Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for Printz Honor] 

Hey everyone! This is an update post for everyone participating in the Award Winning Reads Challenge hosted by me and Jacinda at The Reading Housewives. If you are not yet participating, we are still taking sign ups! You can sign up as late and anything that you've read since May 30 counts toward the challenge!

Personally, I've been very productive. I've read a lot that fits with this challenge, because it's been a personal goal for years and when I get motivated to do something, I get motivated.: P

Personally — I've read 10 books for the challenge, some of which I have reviewed, some I have not and some of these will be future Award Winning Wednesday reviews. I've linked the ones I've already reviewed on the blog-

1 — Fat Kid Rules the World — K.L. Going (Printz Honor)
2 — Stolen — Lucy Christopher (Printz Honor)
3 — King of the Wind — Marguerite Henry (Newbery Award)
4 — Shadow of a Bull — Maia Wojciechowska (Newbery Award)
5 — Daniel Boone — James Daugherty (Newbery Award)
6 — Please Ignore Vera Dietz — A.S. King (Printz Honor)
7 — Rules — Cynthia Lord (Newbery Honor, reread)
8 — Fog Magic — Julia L. Sauer (Newbery Honor)
9 — Monster — Walter Dean Meyers (Printz Award, reread)
10 — Repossessed — A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor)

I had originally planned to read 12 books for the challenge, but since I'm so close and this is the time in the challenge we are opening it up to everyone to adjust their goals, I'm now aiming for 24. I know it's not an actual level, but I'm the host, so I'm running with it.: P

I would like to encourage all the participants to offer a check-in post of their own! I really want to see how everyone is doing! I want to see what you have gotten read, what you plan to read, whether you think you are going to be able to meet your goal, etc. Use your check-in post to link up your reviews and then come link it up to us!

If you do not have a blog, but would still like to post an update, email me at basicallyamazingbooks [at] gmail [dot] com (or Jacinda at readinghousewivesofindiana(at)gmail(dot)com) and we would be more than happy to post something for you so that you have a place to share your updates as well.

As mentioned above, this is also your chance to update your challenge level. If you don't have as much time as you'd hoped and think that a lower level would be less stressful/more attainable, or if you are reading at a faster pace than you thought you would and would like a chance at a slightly larger prize pack, this is the month to make that happen! Just fill out the form below (that is also the giveaway form) and select your new level. If you don't remember which level you signed up for, contact me or Jacinda and we can get that information to you. To refresh, the levels are:

Level 1 — Underachiever: Read 3 books Level 2 — Nerd: Read 6 books Level 3 — Brainiac: Read 9 books Level 4 — Teacher's Pet: Read 12 books
For the giveaway, one participant will have a chance to win the book of their choice from the prize pool. To win this, you MUST be a participant of the challenge, and you MUST have completed at least one book that fits in with the challenge.
The prize pool is below. I promise I will update this soon with a picture, but things were a little crazy today, so I don't have it right now. The books I have available are
Jellicoe Road- Melina Marchetta Fat Kid Rules the World — K.L. Going The Summer of the Swans — Betsy Byers (used, very good condition) Adam of the Road — Elizabeth Janet Gray (used, good/okay condition) Postcards from No Man's Land — Aidan Chambers
Hope was Here — Joan Bauer When You Reach Me — Rebecca Stead The Watson's Go to Burmingham — Christopher Paul Curtis Dear Mr. Henshaw — Beverly Cleary
This giveaway will end in one week, last day to enter is July 5th! So, don't put this one off! You also only have a week to change your reading level! There will also be an email sent out to all participants, just in case you somehow missed this post.
in my blog TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY AND/OR CHANGE YOUR LEVEL!!
Best of luck to you all!

Don't forget to link you reviewsposts!!

I'm warning you right now — this is going to be a bit of a long post. But I promise it will be well worth it!

For all of those participating in the Award Winning Reads Challenge hosted by myself and Jacinda at The Reading Housewives, or any of you thinking you might want to participate but haven't decided yet, this post is for you.

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In our intro post to the Challenge, both Jacinda and I made promises for lots of great prizes and giveaways for participants. This post is just to offer a little more detail and explanation for how each giveaway will work.

To start — The most basic:

For each level of participation, there will be a specific giveaway. So those who sign up to read three books will have a drawing independent of those who sign up to read nine. Each of the four levels will have one winner.

Jacinda and I both have a selection of books that we are going to donate, with titles from both the Newbery and the Printz list. Some are brand new, some look brand new, and some are gently used. This forms our prize pool. A full list will be provided at a later date.

To be chosen as the winner from your reading level, you must complete your goal. You can read more than your challenge level, but you must at least reach it. This will earn you one entry.

For every book you read past your reading goal, you will gain an additional entry.

For every review you post a Newbery or Printz honor or award, you will gain an additional entry.

To encourage people to sign up for the reading level they think they are capable of, and not just sign up for level one and then read 100 books, the number of books you can win increases with each level increase.

The winner from Level one will receive 2 books from the prize pack.
Level two will receive 3.
Level three will receive 4.
And Level four will receive 5.

We are also going to have a giveaway for one random participant, whether you complete your level or not. Everyone who signs up and agrees to participate will be eligible for this prize, although if you win the prize pack for your reading level, you will not be able to win this one.

The final giveaway that is for sure going to happen is a special giveaway, just from me. Jacinda and I are on the same page with the whole challenge, and are working very well together, but I wanted to include this giveaway, because I am a book pusher. I like the idea that other people are reading my favorite books, and that authors I find especially gifted are getting extra love.

So, I decided to offer the participants of this challenge a special incentive for reading my favorite books. Below, I have compiled a list of 10 (ish) books each from both the Newbery and the Printz award lists. I've included a Goodreads and Amazon link to each title for your convenience. If you want more information about a book, or if you want to know why I seriously think you should read it, just ask! Comment, email, tweet, whatever!:) I love talking up my favorite books!

Anyone who reads any of these books will be entered in to win a special drawing. Reviewing the book will gain you an additional entry as well. (Note — if you don't have a blog, that's totally okay! Posting a review anywhere will count! Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books A Million etc etc etc. As long as it's a review, it's online and you can link me, it counts!)

The number of winners and the prizes to be won for this giveaway are yet to be determined. Part of this is going to depend on the number of participants, some will depend on how my pocket book is feeling come September, and some will depend on how excited I am that (hopefully) so many people are reading my favorites. At this point, it's likely to include at the very least a book of your choice from the complete awards lists, but I might also include some of my own personal favorites in there as well. Suggestions and preferences are welcomed. And now:

THE LIST: Printz: * Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (amazon; goodreads) (2009 Award) * The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (amazon; goodreads) (2009 Honor) * The Book Thief (amazon; goodreads) / I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak (amazon; goodreads) (2007 Honor/ 2006 honor, respectively) * Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (amazon; goodreads) (2000 Honor) * Monster by Walter Dean Meyers (amazon; goodreads) (2000 Award) * The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (amazon; goodreads) (2003 Honor) * Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger (amazon; goodreads) (2000 Honor) * Going Boving by Libba Bray (amazon; goodreads) (2010 Award)
* how i live now by Meg Rosoff (amazon; goodreads) (2005 Award)
* The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci (amazon; goodreads) (2001 Honor)

Newbery: * When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (amazon; goodreads) (2010 Award) * Rules by Cynthia Lord (amazon; goodreads) (2007 Honor) * The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Spear (amazon; goodreads) (1959 Award) * Dicey's Song (amazon; goodreads) / A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt (amazon; goodreads) (Books 2 and 3 of the Tillerman Saga) (1983 Award/ 1984 Honor, respectively) * Walk Two Moons (amazon; goodreads) / The Wanderer by Sharon Creech (amazon; goodreads) (1995 Award/ 2001 Honor, respectively) * Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff (amazon; goodreads) (2003 Honor) *Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl (amazon; goodreads) (1971 Honor) * The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (amazon; goodreads) (2008 Honor) * The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (amazon; goodreads) (1991 Honor) * The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (amazon; goodreads) (2009 Award)
I can't wait to see what everyone plans to read! Stop by here or over at The Reading Housewives tomorrow for our kick off posts. I'll be including links to previous Newbery/Printz reviews here on the blog and giving you a peek at my tentative reading pile. I believe we will also have a linky with the post, so feel free to link up your starting post!
Tomorrows the day! Happy reading!
*Ashley and Jacinda reserve the right to change the number of prizes for each level. We will keep you informed of any and all decisions regarding prizes. Three months is a long time. I can't guarantee that everything in this post is going to remain exactly the same. But take heart. This also means we can give you more books!:)

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!:)

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!:)

A few years ago, I made the goal to read every book that has been, or will be, awarded the Newbery Award and as many of the honors as possible. Every year, beginning in 1922, the Medal is awarded to the book considered to be the most distinguished contribution to children's literature of that year. A year or so after I decided to read all of the books on the Newbery list, I decided to add the winners of the Printz Award as well, which is the YA equivalent of the Newbery.

I've never been quite about this goal, and it's actually been, for the most part, an amazing and rewarding experience for me. Although I've read some winners that I feel less than favorable towards, for the most part I've loved the experience, and I've discovered some very, very favorite books through these two lists. I mentioned something about these lists on Twitter and Jacinda from The Reading Housewives mentioned that it would make a great challenge idea. And so, here we are.

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For a long time, this has been an individual and personal goal for me. My sister mocks me regularly for being stuck to a list, citing The Story of Mankind, Gay-Neck and Hitty for reasons I should stop, overlooking the absolute love I now have for The House of the Scorpion, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and Jellicoe Road, all books I would have either overlooked, ignored or never heard of without these lists.
So now, along with The Reading Housewives, I am extending an invitation to all of you to join me in my quest to read these two amazing book lists. I want to share the love I have for these lists, and I've gotten Jacinda all excited about it too!
So — onto the *Rules *Details *Guidelines *General Information
The challenge will run from Memorial Day to Labor Day — May 30th until September 5th.
There will be 4 levels of participation-
Level 1 — Underachiever: Read 3 books
Level 2 — Nerd: Read 6 books
Level 3 — Brainiac: Read 9 books
Level 4 — Teacher's Pet: Read 12 books

No matter which level you chose to participate in, you must read at least one book from each of the award lists. You can focus primarily on one or the other, but there must be at least one Printz honor/award and one Newbery honor/award.
There will be giveaways throughout the challenge as well. There are a lot of giveaway details, so there will be separate post specifically for the giveaway information. But, I will tell you now, that there is a guaranteed winner from each of the 4 levels, as well as a few other winners, including a super special giveaway that you can enter only by reading some of my very favorite titles from the list.:) Ya, I'm a book pimp. So what?!
Anyway — We would LOVE to have a lot of participants in this challenge. We have decided to keep it pretty low key — You can sign up for whatever level you think you can make (everyone should be able to handle one book a month!) and reviews are completely optional — although they will gain you an extra entry into the giveaways!
So what are you waiting for?! I'm staring a lovely pile that constitutes less than half of the books I'm going to be giving away, my lovely friends at The Reading Housewives have books to offer as well, and if no one enters, we are just going to have to keep all these lovelies for ourselves! Each of the following links will take you to a Goodreads page listing each of the winners of both the award and honor for the Newbery and Printz. Makes it really easy to just pop over and add it to your tbr!
Newbery Winners Newbery Honors Printz Winners Printz Honors
Come on and fill out the form, grab a button and start prepping those lists!

This is the last official Award Winning Wednesday of the challenge! I've loved having a reason to review an award winner once a week, since I read so many of them! I hope you all have enjoyed them as much as I have! So, be sure to wrap up your reading, wrap up your reviews and link up!

For my last official AWW post, I decided to review Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King which won a Printz Honor this year. It's the story of Vera, a teenage girl who just wants to make it through high school and out of her town as far off the radar as she can. But things don't always work out, and when her best friend Charlie starts acting like a total pr*ck and then has the nerve to up and die on her, she's left totally conflicted about what she's supposed to feel, what she wants to feel, and what she wonders if she's allowed to feel.

First, let me just say that I absolutely love the way this book was written! Like, seriously. Vera is the main character and the main narrator, but every few chapters we get A word from the dead kid (aka dead ex-best friend Charlie), advice and discussion from the dad (complete with flow charts) and a few thoughts from the Pagoda (yup. An inanimate architectural eyesore gives us a commentary). And each of them are given their own distinct voice, their own attitudes, their own way of speaking that I didn't need the headers announcing which narrator was being given voice, because it was just so surely theirs that it couldn't have been anyone else talking.

The story itself is also so well told. This is again why I love Contemporary YA. Seriously. It's a raw and emotional story of trying to deal with all the crap life throws at you in high school, and Vera has definitely had her share of the major crap. As the story progresses and you learn more and more of what Vera has gone through, more and more of what happened with her and Charlie, or to Charlie, the more your heart breaks and the more you just sit there and hope that there is going to be a way to happily settle the story. But when several of the chapters are narrated by the dead kid, it's not like he's going to be coming back.: (

But even with that, Vera is such a strong character. She is the type of person that I would love to know in real life. She's got just enough attitude and sarcasm to be funny and witty without being obnoxious or a total b*tch. One of my favorite lines from the book, one that I feel illustrates the large angst of the novel as well as both Vera and Charlie as characters perfectly is — "Let me tell you — if you think your best friend dying is a bitch, try your best friend dying after he screws you over. It's a bitch like no other."-pg. 7 And that right there my friends, is Vera.

I honestly and truly cannot think of one single thing that I didn't love about this book. Everything about it feel authentic and believable and it's just so incredibly real. This is a book that I could read over and over again and never tire of. There is just so much to this story and I absolutely loved it. Honestly and truly, Please Ignore Vera Dietz has been one of my favorite recent reads. This is the type of book that makes me love reading award lists. Because without the Printz Honor, I might have missed this one. It wasn't really one I'd seen around a lot. But it would have been a shame to have missed this one, and it's one that I highly recommend you go out and read. Now. (But no, seriously... Make this one a priority. If you haven't read it, go. Get it. Read it.)

* Just realized that I didn't actually post this at 5:30 like I thought I had... So I'm posting it now. Hours later. My apologies.: P Update: Day 2 — 5:30
Total Books Read: 9
Total Pages Read: 2049 Books Read Since Last Update: 2 Pages Read since last update: 619 Total time read: 16 hours How I'm currently feeling: Good! I'm excited that I've made so much progress, and I'm hoping that I'll get at least one more book read before 8. Shouldn't be too hard! I'm sure I can get it done!:) List of books read- 1 — I Heart You, You Haunt Me — Lisa Schroeder 2 — Fog Magic — Julia L. Sauer (Newbery Honor) 3 — Monster — Walter Dean Meyers (Printz Award, Reread) 4 — The Five People You Meet in Heaven — Mitch Albom 5 — Dobry- Monica Shannon (Newbery Award) 6 — Repossessed — A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor) 7 — Where the Red Fern Grows — Wilson Rawls (Reread) 8 — After the Kiss — Terra Elan McVoy 9 — Scars — Cheryl Rainfield
So, here is my update post for day two! It is now about 11:30. I went to bed about 4:00 last night and now I'm up and plan to get lots more reading done!

Really fast update before I disappear to read:

I read one more book before falling asleep, which brings my current total to 7 books and 1430 pgs. I finished Where the Red Fern Grows, which has been a very, very favorite since 4th grade and never fails to make me cry. Hard. It had been a long time since my last reread, so I was due.:) I've read the book somewhere over 50 times and it never gets old, never gets dull, and never fails to touch something emotional within me.

I will do a more indepth update later.:) For now, I'll answer the update question and get to reading!

Book I think should be taught in school?

I definitely agree with Enna that The Book Thief is amazing and would go over well in a classroom.

But for this question, I think I'm going to pick Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. It's one of my all time favorite books. I love it so, so much. It's a powerful book about learning who you are, living, moving on, forgiveness, trust, death, life, pain, grief, happiness, etc. etc. etc. There are so many things happening in this book, powerful, wonderful things. It also makes great use of flashbacks and dual story lines. Seriously. I think everyone should read this book.

AND if you start it, you HAVE to finish it. Every single negative review I've read of this book came from people who didn't finish. Of people who have read the whole thing, I have never talked to anyone who didn't end up really liking, if not loving this one. Seriously folks.

The Spring into Summer Read-a-Thon is over! It did end about 3 hours ago, but I was off hanging with a friend... So, I'm just now getting it posted.: P

Survey:

Give us an end of read-a-thon status update:

Total Books Read: 10 Total Pages Read: 2129
Books Read Since Last Update: 1 Pages Read since last update: 80 Total time read: 17 hours How I'm currently feeling: Awesome!! I got a lot of reading done, and I'm definitely feeling good about the progress that I made! List of books read- 1 — I Heart You, You Haunt Me — Lisa Schroeder 2 — Fog Magic — Julia L. Sauer (Newbery Honor) 3 — Monster — Walter Dean Meyers (Printz Award, Reread) 4 — The Five People You Meet in Heaven — Mitch Albom 5 — Dobry- Monica Shannon (Newbery Award) 6 — Repossessed — A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor) 7 — Where the Red Fern Grows — Wilson Rawls (Reread) 8 — After the Kiss — Terra Elan McVoy 9 — Scars — Cheryl Rainfield 10 — Animal Stories Daddy Told Us — Innocent Emechete
What is your favorite book you read during the read-a-thon? Such an impossibly difficult question to answer! I read and really enjoyed quite a few books! Where the Red Fern Grows is one of my favorite books of all time, but it's also a reread, so I feel kind of like I'm cheating to mention that one, so I'll have to keep it with I Heart You, You Haunt Me. Seriously folks, Lisa Schroeder is awesome! Did you participate in any mini-challenges? Which ones? Not too many. I did the book titles, which book I think should be taught in schools and... I think that might have been it... : / Which mini-challenge was your favorite? Probably the book titles. It's always a fun one to see what people come up with. What has been your favorite thing about the read-a-thon? Having a reason/motivation/excuse to sit around and read. Read-a-thons are incredibly motivating to me. Especially when I talk with a lot of other people, sharing progress, cheering and being cheered etc. Are you satisfied with how much reading you got done? Did you do more/less than you expected? I am pretty satisfied, yes! Although, I do wish that I had spent more time reading. I spent 17 hours reading, which is a lot, but out of 36, it's just about half. Which means, I could have gotten a lot more read if I hadn't wasted so much time. I spent more time that I would have liked on Twitter & checking/writing updates.: P But, I still got 10 books read in 2 days, and I refuse to feel bad about that progress.:) As for expectations, I intentionally didn't give myself any, other than read a lot, because if I meet my goal, I feel like I can stop. But if I don't meet my goal, I feel really bummed and down. So, my only official goal was to 'read. A lot.' I did make a few smaller goals after I had judged my current progress, and that seemed to work really well. What did you think of the updates? I liked them okay, but as I mentioned before, I thought there were too many of them. For the most part, I was more interested in reading my books than other peoples updates or writing my own. I really like end of day/end of event/mid-point surveys, but don't love regular updates, which I'm sure you can tell, because I didn't post very many of them. I feel like so many updates forces me to take artificial breaks in my reading time. If you could change one thing about the read-a-thon, what would it be? See above. Would you participate again? Most definitely!! Any last comments? Thank you! I had a lot of fun & would definitely participate again, so... You should definitely host again!:)

Because this is a much bigger post than an update, I'm going to post it separately.

Click the image to learn more!
I decided that midnight would be my stopping point for this post because (unless my math is horribly off) this is the midway point, halfway between start and finish. So, here is my first official reporting!

First of all, give us an end-of-day status update.

Total Books Read: 6
Total Pages Read: 1218 Books Read Since Last Update: 2 Pages Read since last update: 394 Total time read: 9 hours How I'm currently feeling: SO great! I think I'll read for a while longer, but I'll probably go to bed at a semi-reasonable time (meaning, of course that it's still going to be around 2 or 3 before I finally turn off the lights)
Books read:
1 — I Heart You, You Haunt Me — Lisa Schroeder
2 — Fog Magic — Julia L. Sauer (Newbery Honor)
3 — Monster — Walter Dean Meyers (Printz Award, reread)
4 — The Five People You Meet in Heaven — Mitch Albom
5 — Dobry — Monica Shannon (Newbery Award)
6 — Repossessed- A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor)

What is the favorite thing you have read today? I've actually been quite pleased with everything I've read today, except for book five. But, if I had to pick a favorite, I'd say it was probably I Heart You, You Haunt Me. It's the second book by Schroeder I've read and I've officially decided that I love her. She's incredibly talented and she is a perfect example of why novels written in verse can be so powerful.

Which mini-challenge was your favorite? I haven't really participated in the mini-challenges today. I've been too busy reading.:) The only one I actually participated in was the book title sentence, so I guess I'll pick that one.

What has been your favorite thing about the read-a-thon? An excuse to just sit and read and munch on junk food.: P I also love that it gives me more motivation. I'm motivated to read more, so I get more done. It's not everyday you get through 6 books!:)

What has been your LEAST favorite thing about the read-a-thon? Nothing really. The only thing that I don't love is how quickly and often the update posts are up. When I'm reading, especially during a read-a-thon, I don't want to be stopping. My preferred way to read is straight through, getting the whole book read in one sitting. Which means I either miss the updates or I have to pause my book, which throws off my reading groove. I think I'd have liked it better if they were either spaced out more, of left 'open' longer.

Are you on track to meet your goals? Yes! Completely! It's actually quite the rush!: P I initially just wanted to get as many books read as I could, not really putting a number to it. But shortly after my third book, I realized I was only 3 books behind on my GR challenge, something I've been far behind on all year because I started the year in a reading slump.: ( So, I decided that I was going to try and get all caught up today, and I finished my 6th book 15 minutes before midnight!:)

Will you be participating tomorrow? Do you have any new goals? Definitely!! I'm am most certainly going to be participating tomorrow!! I'm not all the way sure about goals yet, although 6 more books would definitely be amazing! Not sure I can manage that though, because I do plan to get some sleep tonight, so really, I just want to read as possible! I'm thinking I will probably read one more book tonight, two at the most before I need to go to bed, and then waking up at a (hopefully) decent hour and getting more reading done.

So, as some of you might know/remember, I'm a bit of a read-a-thon junkie. I totally love them and when I have time, I do awesome. But in January, I started a new job, one that takes up a significantly larger portion of my time and energy than any other job I've had before (and the fact that I have to drive for 40+ min just to get to work doesn't help much). So, I'm still trying to figure out how to balance job with fun with books with life with not coming home and crashing the second I walk through the door.

I haven't participated in a read-a-thon in ages. I almost cried when I realized in the middle of a Saturday that it was the Dewey 24 hour read-a-thon, I had had no idea it was happening, and I still had to work. It was pretty tragic. So, I'm *hoping* that this week, I will be able to successfully participate in the Bout of Books Read-a-thon!

Normally, for a week long read-a-thon, my goal would be in the double digits. (I mean, seriously. I've read 10 before for the Dewey Read-a-thon in one day.) BUT. I'm being realistic here. Considering that I've only read 18 books this whole year (2 of which are picture books, 2 are Calvin and Hobbes and 2 are graphic novels I read standing up in Barnes and Noble while on a lunch break) I think I'm being plenty ambitious hoping for one book a day (and even that might be a stretch right now).

The Read-a-thon goes from Monday to Sunday, so I'm hoping to read 7 books. And, I'm really going to have to try and push. So any words of encouragement here or on Twitter are greatly appreciated. I definitely need some extra mojo to get me back into the habit of reading! (and blogging, but that's a different post...)

My potential read-a-thon reads:

After the Snow by S.D. Crockett
Freshman Year and Other Natural Disasters by Meredith Zetlin
The Photo Album by K.B. Dixon
Karma by Cathy Ostlere (verse novels FTW)
Triangles by Ellen Hopkins (see above)
Lexapros and Cons by Aaron Karo
In Honor by Jessi Kirby (see — reading funk... I've been dying for this book for ages but haven't read it yet.: ()
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan (Printz Honor book)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Dirt by Lori Culwell
Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Hopefully, I will remember to come update my progress. Well, really, hopefully there will be progress!: P

Anyone else participating? I'd love to hear from you! Good luck to you! (And to me!:) )

Sorry that this post is going up way later than normal — I've already had 2 posts go up today (crazy scheduling) and wanted to have them at least a little spread out. And, I had some stuff come up after work that I wasn't expecting... Sorry.:)

Anyway, I wanted to do two mini-reviews, both Printz Honor winners and both that, although dealing with different issues, both do have a similar emotion tied into the story.

First is Keesha's House by Helen Frost. It's a story written in verse about teenagers struggling to find their place in life, struggling to make it from day to day. The story is told in a series of poems written by/about different characters in the story. Although most of the poems are from the seven teenagers, there are a few verses from the POV of the family or adults these teens left behind and we do get to hear from Joe a time or two as well (more on him in a sec). Keesha's dad is an alcoholic and abusive, so she leaves. She finds Joe's house, and Joe lets her stay. She pays what she can in rent and is able to have a place for as long as she needs it where she feels safe. Initially, I was worried about this — Adult man letting teenage girl stay in his home... Screams creeper. But it worked. Somehow, especially after we read the poems from Joe he really is just a super nice guy trying to do for kids what his aunt did for him — provide a safe and comfortable place where these kids can just feel secure. Several of the other teens in the story spend time at Joe's, although they hear about it through Keesha and she becomes almost the protector. She's the one that lets them know that there is a safe place they can go if they need to, a safe place for them when they feel they have no other options.

My heart broke for so many of these kids. One mistake that changed their lives, one life ruptured through someone else's mistakes, some who just can't seem to keep their head above water. I wished so much for these kids to be safe, to have people in their lives who love them and would care for them. It's a short book, just over 100 pages but every page counts, every page brings you into their lives, makes you care for them more and more and you just open your heart to these kids. It makes me wish that all kids would be able to find a place where they can stay, a place where they were able to find a temporary haven.

This is a book I don't think should be missed, a book that I think is important. If you are looking for a quick but powerful read, grab this one.

My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr is another emotional read, although this one is written in more traditional prose. In this story, Ellen absolutely loves her older brother Link, and his best friend James. She's more than a little in love with James, but it's a little bit of a joke between them, pretty much understood to be a school girl crush. But then, she hears people talking about the two of them at their school, asking if they are a 'couple'. She's never really thought about it before, and doesn't really understand much of what it means, so she asks. She knows it's getting into a messy area, because in her family, you walk away... You do not talk about the tough stuff. But she is so confused and so desperately wants to know and understand her brother better that she asks. And everything changes.

Link is not gay. He's very adamant and defensive about it. James is, or not, or is. He's not really completely sure, but he's also not terribly concerned with giving it a label. He loves who he loves and I never got the feeling that he cared if the person was male or female. He loves Link but nothing sexual has happened between them and Link won't even talk about that possibility. But when Ellen forces it into the open, it ruptures the dynamic of their friendship.

Link and James stop hanging out, Link gets a girlfriend and Ellen and James start spending more and more time together.

I liked a lot about this book. I loved the way that Ellen sought out information on a subject that she didn't understand. She bought books, asked questions, looked up information online and tried talking to others about it. I also loved the initial time that Ellen and James spent together, because it taught her a whole new, and much broader way of viewing the world.

But I'm not sure I loved the direction the book went, especially the changes in certain relationship dynamics.

But then again, I'm torn. When you read a book, there is a certain expectation in the resolution. We expect a certain amount of closure, a certain level of completeness. And this book didn't really have that. Yes there is a lot of improvement, a lot of growth and maturation, but a lot was left very much up in the air. And I've decided that I'm okay with that. Because real life is messy. And in a story like this, there is no complete happy ending, there is no pretty package tied with ribbons and that's okay. Because it's real. There were some places the story went that I didn't really love, but the book was real. Life isn't clean, life doesn't always follow orderly and organizable paths. Often it's crazy, messy and hectic and you know, it's nice to read a story that ends without that completeness because it means that the characters don't have to end, just because the book has.

It's week two of Award Winning Wednesday! Be sure to stick around until the end of this post so that you can add your Award Winning Reviews to the linky at the bottom!!

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I seem to be reading a lot of books lately that really challenge my perceptions of the world, and make me reevaluate how I judge things. Stolen by Lucy Christopher is very definitely one of those novels.

I had heard enough about this book, and read enough reviews to know that Ty, our kidnapper is a very sympathetic character. So, I knew that was coming. But I didn't think I would be as... moved as most of the people who have read this book. I knew I'd find some sympathy for him, because it's intentionally written that way, but I figured I'd say, Oh, poor sympathetic bastard. And leave it at that. I'd perhaps understand Ty better, but would still firmly believe he belonged locked up. I mean, seriously. He drugged a 16 year old girl in an airport and dragged her off to live in the absolute barren deserts of Australia. What a catch, right?

I have a tendency to place certain things into 'boxes'. Like child abuse. It's wrong. No exceptions. Special place in hell for those who hurt children. Infidelity is another absolute for me. For me personally, I have no respect for cheaters and know that it's not something I could ever come back from in a relationship. Kidnapping or abduction has always, always been firmly in that area too. It's bad. You don't do it. And if you do do it, you deserve whatever nasty punishments the 'law' decides to slam you with. So I wasn't expecting to care about Ty. He's a kidnapper. Not only did he take her from the airport, he has also been following her for 6 years. 6 years! That is insane! And creepy! And scary. And stalkerish. And creepy. Definitely creepy.

The book is written as if Gemma is writing a letter to Ty. You know, given the nature of the letter, that Gemma is now home. But you don't know how she got there, why or how Ty let her go, if she escaped, if she's writing him in prison, or if he got away. And because Gemma is writing the story of how she saw things happen, we also don't yet know where Gemma wants him to be.

Because we are learning about Ty through Gemma's voice in her letter, the way she feels about him at any given moment in her memories greatly colors her representation of him, which means it colors the way we see him. But mixed in with that is also the knowledge of how Gemma feels later, as she is writing the letter and so the flashes of vulnerability from Ty are included in the story. This creates a layer to the story I've never experienced before. As a reader, we can see both versions of Ty at once. The Ty that has so terrified Gemma, because he has taken her away from everything she knows, trapped her in a place miles away from anything and told her he is never going to let her leave. But we also see the Ty that is kind and compassionate and genuinely believes that Gemma will be happy here, and that he is saving her. It confuses Gemma. And we see that too.

In the beginning, I understood that Ty was a sympathetic captor, that he wasn't evil, but I was still against him overall. I was still all for him going to prison and rotting for a long time, for Gemma being saved and all that heroic stuff. And when we learn that Ty has been obsessed with Gemma since she was 10 years old, it only reinforced that idea. Sure, he's had a tough life, but he still needs to be locked up.

But somewhere along the way, I started to soften towards Ty. And I didn't even notice. Honestly. I went from assuming I was going to be really happy if/when he ended up being put away for years to terrified that Gemma and Ty were no longer going to be able to stay together. I knew that she got away from him, but when I saw it coming, when I realized how it was going to happen, I kept thinking hoping that there was going to be another way. That their split up was only temporary, that Ty would be able to stay on the desert homestead until Gemma could find her way back to him.

And then I had to stop reading for a moment. I had to stop so that I could process this. I am not sympathetic to villains. Ever. Really. Especially in a contemporary novel. Because that's like real life. And in real life, the bad guys belong in jail. I'm all about the justice system. If you commit a crime, you pay the price and accept the consequences. Period. End of discussion. So why on earth was I sitting there, reading, hoping against hope that he ends up safe?! It really shook me. To the point that I had a really long conversation with my best friend, who knows me better than anyone else. And when I told her about how I was feeling at the end of the book, her reaction was almost comical. I could see the shock in her eyes. Ashley does not express a desire for the villain to be freed from consequences. Ashley does not hope that the bad guy will be able to see the good girl one more time. Ashley does not think that perhaps the bad guy has some redeeming qualities, even while he is being bad...

But... Ashley did.

And I'm still reeling a little here. It's hard to read a book that shocks and ruptures your solid foundations. I don't think this book is going to make my sympathize for every abductor in prison or awaiting trial or capture. I'm not suddenly going to become an advocate for these people, because I still genuinely believe that what they have done is absolutely wrong. But, I never once thought I would be able to sympathize with someone like that. I never once thought I would find myself on their side, even if it is only in a book. It's made me take a deeper look at myself and it's made me wonder what else I might be persuaded to feel differently about if I were to read a book that handles to topic well enough. (Actually, I just finished another book that shook me even more than this one did and I'm pretty sure has left lasting changes on how I'm going to view my world... Review for that one will be here in July)

So, this is a book that I recommend with every part of myself. There is something about this book that forces you to reexamine your world, that will make you question what you believe in. Ty is a very sympathetic character, but Gemma is the real heart of the story. She is so strong. She tries to escape, tries to adapt and survive and she does. Gemma is a wonderfully strong character, a character that didn't ask for any of this but rises admirably to the challenges she dealt. I felt for Ty, understood him more than I thought possible, but I loved Gemma. Loved her voice, her strength, her ability to think and reason and analyze herself and her thoughts during seemingly impossible situations.

Please. Read this book. I can't imagine that anyone who reads this book will not be touched or changed in some way.

Don't forget to link your reviews! If you've written a review of a Newbery or Printz honor or award winner since May 31st, add your link here!:)

This past Monday, the American Library Association announced their awards. Some you've probably heard of: Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, etc. Some you might not be as familiar with: Geisel, Sibert, Batchelder, Odyssey, Schneider, etc.

This week you can do any one of these activities:

• Write a follow-up post discussing your thoughts on who won. Which winning books have you read? Which winning books do you want to read? Where there any surprises or shockers? Are you happy with this year's selections? (Include honor books, of course!)
• Choose an award (like the Printz and Newbery) and look at the list of previous winners/honors. Which books have you read and enjoyed? Are there any that you hated? Share a few 'favorites' with your readers. (If you haven't read any lately, maybe you might want to write up a post listing a few you'd be interested in reading soon.)
• Review a new-to-you award-winning book this week.
• Write a post discussing why awards matter, or don't matter. Are you influenced by awards and best lists? Do you seek out award winners? Or avoid them? Do you think award-winning books should be timeless? That they should always stay in print? Do you think time is a better judge of quality than an award committee?

My cousin, Emily, blogs over at In Which Ems Reviews Books and she and a friend have started a weekly Sunday feature. I have been a bit absent so far this year (my apologies) but when I saw her post today — the first post of the new feature and saw the topic, I decided this was something I had to take part in. I mean, I never miss an opportunity to talk up my favorite books and today's topic is to pick a favorite and talk about why it's special to you.

Any guesses as to which book I'm going to pick?:)

So there's this book... It's kind of a big deal to me. I talk about it all the time, and it's gotten to the point that if I send certain people a tweet saying — Ask them — they all know which book I'm talking about.

I decided several years ago that I was going to read all the books on the Newbery award list, and when I learned about the Printz award, and it is to YA what the Newbery is to MG, I decided I would read all of those too. And I read a brilliantly funny/witty/hysterical/intelligent Honor winner from 2009 called The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. And let me tell you, I loved that book. It remains one of the smartest funny books I've ever read. But, that is not the book I'm going to talk about today. Because after I finished that book, I wondered why it didn't win the actual award. So I sought out the winner of the Award that year, wondering if I was going to be disappointed that this was the book that ultimately won.

But friends. Do you know what book won the Printz Award in 2009? DO YOU?!

I'll give you a hint... It's this one:

This book wrecked me. It tore me to pieces, pulled apart my heart and pulverized my soul. And then it put me back together again, different, but better. I am never at a loss for words, but I never feel like I can truly articulate what this book did to me. It just... consumed me. I was so incredibly captivated and involved with this book, these characters and their lives.

I've felt sad before, finishing a book and knowing that my time with the characters was over for now, and I've actively wished that some of the people in the book were real. But not even with Harry Potter do I remember being so overwhelmingly devastated that these people weren't real because I just felt them that much.

I have never come across a writer with an ability like Marchetta's before. Something about her writing just hits me, in that perfect way. I tend to get overly dramatic when I talk about Marchetta, specifically when referencing this book and I saw things like — Melina Marchetta owns my soul. And when I'm reading one of her books, she does.

I tell you what — Never have I read anything like this book. It causes me genuine physical pain when I hear that someone didn't like this book. Physical pain. (and I'll be honest and admit that the secret, shameful place inside of me wonders about their mental stability... But only for a minute).

I don't think I will ever run out of positive things to say about this book, but I need an ending point somewhere, so let me also just add this (because I still make giddy/squeaky noises every time I think about it)

After Just Contemporary month, when I emailed Melina (*dies*) I got a surprise package in the mail. From Australia. And I opened it to find this:

I cried.

In most Memory Monday posts, I talk about a specific book or series that I remember strongly from childhood, although there have been a few posts devoted to authors as well. Today, I wanted to do something a little different.

I hope you've noticed that starting today, Jacinda at The Reading Housewives and I are hosting a summer long challenge devoted to reading books from the Newbery and Printz award lists. If you come back later today, I will have a post talking about what you can expect from me throughout the next three months in relation to the challenge, but I thought I'd also use my Memory Monday post to give some more love to the Newbery List.

The Newbery Award has been around since 1922, but I wasn't really aware of it until I was in college. Not specifically anyway. I had a vague idea of what it was, but nothing more than that. Then, I started noticing that an awful lot of the books I had read and loved as a kid had received either a Newbery Medal, or the Honor. It started me to thinking more about the Award and what it means to reading, and I pulled a complete list from ALA's website. I started going through the list, marking off those books I had previously read, looking up some of the books I hadn't and I decided that there was a lot of good to be discovered on this list and that I was going to read it. ALL.

So, here is a list of the Newbery books I especially loved as a kid (probably not complete, but forgive me... It's been a long time since I've read some of these) Seeing a book on this list does not count as their 'official' Memory Monday post. Some of these books or authors have already been spotlighted, some have plans for a spotlight in the future, and some, well, who knows.

* The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder — Oh man oh man oh man. My parents gave my older sister a boxed set of all nine Little House books for Christmas when I was around 7 or 8 and she wasn't terribly interested in them. But I ate them up. I devoured those books, and I wanted to be Laura. I used to play prairie in my backyard. Five of the nine books in this series were awarded honors in the 1930s & 40s.

* Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech — I read this book in (I think) 5th grade and I couldn't keep my excitement about it to myself. I went and asked my teacher for special permission to do an extra book report, complete with a diorama art project because I wanted everyone to know how wonderful this book really was. It also inspired a Sharon Creech binge and I've loved her ever since.

* The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley — I know I've mentioned these books before, but these books are the reason that I was willing to give the entire fantasy genre another chance. My friend bribed me to read them in 8th grade and I was completely blown away.

* Dicey's Song and A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt — These are books 2 and 3 in the Tillerman Sage and oh my goodness are these books powerful reads. The whole series is full of wonderfully real characters, full of pain and sorrow, hope, truth and trust. I've never met anyone else like Dicey, either in fiction or real life. She is one of the most fully drawn characters I think I've ever come across and every story that connects to theirs is powerful. These are the only two that made it on the list (a Medal and an honor, respectively but I believe that all of them easily deserved it)

* Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright — I never should have read this book, and it most certainly isn't a book I would have picked up on my own at that age. But, I had tried to buy a book through one of those Scholastic book orders and they ran out of the book that I had ordered. Rather than send us a refund, the book order sent replacement books they thought we would like. How they went from a book about the sinking of the Titanic (I was crazy obsessed) to a book about a girl on a farm, holding a pig on the cover is completely beyond me, but I read it, because I owned it, and figured, Might as well. But I didn't really expect much from it. But I read it over and over and although I still have that same copy, it's obvious looking at the book that it has been very well loved.

* Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine — This is one of the first books that introduced me to fairy tale retellings. This wasn't my fairy tale retelling, but it was incredibly influential in sparking my deep love for the genre, and it was (I think) the first I had read that took some serious liberties with the story, and deviated in an obvious and blatant way from the original. And I loved every second of it.

* Charlotte's Web by E.B. White — I shouldn't like this book. I'm not an animal person. Even as a kid, I never really wanted a pet and even when I was excited about an animal, the novelty worse off with astonishing speed and I was done. I also don't normally like reading books narrated by animals, especially when those animals think/talk/act like people do. But this book was wonderful. I read it over and over again and was just thrilled anew every time I read about the wonderful words in Charlotte's almost magical web.

So, these are some of my very favorite Newbery reads from childhood, and each of these was a large part of why I decided to read the list in its entirety. Do you have any old (or new) favorites from the list? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Welcome to another Award Winning Wednesday! This is the third Wednesday of the challenge, and as I was deciding which book to talk about today, I realized that both previous Wednesday's spotlighted books on the Printz list. So, today's book is a Newbery, one that I think more people need to read.

Don't forget to use the linky below to link up your Award Winning Reviews!! Can't wait to see what everyone has been reading!

Rules by Cynthia Lord was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2007. It's the story of Catherine, a 12 year old girl trying to understand her place in the world alongside her younger brother David, who has autism. She loves her brother, but sometimes, she wishes that things were easier, that somehow, David would wake up one day normal.

I don't even know how to begin talking about this book. It's the type of book that defies description, needing instead to simply be placed in as many hands as possible, to be read by everyone within reach. I've been struggling with what to say here, so bear with me.

Life with autism is incredibly hard. It is a challenge every single day, both for those with autism and for those around them, especially those who love and want to help them. Catherine faces this every day. She loves her brother. You can feel it in the way she talks to him, feel it in every interaction. But she is also only 12 years old. Her parents give her a lot of responsibility, ask her to babysit her brother, keep an eye on him, and to offer him any help he needs. But sometimes, Catherine just wants to feel normal. She wants to be able to go places without worrying about what David will do or say. It's hard for her. Her parents pay more attention to David, because he needs them more, and while she understands this, knows that this is true, she often feels left behind, as if her parents have forgotten that she still needs them too.

Life with David is challenging, and Catherine is quite inventive in how she communicates with him. David deals best in absolutes. Words like maybe or I don't know stress him out and make him uncomfortable. To help him (and herself) Catherine creates rules for David to follow. Each chapter begins with a rule, and more are given throughout chapters. The rules vary from basic and easy to understand, like 'Chew with your mouth closed' and 'No toys in the fish tank', to others that are more ambiguous like, 'Late doesn't mean not coming', or 'Sometimes people laugh when they like you, but sometimes people laugh to hurt you'.

One of the things Catherine struggles with is the idea that everyone is watching her and David, focusing on the awkward things David does. She's 12, which is an age where you are now becoming more socially aware, more aware of what people think and how they view you. While she isn't ashamed of her brother, she is often embarrassed by him and she can't help wishing that he could be different, that he could be normal. But she tries. She genuinely loves David and she does all she can to make things easier for him. Sometimes, it's hard for her to know what's right, but she does love him.

That is one of the biggest lessons that Catherine needs to learn in this book. That it doesn't matter what other people think, how other people see you. She meets a new boy when she goes with her mom to take David to Occupational Therapy (OT). Jason is in a wheelchair. He cannot speak, so he uses a communication book to talk for him. He points to words he wants and hopes the words he has are enough. Catherine is an artist and she offers to make new cards for him, and in so doing she widens his vocabulary considerably, adding words a mom would never add, like Stinks a big one!! and Whatever, but she also learns a lot about herself. Some of the things she learns make her feel good, but others, make her feel guilty and ashamed of her behavior. And she learns from it. She desperately wants to be a good person, be a good sister and friend and she's slowly learning how to do that and what is really important in life and in friendship.

This book is fairly short, only 200 pages, and it's a fast read. But don't let that fool you. This book is one that is deceptive in its simplicity. You will learn so much about yourself while reading this book. It makes you think about how you treat people, how you would react in a similar situation. One of the things Catherine talks about hating more than anything else are the people who make a point to ignore those with disabilities. Worse than those who stare are the people who make you invisible. Or, like Jason's speech therapist. She talks VERY LOUDLY every time she speaks to him. It frustrates him, and as he tells Catherine, I can't talk, but I can hear just fine.

Watching Catherine learn to be herself, and learn to not care so much what other people see is amazing. There are so many changes happening all the time for kids at this age, and Catherine has more on her plate than a lot of kids. But she handles it well most of the time, and she learns from her mistakes when she doesn't.

This book is honest in it's portrayal of Autism and in how different people respond to it. It's a book that I think more people need to read, a book that, if read with a mind open to new ideas and change, will improve the reader, just as it improved Catherine.

Don't forget to link up! Leave me a comment, let me know how your challenge is going! And I'd love to hear from anyone who has read Rules! Tell me what you think!!