Happy New Year! Now that 2010 is over, it's time for my TENTH annual list of the books I most enjoyed reading in the previous year. I began this tradition on January 1, 2002, when Sonderbooks was still an e-mail newsletter.

I'm not by any means trying to list the "most distinguished" books I read in 2010. My Newbery prediction list is quite different, in fact. Sonderbooks Stand-outs are, plain and simple, the books I enjoyed reading the most, for whatever reason. These are books I give as gifts and urge my friends to read, books that make me smile when I think about my year of reading.

Although I am putting them in order, this order has been changing all day long. All of the books I list here are outstanding, and are books I loved reading.

You may be puzzled that I already have 2010 Sonderbooks Stand-outs listed on my site. You see, when I started Sonderbooks Stand-outs, I named them after the year where I did the reading. For 2007-2010, though, I decided to imitate the Newbery awards and give them the name of the year they are awarded. However, I've changed my mind again. (The beauty of having my own website is I can change my mind as much as I want.) Since many of these books were published in 2010, and I read them in 2010, I'm going to copy the Cybils and call them 2010 Stand-outs. Of course, this means I will need to go back and adjust the stand-outs from the last four years.

I hope you'll enjoy reading these books as much as I did!