Last school year, when I went on my first book binge, I was searching for a way to keep up with all the books I had read and discovered the social media website
GoodReads. I quickly joined up and have been tracking the books I've read this year.
GoodReads made it very easy to keep up with not only what books I've read, but when I finished them. I love that I now how a record of the books I've read and enjoy looking back at my list. GoodReads also has a fun reading goal challenge so I joined up. My goal was to read 100 books in 2012 and I met that goal. Wahoo!
Here's my GoodReads bookshelf for 2012:
Some of my favorites books that I read in 2012 were...
Radiance and
Shimmer by Alyson Noel
These were definitely in my top 10 for the year. There was just something about the way these books were written that drew me in and made me want more. I have ordered the third and fourth books in the series,
Dreamland and
Whisper, and am currently reading the companion series, the
Immortals, although I would not recommend the
Immortals series for an elementary library. It's definitely more high school material.
Just about every Margaret Haddix book I read from The Shadow Children series (similar in feel to the Hunger Games, but maybe not quite as graphic, although just as intense) to The Missing series (Sci Fi meets Historical Fiction meets adventure) to her stand alones,
The Always War,
Escape from Memory,
Double Identity, and
The House of the Gulf I loved! None of these books disappointed and all left me wanting more. I think Haddix is now one of my all time favorite authors.
The
Matched Series by Ally Conde
Oh! So good! I could not wait until books two and three came in. I read them in two days. If you liked the
Hunger Games, you will also enjoy
Matched,
Crossed and
Reached.
Hank Zipzer books by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver
I reluctantly picked up book #1
Niagra Falls, or Does It? and began reading it only to find myself laughing and rooting for Hank, an adventurous fourth grader who with the help of a concerned P.E. teacher discovers that he has dyslexia. I read books 1, 2, 3 and 16 because those were what we have in the Media Center. I plan to order more of these. I know some students who could relate to Hank and will enjoy his adventures, or misadventures, rather.
Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford
I read this book in about an hour and a half so it's a quick read, but a really good one. It is an inspiring story about a young boy who is basically overshadowed by his big brother and is all but forgotten until his brother goes into a coma after being tackled during a football game. I boo hooed happy tears by the end of this book.
Grandpa Hates the Bird: The Battle Begins by Eve Yohalem
This was a book I downloaded on my Kindle Fire. I was looking for a funny, quick read, and this book delivered. I laughed so hard, I cried. It reminded me a lot of my dad who also hated a bird we had when I was little. So funny and it was a free download!
Science Fair by Dave Barry
This is another great action/adventure/science fiction book. I was glued to the book! It was suspenseful, but not scary. It has something for the geek and the sports enthusiast as well.
The Gollywhooper Games by Jody Feldman and
Floors by Patrick Carman
Modern day
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-type books, these books have adventure, suspense and mystery...a perfect combination to hook those reluctant readers. And there are more books to come in the
Floors series...so BONUS!!!
Mockingbird by Katherine Erskine
I loved this book and I think it is because I've had students like the main character, Caitlin. It really gave me a different perspective on things and made me think differently about how to handle certain situations with certain students. I'd definitely recommend this book to any teacher who works with students with special needs.
Source
So B. It by Sarah Weeks
This book is about a girl and her mentally disabled mother who end up living with a kindly neighbor. Such a touching book! I'd give it 3 tissues on the nose meter.
I enjoyed making that 100 book goal so much that I am setting a new goal for myself for 2013...120 books!
I have made a book goal chart for the Media Center so that the students can see my progress. I really want to encourage students to set a reading goal for themselves, so I am hoping that this chart I've made for myself will be a good model for that.
We should be getting a new book order in any day now and I can't wait to get those books processed so that I can get to reading them. I don't feel too guilty about wanting to read them before the kids because when I read new books, I know what they are about and can recommend them to specific students. So it's really for my job that I am gobbling them up!
I am a little worried that I might run out of books in our Media Center to read, but I recently found out about the website
NetGalley that provides free advanced copies of books to librarians (as well as other professionals) and joined up. I have both a Kindle Fire and an iPad and can download book requests to these devices once the requests have been approved. So far I have 12 approved books, but I haven't started reading any of them yet because I am still reading a few books that I got for Christmas. I hope that reading books through
NetGalley will also help me to figure out what books to order, or not order, for the Media Center.
So, have you ready anything good lately? Maybe I can add it to my pile of books to read for 2013.
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