Singing the Praises of Good Books

Award Winners, Celebration 0

It’s Book Award Season!

Monday was the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards, and it’s a time to celebrate Book Joy!

What’s more, yesterday I spent five hours online deliberating with the committee to select this year’s Mathical Book Prize winners (announced February 21), and I’m also in charge of getting some annotations in for the zero to five reading group of Capitol Choices and overseeing the Young Adult Speculative Fiction judges choosing a Cybils Award winner (announced February 14). So awards are on my mind!

Now, I put a huge number of books on hold Monday. And was feeling smug that I already have several honorees checked out. But I wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of the books I’ve already read and already love.

First, I was on the Morris Award committee this year and am super happy that now I can post the reviews I wrote of our winner and finalists. (I will try to get them posted within the next week or so.) Almost all of them won other awards, and I was so proud! So I have to celebrate them first:

Rez Ball, by Byron Graves
Our William C. Morris Award Winner!
American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner, Young Adults
CYBILS Young Adult Fiction Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 More Teen Fiction

Saints of the Household, by Ari Tison
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Walter Award Winner, Teen Category
Pura Belpré Award Winner, Young Adult Author
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #4 More Teen Fiction

Once There Was, by Kiyash Monsef
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Odyssey Award Honor (for the audiobook)
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Children’s Speculative Fiction

All the Fighting Parts, by Hannah V. Sawyerr
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Walter Award Honor, Teen Category
CYBILS Finalist, Novels in Verse
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #8 More Teen Fiction

She Is a Haunting, by Trang Thanh Tran
William C. Morris Award Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #9 Teen Speculative Fiction

For the other awards, the one that simply filled me with joy was the beautiful book Big, by Vashti Harrison, winning the Randolph Caldecott Medal for most distinguished picture book of the year. Everyone, read this wonderful book! Read it to your children!

Big, by Vashti Harrison
Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner
Coretta Scott King Honor, both for Author and Illustrator
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #2 Picture Books
(Number one was my personal favorite for quirky reasons, but this was the book I wanted to win the Caldecott — and it did!)

Another super joyful moment with recognition for a book of my heart was this one:

Simon Sort of Says
John Newbery Medal Honor
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlist
Schneider Family Book Award Honor, Middle Grades
CYBILS Middle Grade Fiction Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #1 More Children’s Fiction

And more favorites that picked up wins:

Mexikid, by Pedro Martin
John Newbery Medal Honor
Odyssey Award Honor (for the audiobook)
Pura Belpré Award Winner, for both Illustrator and Children’s Author
CYBILS Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novels Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #8 Children’s Nonfiction

A First Time for Everything, by Dan Santat
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner
CYBILS Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novels Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #1 Children’s Nonfiction

In Every Life, by Marla Frazee
Randolph Caldecott Medal Honor

Remember, by Joy Harjo, illustrated by Michaela Goode
American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor, Picture Books
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Picture Books

The Lost Year, by Katherine Marsh
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #4 Children’s Fiction

Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley
American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 More Teen Fiction

Hidden Systems, by Dan Nott
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Longlist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Teen Nonfiction

America Redux, by Ariel Aberg-Riger
YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist
Sonderbooks Stand-out: #7 Teen Nonfiction

Now, because of reading for the Morris Award in 2023, I did not read widely this year. So this is a small sampling of award winners, but I am very sure that many more will show up on my 2024 Sonderbooks Stand-outs list.

Happy reading!

Review of Rez Ball, by Byron Graves

Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Rez Ball

by Byron Graves

Heartdrum (HarperCollins), 2023. 357 pages.
Review written September 29, 2023, from my own copy, sent from the publisher.
Starred Review
2024 William C. Morris Debut Award Winner
2024 American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner, Best Young Adult Book
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 More Teen Fiction

I read this book because it’s eligible for the 2024 William Morris Award for best young adult debut book, so I’m writing this review before I’ve discussed it with the committee in order to guarantee this is only my opinion and I’m not giving any information about what the committee thinks.

Note: This was written after my first time through the book. I read it twice in print and then listened to it as an audiobook, and my appreciation only grew.

Rez Ball is a sports novel. I don’t generally love sports novels, but this one hooked me into a couple late nights turning pages.

It’s the story of Tre Brun, a sophomore at Red Lake Indian Reservation high school, hoping to play varsity basketball. His big brother Jaxon had been the star of the team last year. But Jaxon died in a car accident, and his team just missed going on to the state championships for the first time ever.

Now the same starters are back, but is there a place for Tre? And he and everyone else know that he’s not the same ball player as his brother. Is he good enough?

I thought Tre came across as an authentic sophomore boy who’s big and tall and has fame suddenly thrust upon him. He’s awkward with girls, feels like he needs to prove himself at parties, and has a lot to live up to in the shadow of his big brother. I love the way the author winds all that into Tre with believability and likeability, and you feel his thrill when the whole rez is cheering for him, but also the weight of those expectations.

The team does come up against some ugly racism in spots, and Tre has some friendship issues to untangle. And every part of the story makes it feel all the more true.

This is a sports novel that made me want to give the protagonist a great big hug. It was a lovely combination of showing his insecurities along with the pride and thrill of playing ball with excellence. A sports novel to love – even if you don’t particularly like sports novels.

epicreads.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/rez_ball.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Once There Was, by Kiyash Monsef

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Once There Was

by Kiyash Monsef
read by Nikki Massoud

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 11 hours, 28 minutes.
Review written July 3, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 William C. Morris Award Finalist
2024 Odyssey Award Honor Book
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Children’s Speculative Fiction

Once There Was is a contemporary fantasy tale interwoven with Persian stories that begin, “Once there was, once there wasn’t…”

Marjan is 15 and owns a veterinary clinic after the violent death of her father a few weeks ago. The police don’t have any clue who did it, and Marjan feels detached from it all, trying to keep the clinic running.

Then a mysterious woman sends her plane tickets to London to visit a griffin. When Marjan places her hands on the griffin, she senses everything the griffin is feeling, and he is very sick. And that is how she learns that one of the stories her father told her is true – and she inherited a gift from her father going back to an ancestor who was pierced by a unicorn’s horn. Oh, and besides that – griffins and other magical creatures are real.

But then Marjan gets entangled with more than one powerful group who wants to control who has access to these amazing creatures, and she wants to be on the side of the creatures, but which side is that? In her efforts to help, she has some amazing adventures, while trying to understand her place in all this, keep the clinic afloat, and figure out who killed her father – all while trying to keep her friends from worrying about her.

She gains some allies along the way, including a rich boy from London whose family has hosted the griffin for centuries and a teenage witch whose familiar is ill – and needs a place to stay. It’s good she has help, because it turns out that everything is riding on the fate of these magical creatures, and Marjan and her friends are going to need to save the world.

My one little complaint about the book is that the big climactic world-saving action happens with still more than an hour left in the audiobook. But the things that follow are pretty crucial to Marjan’s story, too, so I don’t think I’d want it changed – or put off and resolved in another volume.

The publisher is marketing this for children (ages 10 to 14), but Marjan is 15, in high school, and dealing with adult things like running a business, and has a friend who drives. So I think teens will enjoy the book, too.

I didn’t begin this eaudiobook until it was almost due to expire, so on the last day, I pulled out a jigsaw puzzle and listened to the last 4 hours (sped up a tiny bit), and thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in this book. I love the way the interspersed Persian tales illuminate the story and keep the feeling of magic strong.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/once_there_was.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Bees of Notre Dame, by Meghan P. Browne & E. B. Goodale

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

The Bees of Notre Dame

by Meghan P. Browne
illustrated by E. B. Goodale

Random House Studio, 2023. 36 pages.
Review written November 16, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

I love Paris, and so I also love picture books set in Paris. But instead of being fictional, this one is a true story of the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris. Honestly, that makes it even more wonderful for me. The pictures transport me to Paris right away, with one of my favorite Notre Dame gargoyles on the title page and an iconic metro station on the next, beside spring gardens overlooking Notre Dame.

I can’t resist including the photo I actually took when in Paris in April.

This book evokes that joyful feeling with the words and pictures.

When spring arrives in Paris, people pop up like tulips from underground after working, riding, and resting through short winter days.

Dawn breaks earlier each morning. The sun says “Come! Walk in the streets to feel my warmth on your face. Smell the buttery croissants. Hear the accordion’s song.”

What I didn’t know is that bees were kept in hives on top of the roof of the sacristy of Notre Dame. The book tells how the bees rested during the winter, but came out in April, flying over the rooftops to the gardens of Paris. We hear about the cycle of the bees gathering pollen, constructing the honeycomb in the hive, and nursing new bees there.

Then everything changes.

Next comes a silent spread of the cathedral burning.

More follows about the tragedy of the fire.

And when the spire falls,
the whole world cries.

But it quickly transitions to firefighters working to save the cathedral and the treasures within — including the bees.

The book closes with pictures of the rebuilding efforts — with the bees in the foreground, so we know they’ve survived. And uses bees as an example of being stronger together.

Although the book covers a tragedy, it does so in a way that is hopeful and full of beauty. “More About the Story” at the back fills in details — yes, the bees survived. They are no longer on a rooftop, but in the garden next to the sacristy during the rebuilding. Charts on the endpapers show an overhead view of the cathedral before and after the fire.

A wonderful approach to a major landmark and a major event — bringing hope by focusing on the little creatures who survived and thrive.

meghanpbrowne.com
ebgoodale.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/bees_of_notre_dame.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of America Redux, by Ariel Aberg-Riger

History, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

America Redux

Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History

by Ariel Aberg-Riger

Balzer + Bray, 2023. 294 pages.
Review written July 4, 2023, from a book sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review
2024 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist
2023 Kirkus Prize for Young Reader’s Literature Winner
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #7 Teen Nonfiction

Finishing this book on July 4th was wonderfully appropriate, though because it’s eligible for the Morris Award, I can’t talk about it yet, which is frustrating.

America Redux is a book of visual American history for teens. What do I mean by visual history? The author and artist took mostly public domain images from the time periods of the stories she discusses and made collages. Then she hand-lettered the story on the collages.

The history here isn’t told in consecutive order. The author takes twenty-one issues that still affect us in America today and gives the history of that issue. Some go back farther than others. Some don’t have obvious implications today (though most do), but are fascinating stories.

The book is a quick read, a delight to the eyes, and incredibly interesting. I wished almost every chapter was longer – but the author has a list of resources in the back, sources of quotations, and where you can look to explore the topic more. So she gives enough to completely suck you in. Also enough to give you conversation at parties! Just last Sunday, I began talking about urban SROs – Single-Room Occupancy dwellings – how common they once were and how cities cracking down on them in the 1970s drove up the price of housing. I learned about it in this book.

This book is hard to resist. Its bright colorful images pull your eyes to the page. This is not a textbook or a replacement for a textbook, but it focuses on history you won’t necessarily learn about in school – things like freeways getting built through land owned by minorities, Sam Colt and his genius marketing abilities (paid product placement with his guns in paintings!), the history of squelching immigration, propaganda and the American Revolution, Mustafa Al-Azemmouri – a Black Muslim explorer of the Americas, the Eugenics movement and forced sterilization, Love Canal and the pollution still all around Niagara Falls – and so much more.

If the topics sound random, they felt a little random, not necessarily related to one another or in any particular order. But each one was so fascinating, I completely forgave the author for that. I came away from this book knowing much more about American history and with my curiosity piqued to find out yet more.

americareduxbook.com
arielabergriger.com
EpicReads.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/america_redux.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Merciful Crow, by Margaret Owen

Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Merciful Crow

by Margaret Owen
read by Amy Landon

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2019. 12 hours, 58 minutes.
Review written January 2, 2024, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #7 Teen Speculative Fiction

I’ve become a big fan of Margaret Owen’s work after Little Thieves was my favorite book read in 2022, and the sequel Painted Devils was one of my favorites in 2023. So I was happy to find her debut book available as an eaudiobook on Libby.

As in the other series, The Merciful Crow features a girl who’s a scrappy underdog. In this case, she’s part of the caste of Crows — the very lowest and most despised caste in the kingdom of Sabor. There are twelve castes altogether, all named after birds. Each caste has a certain number of witches with an inherited magic for their caste. The ruling family of Phoenixes, for example, can manipulate fire.

Crows don’t have a specific magic of their own — but if they have teeth from someone of another caste, living or dead, they can manipulate that person’s magic. And fortunately, the Crows have access to teeth, because they are the caste that deals with bodies. Crows are immune to the Sinner’s Plague – so when a village lights a Plague Beacon, Crows go in and give the person with the plague a merciful killing, then remove the bodies from the village and burn them.

Fie is the daughter of a chief of the Crows, and she’s training to use the magic of teeth and become a chief herself. As the book opens, they’ve been called to the palace for the first time in 500 years. Fie’s Pa goes in and brings out the shrouded bodies of Prince Jasimir and his bodyguard Tavin. And then they negotiate for payment.

But after they get out of the royal city, it turns out the prince and his companion aren’t dead. It was a ruse to escape from the Queen, who is trying to kill him. Now he wants to travel with the Crows to get to his allies before he shows up as miraculously recovered from the Plague.

But things begin to go wrong. Due to treachery, after their next stop, Fie ends up traveling with the prince and Tavin on her own, with her whole family held hostage. She has a string of teeth, including Phoenix teeth, she has a charge from her father, and she has determination to look after her own. She’ll help the prince to save her family.

The journey is long and difficult, and there are twists and turns all along the way. As they travel, the prince and Tavin are surprised to learn how badly Crows are treated. Fie doesn’t know if she can ever trust the prince to treat them like people, as he’s promised. On the other hand, the Queen intends to allow vigilantes to attack Crows in broad daylight instead of only at night like they do now.

Using caste in a fantasy world was an interesting way to talk about racism in the real world and treating all people as people of worth. This book held magic, romance, adventure, and the story of a girl learning to be a leader.

Research shows this is the first of a duology (but it does stop at a good stopping place), so the advantage of reading it years after publication is that I can start the next book right away.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/merciful_crow.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, by Isi Hendrix

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans

by Isi Hendrix

Balzer + Bray, 2023. 338 pages.
Review written October 30, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

This debut middle grade fantasy novel is a sweet-hearted story of a girl named Adia who knows she has special powers, but needs to learn that doesn’t mark her as cursed.

The book is set in an alternate version of Africa. Adia is an orphan and lives in the Swamplands with her aunt and uncle, who seem to hate her. White missionaries came to their land years ago and have suppressed the old ways and inflicted their own control. All adults take Drops before church services, and they’re oddly compliant.

But Adia has made plans behind her aunt and uncle’s backs to spend her Year of Practicality working in the kitchen at the Academy of Shamans. She has a narrow escape before she leaves, and is startled when an earthquake happens when she gets angry.

Once at the Academy, she finds white-skinned students pretending to do spiritual work, but even Adia can sense more than they can.

Told with humor and heart, Adia witnesses one of the Alusi come to earth and learns that the demon that destroyed their land many years ago is now inhabiting the body of the child emperor – and coming to the Academy. One thing leads to another, and we’ve got a kid who’s been told she’s an evil influence discovering her power and using it to fight those who are actually evil.

The result is a delightful romp and an impressive debut. Adia’s the kind of person I enjoyed spending time with, and I look forward to reading more of her adventures as she learns more about her power.

Harpercollinschildrens.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/adia_kelbara.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Tower of Life, by Chana Stiefel, illustrated by Susan Gal

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Tower of Life

How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs

by Chana Stiefel
illustrated by Susan Gal

Scholastic Press, 2022. 40 pages.
Review written January 11, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 Children’s Nonfiction

The Tower of Life is a beautiful and bright picture book biography. As the book opens, we’re introduced to the main character as a child:

There once was a girl named Yaffa.
She was a spirited girl who loved her home and her family. She was born in a shtetl, a small Jewish town that pulsed with love, laughter, and light. The name of her shtetl was Eishyshok (Ay-shi-shok).

The acccompanying picture shows a happy chld playing in the bright yellow-green grass above a village with people in groups interacting with one another.

We’re told that Yaffa’s family had lived in Eishyshok for 900 years. We see a picture of a grandmother telling stories as the community gathers around. The following pages show a happy community, enjoying both snow and sunshine. We see a bustling marketplace.

But then we learn that Yaffa’s grandmother had a photography studio. She took photographs of all the people in the village. On Jewish New Year, it was a custom to send photographs to family all over the world, so that’s what people in the community did. We even see a reproduction of a photograph of Yaffa, smiling broadly as she feeds the chickens.

But then hard times came. The Germans came and rounded up the people of Eishyshok. But Yaffa’s family escaped and lived in the forest. The pictures describing that time are darker, but they are accented with bright red paint that keeps a sense of hope. Yaffa brought her family pictures along.

After the war, Yaffa ended up in America, and she became a professor of history. So she was asked by President Jimmy Carter to help make an exhibit for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Thoughts of her own treasured photographs made her think of basing her exhibit on photographs from the rich lives in happier times.

Yaffa decided she would find the survivors and rebuild Eishyshok, not brick by brick, but photograph by photograph, story by story.

And the book concludes with a vertical format spread showing how Yaffa’s exhibit looks in the museum.

Today, if you travel to Washington, DC, you can see Yaffa’s “Tower of Life” in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. More than 1,000 photos of the people of Eishyshok soar three stories high for all the world to see. A world filled with love, laughter, and light — a world that will never be forgotten.

I love the way this picture book makes something beautiful out of a story of the Holocaust, as Yaffa did herself, emphasizing life and light and including beautiful pictures. The book shows the reader that these people were so much more than victims, living beautiful lives.

chanastiefel.com
galgirlstudio.com
scholastic.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/tower_of_life.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Long Weekend Award Reading Challenge – Finish Line

48-Hour Book Challenge 0

I did it! This weekend, I successfully finished reading the last 9 books I needed to read for the 2024 Mathical Awards!

As I explained in the Starting Post, this was different from my previous 48-Hour Book Challenges, as I was taking 3 days and I needed to finish specific books. And I did it! Not as much time to spare as I’d hoped, but I did get to take a walk in the snow today, so I’m not complaining!

Here are my stats:

9 books finished, with 7 of those complete books.
1563 pages read.
9 short reviews written for the Mathical committee and 4 reviews written for Sonderbooks (to appear after we announce our winners).
18 hours, 5 minutes reading — so 3 hours less than I estimated, but I made up for that with
4 hours, 40 minutes reviewing and blogging, for a grand total of

22 hours, 45 minutes spent this weekend on Mathical books.

And now I am DONE with award reading until September when, if all goes well, I’ll start reading for the Cybils Awards again. (Though we will be discussing the Mathical books next week.) This is after a year on the Morris committee, so I’m ready to read some adult books. (Though I have an Advance Reader Copy of the new Kimberly Brubaker Bradley book that is definitely going to be next.)

Unfortunately, my house is such a mess right now, having neglected it for reading, that I don’t even quite know where to start. I’ll probably start with putting away the last of my Christmas stuff, but also clear my table so I can do a jigsaw puzzle again. (I can’t do a jigsaw puzzle when in the middle of award committee reading, because I can’t resist a puzzle and spend lots of time on it when I should be reading and stay up way too late, too.) But it’s all good, and not only did I have fun reading some excellent books this weekend, I have a big sense of accomplishment. My 2024 reading year is off to a great start.

Unfortunately

Long Weekend Award Reading Challenge

48-Hour Book Challenge, Selection Adventures 0

It’s Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday Weekend, and it’s time for a Long Weekend Award Reading Challenge!

Here’s the thing: I was on the Morris Award selection committee last year, but I didn’t take myself off the Mathical Book Prize selection committee. We finished our Morris reading in December, and it went to my head a little. I got out a jigsaw puzzle and read a Christmas novel, among other things. I had plenty of time!

Well, this year I think we’ve got a few more of the longer children’s books to consider, but whatever the reason, I should have worked on this sooner. Our short reviews of the eligible books are due this coming Monday, and I have 9 more books to finish.

Now, two of the books (one fiction and one nonfiction) are almost done. All of them are pretty short. Especially compared to the young adult books I was reading for the Morris.

During my Newbery reading, I learned that I can read a children’s novel at the rate of approximately 100 pages per hour. During my Morris reading, I learned that for young adult novels, it’s more like 60 pages per hour. Using those figures, I estimate that it will take me 21 hours to finish the 9 books. And I’ve got 3 days, so it just means 7 hours per day.

Besides, this kind of marathon reading is exactly what I do when I tackle a 48-Hour Book Challenge!

Last July, I got 18 hours of reading done in 48 hours. So surely I can do 21 hours in 72.

The difference, though, is that I usually add to my time by listening to audiobooks while I prepare food or do other necessary tasks. But I don’t have any of these mathical books on audio. So that’s going to make it trickier. I also am hoping I can still go for walks on Saturday and Monday, go to church on Sunday, and do things like laundry and other weekend chores – but again, won’t be able to count listening while I do them. I also want to have my daily devotional time, which I count as reading for the 48-Hour Book Challenge, but can’t for this. I will only count reading for the Mathical Book Prize, plus writing short reviews.

I had planned to get started tonight — but it’s already past midnight, and I need to go to bed! And that happened because I did my usual chore of paying bills on Friday night and cooked dinner and then thought I could just post a review before I started the reading, and one thing led to another and now it’s late.

So this is my challenge. Can I read for approximately 21 hours on this long weekend and finish reading 9 children’s and young adult books and write short reviews? I’m going to try!

Happy Reading!