Merry Wanderer of the Night:
AWR challenge

  • It's BACK! Award Winning Reads Challenge — 2!

    It's Back! The Second Incarnation of the Award Winning Reads Challenge is here! Who else is totally excited for this?! I know it can't just be me!!:)
    Last year, Jacinda and I hosted this reading challenge from May through September. And it rocked. I have personally been meaning to read all the Newbery and Printz books for years. And I've found some absolutely phenomenal books because of it. (Umm hello and thank you — Jellicoe Road, my absolute most favorite book ever.) And last years challenge gave me the motivation I needed to pick my list back up and get reading. (I think I read 16).
    Because it was so awesome last year, Jacinda and I decided that this year, it would be a year long challenge of awesome (with extra awesome during the months of the original challenge).
    My goal for this year is even bigger. I am so close to finishing both award lists. (Just the winners, not the honors). I only have 4 Printz winners and 13 Newbery winners left to read (including the 2012 winners to-be-announced). I would love to finish these lists next year.
    So that is my goal. But I would like to read more than only 17 of the books on the list, so my official goal is going to be 24. That's only 2 a month, totally do-able.:)
    To see the books on either list that I've already reviewed on the blog, you can click the corresponding tags below
    Newbery Award
    Newbery Honor
    Printz Award
    Printz Honor

    And now — Onto the rules!:)


    2012 Award Winning Reads Challenge Rules & Guidelines

    -Monthly link-up posts will be posted the last Wednesday of every month during the
    challenge for Award Winning Reads Wednesday. Feel free to post reviews on that day or any other day during that month and link-up accordingly. Ashley and Jacinda will be doing their best to post reviews for the challenge titles on Wednesdays throughout the entire year. It isn’t a requirement to post on Wednesdays, but with the two of us only posting on Wednesdays, it makes the challenge run smoother.

    -Reviewing and linking to your reviews in the monthly link-up post will give you
    additional entries into giveaways. Giveaways at this point are up in the air and will happen whenever Ashley and Jacinda feel like hosting a giveaway for the participants. More than likely, we will have giveaways randomly throughout the year, for mini-challenges (see below for more information), and at the end of the challenge.
    -You do NOT have to be a blogger to participate. If you aren’t a blogger, feel free
    to post reviews for the challenge books on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. It isn’t a
    requirement to review every book you’ve read for the challenge. Also, Ashley and Jacinda would
    LOVE to have non-bloggers do guest reviews! Just email either one of us. Or even leave a comment on any AWR Challenge post letting us know.
    -You do NOT have to be in the United States to participate. To enter all giveaways,
    unless otherwise stated since it’s possible for us to have an international giveaway, you will have to live in the United States or Canada. International shipping is expensive unless you use The Book Depository since they ship for free.
    -Sign-ups are open throughout the entire year. YIPPEE! Feel free to sign-up at any
    time. If you sign-up later in the year, any books you’ve read in 2012 that fit within the guidelines of this challenge, can be included in your final book count.
    -Books eligible for this challenge have to be:

    • A Newbery Winner or Honoree
    • OR
      A Printz Winner or Honoree

     -Goodreads has easy to view lists of all of the medal winners/honor award winners. You can find them all here: Newbery Medal Winners
    Newbery Honor Winners Printz Award Winners
    Printz Honors Winners You can also read the lists on the following websites: Newbery & Printz
    -The books HAVE to be read between January 1st, 2012-December 31st, 2012
    -In 2011, the Award Winning Reads Challenge was only during the summer. This year it will be year long, but we still want to have some sort of blitz in the summer time. Many people have more time to read in the summer, so do your best to read more challenge titles during this time. I also understand some people might have less time, and that is fine as well.
    -We will also have a mini-challenge of sorts every few months throughout the year. The details haven’t been ironed out yet. To give you an idea, a challenge might be reading a new or specific genre, reading an older book, or telling us a bit about a book you thought you’d hate but ended up loving!
    -You are probably wondering about levels for this challenge. In the summer, we had 4 different challenge levels. For 2012, we are getting rid of the levels! You just need to pledge what you THINK you will be able to read or what you want to push yourself to read. That’s it! Make sure when you fill out the linky below, you add the number of books for your goal after your name. Example: “Basically Amazing Ashley (24)”

    Please grab the button for this challenge and put it on your sidebar and put it in your review posts.:)
    If you want to sign-up for the 2012 Award Winning Reads Challenge, please fill out the linky below with your NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS, blog address (if you have one, if not, Goodreads profile will work), and YOUR PLEDGE for this challenge. Follow the format listed in the linkys description If you have any questions about this challenge, leave a comment or email Ashley or Jacinda!
    We are SO excited to have you joining us! Rock on those awesome book

  • Award Winning Reads Updates, January Linky, Guest Posts & Giveaway!

    Lots of info in this post today and it should have gone up yesterday, with Jacinda's post, but I've had a lot going on right now, and haven't been at home very much and just didn't have a chance to get the post written. And, this one will be sparse. (my apologies) REALLY — You should refer to Jacinda's post for details, because hers is currently way better than mine :)

    SO: We are looking for guest posters for Wednesday posts, so that in the future, we can have a review or post talking about an award winner on every Wednesday. There is a form to fill out, and I'd love to have people participate, even if you aren't an actual challenge participant.

    WE NOW HAVE A GOODREADS GROUP!! You can have a challenge counter on Goodreads & this will hopefully turn into a really awesome place to get together & discuss the awards, the challenge, and the books. It's just barely getting started, so it's a 'baby' right now, but we'd love to see you head on over to that!!

    in my blog TO GO TO THE GOODREADS GROUP

    Again — The ALA Award Winners for 2012 were announced!!!! Read my previous post on that.

    LINKY: Here is where you link up any of the reviews you have written for any of the award winners!! LINK 'EM UP!

    GIVEAWAY

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

  • 2012 Newbery & Printz Awards!

    Yesterday, the winners of the 2012 Newbery (MG) and Printz (YA) Awards were announced, along with the other ALA Award winners (Caldecott (illustrations) Morris (debut), Alex (adult w/ YA crossover appeal) etc).

    I apologize for both being a bit absent from the online world lately and not getting this posted yesterday. I had every intention of posting yesterday, but had to be to work before they were even finished announcing the winners. ANYWAY

    THE WINNERS!! (With commentary, of course: P)

    Newbery Award Winner:

    Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos: I'll be honest with this, and admit that I'm disappointed. I don't actually know anything about this book, but I've read all four of the Joey Pigza books (book 2, Joey Pigza Loses Control won a Newbery Honor) and I have read his memoir(ish) book, Hole in My Life, which won a Printz Honor and I was not impressed with any of them. I'll read this one, but if I feel for it the way I've felt for his previous novels, it will be my last Gantos no matter what new awards he's won.

    Newbery Honors:

    Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai: This is one that I'm really excited to see. It has come highly recommended to me by Shannon at Books Devoured. It's also historical fiction, about the Vietnam era, which I think is very under mentioned in literature. And, it's a verse novel! I'm a huge fan of verse novels and love anything that gets them more attention! This has been on my TBR for a long time now, but knowing that it's won a Newbery Honor is going to push this to the very top of my TBR!

    Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin: I hadn't heard anything about this book prior to the announcement. But now, I've had a chance to look it over, and I'm definitely intrigued! It actually sounds like it could be really amazing!

    I'll say that I'm quite surprised that out of three award/honors given., all are historical fiction. That's not something I think I've ever seen before and I find it very interesting. (In a good way, but interesting nonetheless).

    Printz Award Winner:

    Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley: Ginger over at Greads raved about this one a little while ago and her review was just so awesome that I immediately added this to my TBR/close watch list. It sounds absolutely amazing and although I haven't read it, I'm thrilled that it won because from everything I've seen, it's exactly my kind of book.

    Printz Honors:

    Why We Broke Up by Daniel Holder: This is a book that I was really surprised to see on the Printz list. I haven't read it yet, but it is one that has been on my list to read. But everything I had seen about it made is sound like more of a fun read than anything really serious. But it shall be interesting to read it and see what I actually think of it!

    The Returning by Christine Hinwood: This is another book that I knew nothing about prior to the announcement. Looking at Goodreads, it seems to be one of those books that you either REALLY like or you really... DON'T. But... umm... MELINA MARCHETTA BLURBED THIS BOOK. I WANT.

    Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey: This makes three books I had never even heard of before the announcements. It looks like it's another Historical Fiction, and the summary sounds intensely amazing. It sounds like there is really a lot of room for that book to just Wow and amaze you. Definitely one I'm going to need to get my hands on as soon as possible.

    The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: This is the only book on the list that I've actually read before and it is, sadly, not a book I was a fan of. I won't get too detailed, but basically it's 390 pages of absolutely nothing exciting (although some of it is interesting and beautifully described), with about 10 interesting pages scattered throughout the novel and 10 exciting and climactic pages right and the very end. I can, however (almost) see why some people really love this one, and do think Maggie is a talented writer, even if this one wasn't for me (because no amount of pretty writing is enough to make up for nearly 400 pages of extreme nothing.)

    So there you have it! The winners of the Newbery & Printz awards as narrated by me!

    What do you think?! Any of these books you are excited for/about!? Do you agree/disagree/dislike/like my commentary?! Do you even pay attention to or care at all about the awards? Let me know what you think & how you are feeling!!

    AND — Stay tuned for tomorrow, because both Jacinda and I will be posting for the Award Winning Reads Challnege (have YOU signed up?!) and these books DO count!:)