!
"Britt-Marie Was Here" and "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry" by Fredrik Backman. I just LOVED "A Man Called Ove" (Mahan Girls Book Club selection), and have seen great reviews on these other two from trusted fellow read-a-philes!
"Allie, First at Last" by Angela Cervantes. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed "Gabby, Lost and Found", and want to read this follow-up novel. I have many Hispanic girls in my school, and these stories will be ones they can relate to. FYI - I also love Pam Munoz Ryan, who wrote "Esperanza Rising" and "Becoming Naomi Leon", as well as this year's Newbery Honor book "Echo". I've read all those.
"Booked" by Kwame Alexander - This young author bumped out Jacqueline Woodson for the Newbery in 2015 with his prose novel "Crossover", and I LOVED it! So, time to read the next one! (Side note: "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson won a Newbery Honor that year, and it is brilliant, incredible, impressive...........)
"Ball Don't Lie" by Matt de la Pena -- this author just did what I believe has never been done before...he won the Newbery Medal for a picture book! "Last Stop on Market Street" is brilliant, and Christopher Robinson rightfully won a Caldecott Honor for his illustrations. So I read up on Mr. de la Pena and discovered that he's been writing YA fiction for years! So I'm going to research some of his earlier works, starting with this one, published back in 2005. Here is a link to his Newbery acceptance speech.........my daughter Lisa sent it to me, and it made us both cry.
http://www.hbook.com/2016/06/news/awards/2016-newbery-acceptance-by-matt-de-la-pena/#_
"Middle School #1: The Worst Years of My Life" by James Patterson. Trust me, I wouldn't pick this up for my own personal reading enjoyment, but I just saw a trailer (why are they not called "previews" anymore?) for the movie adaptation of this book. James Patterson also co-writes the "I, Funny" series, of which I have the first one in my library. He seems to be finding new writing life by co-authoring YA fiction, so good for him, I guess....anyway, I will read this to determine if it's appropriate for my elementary library. According to Lexile.com, the reading level is definitely within my older kids' range. They love DOWK (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), so reading about middle school rebels and early teen angst is obviously appealing. If it seems appropriate, then I'll commit to buying the series (there appears to be 6 of them already!).
Yeah, yeah, I suppose I need help. Honestly, if it wasn't for my daughters and our monthly book club, I would never be exposed to any grown-up literature! So if any of you out there have adult recommendations for reading, let me know! I don't do scary, violent or racy, and profanity just distracts from the story for me, but other than that, I'd be happy to entertain your suggestions!
I want to read these! I need to read Brown Girl Dreaming so bad. Did I borrow it from you already?
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