Get excited, YA lit enthusiasts! Now that the Youth Media Awards have been announced and the selected list committees are wrapping up their work, we are pleased to officially announce our 2015 Hub Reading Challenge!
When? The 2015 Hub Reading Challenge will begin at 12:01AM EST on Monday, February 9. Once the challenge starts, you’ll have about four months (until 11:59pm on Sunday, June 21) to read as many of the following as you possibly can:
- 2015 winner and honor books for YALSA’s six awards
- The books on the Top Ten lists from YALSA’s 2015 selected lists
- The YA titles honored by the 2015 Schneider Family Book Awards and the 2015 Stonewall Book Award
If you participated in our Morris/Nonfiction Reading Challenge– even if you didn’t finish- you can count that reading toward your progress in The Hub Reading Challenge. Otherwise, only books that you both begin and finish within the challenge period count, so if you’ve read any of these titles before, you’ll have to re-read them to count them.
What? To complete the challenge, read or listen to 25 of the selected titles before the deadline. Everyone who completes the challenge will be invited to submit a reader response (which can be text, audio, video, graphics, or some combination) to his or her favorite (or least favorite!) challenge title, which we’ll publish here on The Hub. Additionally, everyone who completes the challenge will be entered into a random drawing to win our grand prize: a YALSA tote bag full of 2014 and 2015 YA lit titles! (If you’re a librarian or teacher, we’ll also toss in a couple of professional development titles.)
Not challenging enough, you say? For the speed readers out there, we offer this: on top of completing the challenge, you can go on to conquer it by reading all of the eligible titles.
As you read, you’ll also be earning badges that you can post on your blog or website or include in your email signature to show off how well-read you are, and if you conquer the challenge by reading all of the eligible titles, you’ll earn a super-elite badge (as well as our undying respect and awe).
How? Keep track of what you read every week and how many titles you’ve finished. Every Sunday, we’ll create a check-in post; comment on the post with what you’ve read or listened to that week (and what you thought of it!). If you’ve completed the challenge, fill out the form embedded in the post to give us your name and email address so we can contact you after the challenge is over. The challenge will run on the honor system, so be good!
Format matters, because listening can be a very different experience from reading in print, so be sure to experience challenge-eligible titles in the format in which they were honored. For example, Five, Six, Seven, Nate! was named an Odyssey Honor, an award that recognizes outstanding audiobooks, so even if you’ve already enjoyed the print version, you’ll need to listen to the audiobook to count it for this challenge. Tip: Some titles will be faster reads than others, so if you’re not sure if you can read 25 books in four months, start with quicker reads (like Quick Picks and Great Graphic Novels) first!
Who? All readers of young adult literature — teachers, librarians, publishers, booksellers, bloggers, parents, teens, anyone! — are welcome to accept our reading challenge. If you’re a librarian or teacher, consider encouraging your patrons or students to give it a try.
Any questions? Let us know in the comments or send us an email. Otherwise, we’ll see you when the challenge kicks off next Monday!
-Allison Tran
I remember two years ago (and maybe last year, too) there was a giant master list of all eligible titles that I could download and print. Is that in the works for this year, too?
Yes, there will be a printable list. I’m compiling it right now, in fact! :)
Excited to participate this year!
Wouldn’t miss it! Looking forward to getting started.
YAY for the 4th year of this challenge! I’m hoping some teen and adult patrons will join me in this challenge!! #simsburyct
And it starts on my birthday…how appropriate!
I’m in! Can’t wait!
I’m in!
Hello,
Thanks for compiling the master list. For Sharon Draper, are there specific books to be included in this list, or can any of the books read between February 9 and June 21 count toward the 25?
Thanks,
Scott Miller
Hi Scott, great question. Sharon Draper won the Edwards Award specifically for “Tears of a Tiger,” “Forged by Fire,” “Darkness Before Dawn,” “The Battle of Jericho,” “November Blues” and “Copper Sun,” so those are the Draper titles that will count towards this reading challenge.
Can’t wait!
I can understand why a book which won an award as a great audio book should be listened to instead of read in print (like Five, Six, Seven, Nate!), but why is it that books which won, say, a Printz award must be read in print instead of listened to? Much of my reading (and my adult patrons’) is done via audiobook during commutes, and this is the only reading contest I know of where listening to an audiobook doesn’t count the same as reading the print version.
Hi Jenni, I hear you. This is an issue that comes up every year, and The Hub Advisory Board, who organizes this contest, keeps the format requirement because format really does matter– the committees consider the books in the formats in which they’re awarded, and since our reading challenge is based on the books that have been recognized by those committees, it seems right that we, as participants, should experience the books the way the committee members did. Also- less philosophically and more on a practical note- an audiobook narrator can make or break a book. A great narrator can elevate a so-so book, and the wrong narrator can ruin the experience of a wonderful book. I take in a good portion of my reading via audiobook too, so I understand where you’re coming from, but I hope our challenge rules make sense with this explanation! :)
I haven’t participated in this before–I’m excited by the challenge!
I signed up for the Challenge in 2013 and never followed through. Hoping to do better this time, and maybe get some of our teen reading enthusiasts involved, too!
Thanks for compiling a Master List. I started clicking on the links and was having a hard time deciding exactly which things they wanted us to read. Can’t wait to start reading!
And here’s a silly question. How exactly do you sign up? I may just be missing it, but I don’t see any place that says sign up here.
Thanks!
Here I am in precisely the same position I was last year.
I place a request on the Printz winner on Monday during the webcast, receive the book and check it out on Tuesday. Printz winner and I then have to spend the next five and a half days staring at each other from across the room because we aren’t allowed to get together until the following Monday.
I am feeling both extremely honorable and highly frustrated.
Margaret,
Your comment made me laugh HARD because I find myself in the same situation each year. I am staring at a stack of lovely books that I can’t read just yet and it is driving me bananas. Oh well, there is something to be said for anticipation. Enjoy a great challenge this year. happy Reading!
Great! I am part of two other reading challenges this year, but hopefully many of the books on this one could count for those as well, so I’m in!
I’m placing hold requests on the first batch of books right now!
I am evidently missing this master list! Link, please??
I’m in.