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<\/a>This year, I’ve got to explain myself. Most years I post my Stand-outs from all the books I read the previous year on January 1st. But this year, I was on the 2019 Newbery Committee, and could not say one word about eligible books online until after our announcement was made.<\/p>\nI did, however, make my list of stand-outs on January 1st. So this list was made before<\/em> I had discussed any books with the committee or even reread very many — after which, I gained new appreciation for many of them and noticed new drawbacks in others. Thus, the opinions are mine and mine alone. And I was only one-fourteenth of the committee.<\/p>\n Also, please don’t think that you can figure out from this list which books I nominated or voted for when the committee met. I’m making absolutely no claim that these books are the most distinguished books of 2018. These are simply my personal favorites after a year of reading — the books that stood out in my mind after reading like never before, and the books that won a place in my heart, even though they might have some flaws that would keep them from being declared to have the most literary merit.<\/p>\n I’m posting more Stand-outs this year than ever before. That’s because I read more books than ever before! In fact, I made more categories than ever before, the better to honor more books. I’m of the Spread the Book Love Around persuasion, so I like to honor lots of books — but this is still only a small fraction of the books I read this year.<\/p>\n In fact, as usual, I’ll post my stats. In 2018, while serving on the Newbery committee, I read:<\/p>\n 4 novels for adults (all on audiobook) So you can see I’m actually being very choosy in naming all these Stand-outs!<\/p>\n And I highly recommend every single one of these books.<\/p>\n Here’s the list of 2018 Sonderbooks Stand-outs<\/a>!<\/p>\n
\n38 nonfiction books for adults (some on audiobook)
\n49 novels for teens
\n174 children’s novels
\n207 books of children’s nonfiction (many picture books among them)
\n595 fiction picture books
\n13 books reread<\/p>\n