I’ve read (for me) surprisingly little fantasy this year. I’m shocked that it took me until mid-November to finish this challenge. I really thought I would have knocked it out by no later than June, but that 2012 copyright requirement tripped me up! Here are the ten fantasy books published in 2012 that I read […]
Phoenix Award: Letters from Rifka
by rovingfiddlehead on October 22, 2012
The Phoenix Award is granted to a twenty-year old book that was not given a major award the year (or award cycle) it was published. What a fun way to honour those favourite books that were originally overlooked by Award Lords! This year’s recipient was the semi-biographical Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse. A Russian Jew, […]
Award-winning Books Challenge: Ireland
by rovingfiddlehead on September 24, 2012
Getting back on track with some Irish award-winners. There by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick was named The Bisto Book of the Year for 2009 and also received an Honour Award for Illustration. It is a quiet and thoughtful book perfect for sharing one-on-one, but also filled with a child’s spunk and sense of wonder. In a series […]
Award-winning Challenge Update: Newberys
by rovingfiddlehead on August 2, 2012
I’ve become quite addicted to the larger font sizes on ebooks and find it is driving many of my reading choices these days. My July project for the Award-Winning Books Challenge was to read all the Newbery winners I hadn’t read that are available through Overdrive. A doable goal since it was only four titles. […]
Six Month Update on Reading Challenges
by rovingfiddlehead on July 1, 2012
I am participating in four reading challenges this year as well as a reader for the Iowa Children’s Choice Award. I’m pleased with my progress so far for all but one of the challenges. Goodreads challenge: 200 books. I’ve read 100. Right on track. This is really good because I don’t track any of my […]
Award-Winning Books Challenge: Great Britain
by rovingfiddlehead on May 9, 2012
The Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are probably the foreign book awards American children’s librarians know best (I’d like to pretend it’s the Governor General’s Awards what with Canada being right next door and all, but alas in my experience that is not the case). The 2010 Kate Greenaway winner, Harry & Hopper by Margaret Wild […]
Award-Winning Books Challenge: Australia
by rovingfiddlehead on May 2, 2012
The Children’s Book Council of Australia grants Best of the Year awards in five categories: Older Readers (secondary school-age), Younger Readers (independent elementary readers), Early Childhood (pre-reading to early reader), Picture Book and the Eve Pownall Award for Information Book. The latter two awards are for any age up to 18. I choose two of […]
January update: Award Winning Books Reading Challenge
by rovingfiddlehead on January 17, 2012
A rollicking picture book and two historical fiction Newberys started off this challenge.The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare George and Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck are both really good books with likeable teenage girls as main characters, but the similarities pretty much end there. The Witch of Blackbird Pond is a […]
Award-winning Books Reading Challenge
by rovingfiddlehead on January 1, 2012
I was really tempted to join the #nerdbery challenge, but most of the older Newberys aren’t nearly as interesting to children today as The Graveyard Book and Holes and aren’t the sort of thing I’d be recommending to many kids. So when Library Quine brought the Award-winning Books Reading Challenge to my attention, I […]