{"id":11703,"date":"2018-12-26T01:24:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T05:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=11703"},"modified":"2018-12-26T01:34:33","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T05:34:33","slug":"2018-christmas-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=11703","title":{"rendered":"2018 Christmas Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, my Friends!<\/p>\n

What has 2018 been about for me? Newbery, Newbery, Newbery!<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m on the 2019 Newbery Medal Selection Committee, and it seems like everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done this year was about that. Our job is to choose the most distinguished American children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book published in 2018, and in quest of that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read more than 100,000 pages from about 600 picture books and 300 longer children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and young adult books. Publishers have mailed almost 700 books to my house \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and basically, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eating, sleeping, and breathing books! And I love it!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Here I am reading on my balcony<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With that in mind, my main trips this year were to American Library Association conferences \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Denver in February, where I got to see my brother Randy and his wife Vickey, and New Orleans in June. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m looking forward to making our decision in Seattle at the end of January. Once the decision is made, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll rent a car and go visit my kids in Portland, as well as some siblings and little nieces.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still Youth Services Manager at the City of Fairfax Regional Library. I started a Newbery Book Club at the library, and have also visited some local schools to talk about the award process. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve used this year on the Newbery to catch up on my website \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I have almost finished posting all the reviews I wrote in 2016 and 2017 on sonderbooks.com. Never mind that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be behind again after our winners are announced. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read some fantastic books \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it will be great to be allowed to talk about them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Zephyr is the name my transgender daughter is using now, and she hopes to soon make the name change legal. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still living in a house with my brother Peter and four other transgender women. Zephyr tells me that most of those women came to Portland after being rejected by their families for being transgender. So I want to make very clear that not only do I believe Zephyr that living as a woman more truthfully reflects who she is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I am proud of her for living authentically. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also proud that this year their home served as a refuge for people who needed one when right-wing extremist groups demonstrated in Portland.<\/p>\n

Tim has been working as a contractor for Intel for a couple years now, and just got a permanent job as a Quality Assurance Engineer for a tech company called Arris. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start early in 2019. He came out and visited me (okay, and other Virginia friends) this summer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it was great to see him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I still live in my lovely condo-by-the-lake and take lots of pictures of the great blue heron that likes to fish in the lake. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve enjoyed this Year of Reading tremendously! Be sure to check back after January 28 to find out which books we honored!<\/p>\n

Much love,
\nSondy<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Top Ten list still applies!<\/p>\n

TOP TEN REASONS I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M THRILLED TO BE ON THE NEWBERY COMMITTEE:
\n10. My employers are even bragging that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a librarian on the Newbery. Wow!
\n9. I get to be in the Room Where It Happens.
\n8. Reinforces that I made a good decision becoming a children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s librarian.
\n7. My library system is funding my four trips to ALA conferences for my committee service.
\n6. I get to discuss children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s books with experts who love them as much as I do.
\n5. Publishers have mailed me piles of new children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s books.
\n4. This turned my Empty Nest into an asset instead of something to mope about.
\n3. Forever, the shiny sticker on our winner will remind me of this wonderful experience.
\n2. A fantastic connection for talking with kids about the Newbery Medal and great books.
\n1. Books, books, books!
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten to spend all my spare time this year reading \u00e2\u20ac\u201c without guilt!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, my Friends! What has 2018 been about for me? Newbery, Newbery, Newbery! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m on the 2019 Newbery Medal Selection Committee, and it seems like everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done this year was about that. Our job is to choose the most distinguished American children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book published in 2018, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}