Not signed up for YALSA’s 2015 Morris/Nonfiction Reading Challenge? Read the official rules and sign up on the original post. If you’re finished, fill out the form at the bottom of this post to let us know!
Hello Readers!
How is your reading challenge going? Any early favorites? I am not participating in the challenge, but have read some of the titles in my selection committee. Interesting to see some overlap on both the YALSA’s Award for Excellence in Nonfiction and the William C. Morris YA Debut Award.
If you haven’t signed up for the challenge there is still plenty of time! This will also help with the annual Hub Reading Challenge that will start in February after the Youth Media Awards. If you have finished be sure to brag about it in the comments and fill our the form. I’ve read some of theses books and they are great! Don’t miss out!
-Faythe Arredondo, currently in the middle of too many books to list
I got a start on reading Popular and it is really cute so far. I can see teens relating to it. I can’t believe she is so young and wrote that! Hoping to catch up during holiday time off :-) #simsburyct
I have all but two of the 10 books from the library, but didn’t read much this week as I was madly trying got finish up my holiday knitting, which you can read about at
https://booksandbassets.wordpress.com/2014/12/21/yalsas-2015-morrisnonfiction-reading-challenge-check-in-2/
I’m about 1/3 of the way through The Carnival at Bray. It is OK, but didn’t grab me right away like Gabi did, but there is still 2/3 to go.
About half way through The Story of Owen. Been slow reading due to life, but it’s been good so far.
This week I finished The Carnival at Bray and Laughing at My Nightmare. They both engaged me enough that I read each of them in one day this weekend. In some ways The Carnival at Bray had a contemporary feel in spite of being set more than 20 years ago. Laughing at My Nightmare is an unflinching look at what it’s like to live with a severely debilitating illness. But Burcaw’s constant humor keeps this from being a dry or depressing book. Burcaw also doesn’t shy away from sexual situations and the language can get strong, so this one is probably best for older teens.
So, two down in each category. I’m hoping to make a lot of progress over the holidays before things get busy again after the New Year. I’ve got copies of two of the three remaining in each category. The missing books are on order, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that they arrive in time for me to complete the challenge.
I read Gabi, a Girl in Pieces and Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business – and Won!. I didn’t really care for either one. Gabi seems like an authentic character, and I really liked her, but the book was more of a sequence of events rather than an actual plot with a climax. The biography of Ida M. Tarbell was very dry and read like a textbook. I can’t see a teen wanting to sit down and read this, but it’s very well-researched and would be good for writing a report.
Finished Popular this week. Loved it! On to Laughing at My Nightmare.
I have finished:
Laughing at My Nightmare
The Scar Boys
The Story of Owen
The Story of Owen was by far my favorite so far. I’m telling anyone who will listen.
I’ve finished Ava Lavender so far, and about to start the one about the Romanovs. I really like Ava, thought it was beautiful, but I do kind of see how it might be a hard sell with teens, since so much focuses on her grandmother and mother (which I enjoyed, but you know – old people :)).