{"id":46937,"date":"2026-09-12T22:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T02:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46937"},"modified":"2026-09-12T22:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T02:51:05","slug":"sonderbooks25-stand-outs-2008-and-working-as-a-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46937","title":{"rendered":"#Sonderbooks25 – Stand-outs 2008 and Working as a Librarian!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Happy 25th Birthday to Sonderbooks! Yes, as of last month, I’ve been writing Sonderbooks for 25 years! So I probably should step it up with my #Sonderbooks25 project<\/a> of revisiting the Sonderbooks Stand-outs from previous years, and adjusting the older pages to the new phone-friendly format.<\/p>\n

And I’ve finished the Sonderbooks Stand-outs 2008<\/a> page!<\/p>\n

I read some wonderful books that year! In February 2008, I began working full-time for the first time since my firstborn was small, and working as a full-fledged librarian managing a small youth services department at the closest library to my house.<\/p>\n

Reading the reviews I posted that year reminded me that in those days, a committee chose books as a system to book talk in the schools before the Summer Reading Program. It was my first ever year book talking (with many more to come), and I zealously read the chosen books, reading some wonderful books I might otherwise have never found. Looking at those reviews reminds me of how much joy I got out of really working as a librarian, doing what I loved, with a calling I cared about.<\/p>\n

But then I realized that since 2007 was the year I started the Sonderbooks blog<\/a> (and I was using the blog to determine which year reviews were posted), it was also the year I started my Sonderquotes blog<\/a> and my Sonderjourneys blog<\/a>. So of course I decided to read the posts from 2008 on those blogs – covering the 2007 posts first.<\/p>\n

In both blogs, there were some strange character artifacts – I think from when I switched web hosting companies. I’d gotten them fixed on the main blog, but it turned out I needed to do it manually on these two, as long as I was reading them.<\/p>\n

The Sonderquotes reading honestly inspired me. I was still trying to adjust to my new life without my husband, and was reading uplifting books about finding joy and thriving and not getting weighed down by resentment. Going through them years later still lifted my heart. Some of the books will show up in my 2009 Stand-outs, because I’d only begun to read them in 2008, but the especially good ones that show up in Sonderquotes from 2008 include Forgive for Love<\/a><\/em>, Tell Me No Lies<\/a><\/em>, Beyond Codependency<\/a><\/em>, This Is Not the Life I Ordered<\/a><\/em>, The Return of the Prodigal Son<\/a><\/em>, and Staying Connected to Your Teenager<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

I also reread my Project 52 posts that covered 2008. There were four – Becoming a Librarian<\/a>, My graduation and my oldest’s graduation<\/a>, Divorce, Phase 7: Negotiations<\/a>, and New Home and New Beginnings<\/a>. Then it dawned on me that as long as I’m reading the posts, this would be a good time to update the Project 52 Landing Page<\/a> with those posts.<\/p>\n

So all that slowed me down. My challenge now: Can I finish #Sonderbooks25 before I hit Sonderbooks’ 26th birthday? But whatever the answer, at least I’m having fun doing it.<\/p>\n

But now, besides the ones above, let me highlight a few books from the 2008 Sonderbooks Stand-outs<\/a> that I intend to reread sometime in the near future:<\/p>\n

Chalice<\/a><\/em>, by Robin McKinley, was recently acquired by our library as an eaudiobook, so that one’s a no-brainer. I’ve been rereading other Robin McKinley books lately, and she never fails to enchant me.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure completely why it grabs me from this list, but I also want to reread Italian Lessons<\/a><\/em>, by Peter Pezzelli.<\/p>\n

And I have to say, my Stand-outs in Picture Books were exceptional that year. Maybe because now I was regularly doing story times? I still highly, highly recommend Timothy and the Strong Pajamas<\/a><\/em>, Millie Waits for the Mail<\/a><\/em>, A Visitor for Bear<\/a><\/em>, and Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes<\/a><\/em>. And that seems to be the year I discovered Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie books<\/a>, which are just the best!<\/p>\n

The Children’s Nonfiction Stand-outs are also exceptional. Kadir Nelson’s We Are the Ship<\/a><\/em>, Jon Scieszka’s Knucklehead<\/a><\/em>, and Bruce Goldstone’s Greater Estimations<\/a><\/em> are all classics still worth looking up.<\/p>\n

So, yes, it was sobering to look back on 2008 – the divorce negotiations were angry and bitter – but it was also inspiring. I was working at a job that is my calling, and I had dear friends and wonderful books to get me through!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy 25th Birthday to Sonderbooks! Yes, as of last month, I’ve been writing Sonderbooks for 25 years! So I probably should step it up with my #Sonderbooks25 project of revisiting the Sonderbooks Stand-outs from previous years, and adjusting the older pages to the new phone-friendly format. And I’ve finished the Sonderbooks Stand-outs 2008 page! I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[426],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sonderbooks25"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46937"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46940,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46937\/revisions\/46940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}