2010: Year in Review

Number of posts: 142
Number of book reviews: 128

Favorite middle-grade reads:
Octavia Boone's Big Questions About Life, the Universe, and Everything
Forge
Turtle in Paradise
Keeper
Countdown
One Crazy Summer

Favorite middle-grade reads that were separated at birth:
The Mysterious Howling (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place)
The Kneebone Boy

Favorite chapter book-y reads:
Bink & Gollie
Prime Baby

Favorite YA reads:
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
This World We Live In
The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin

Favorite grown-up reads:
Packing for Mars
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Marriage and Other Acts of Charity

Favorite sequels/series continuations:
Clementine, Friend of the Week
Bobby the Brave (Sometimes)
Ivy & Bean: Doomed to Dance
Ivy & Bean: What's the Big Idea?
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects, and Other Man-Made Catastrophes

Best jackets of the year:
Forge
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend
You

The Kneebone Boy

Countdown
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

The Book Is Overdue!
The Checklist Manifesto
Zombies vs. Unicorns

Books that, if they do not get some kind of ALA award recognition, I will eat my hat:
Forge
One Crazy Summer
Countdown
Keeper
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Bink & Gollie
The Kneebone Boy

(And YES, I realize I have completely ignored nonfiction. BAD Emily. BAD BAD BAD.)

FOUR: Birthday Haiku

Remember when we
thought you couldn't talk?
You kinda got over that.

Happy birthday to my Boy!

Smile: Review Haiku

This worst-case dental
scenario gives Raina
time and room to grow.

Smile by Raina Telgemeier. Amulet, 2010, 192 pages.

Merry Christmas!

Doodlebug: Review Haiku

Self-empowered kid
fights the petty injustices
of middle school.

Doodlebug: A Novel in Doodles by Karen Romano Young. Feiwel & Friends, 2010, 112 pages.

The Charming Quirks of Others: Review Haiku

Wealthy, busybody
philosopher finds new
moral quandaries.

The Charming Quirks of Others: An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith. Pantheon, 2010, 272 pages.

Forge: Review Haiku

Queen Laurie pens
another gem. (Now it doesn't
feel so cold outside.)

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson. Atheneum, 2010, 304 pages.

In the Company of Others: Review Haiku

Father Tim stars in
Irish soap opera of love,
lust, fam'ly secrets.

In the Company of Others: A Father Tim Novel by Jan Karon. Viking, 2010, 416 pages.

At Home: Review Haiku

Exhaustive, exhausting
minutiae of human
domesticity.

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. Doubleday, 2010, 497 pages.

Simple Times: Review Haiku

Macrame for the
clinically insane. (Kidding;
there's no macrame.)

Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris. Hachette, 2010, 304 pages.

Dante's Divine Comedy: Review Haiku

The Cliffs Notes of AWESOME:
one hundred cantos in
black-and-white brilliance.

Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, adapted by Seymour Chwast. Bloomsbury, 2010, 127 pages.

The Good, The Bad, and the Barbie: Review Haiku

Rich, complex topic,
but jumps around a lot, no?
I de-toed all mine.

The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact On Us by Tanya Lee Stone. Viking, 2010, 130 pages.

Into the Gauntlet: Review Haiku

Ten books and thirty-
nine clues later, and the answer
is . . . looooove. Okay.

Into the Gauntlet (The 39 Clues, #10) by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Scholastic, 2010, 176 pages.

Ivy + Bean: What's the Big Idea? Review Haiku

Not a polemic --

just a kid's-eye view of
climate change. Lurve these two.

Ivy + Bean: What's the Big Idea? by Annie Barrows, illustrated by Sophie Blackall. Chronicle, 2010, 128 pages.