How to use this Page

Everyone you meet
is fighting a battle you
know nothing about.

Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles. Candlewick, 2015, 336 pages.

More than your garden-variety
quirky middle-grade.
Trilobites!

Moonpenny Island by Tricia Springstubb. Balzer + Bray. 2015, 304 pages.

A sturdy middle-grade
with wacky characters
and some light magic.

Lucky Strike by Bobbie Pyron. Levine/Scholastic, 2015, 272 pages.

A little repetitive,yes,
but a powerful
read nonetheless.


Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christine Heppernan. Greenwillow, 2014, 128 pages.

Grief in tangible and
intangible forms: a
deft meditation.

The Question of Miracles by Elana K. Arnold. Harcourt, 2015, 240 pages.

It's Spring! With Batty!
And you will cry and cry and cry.
And then rejoice,

The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall. Knopf, 2015, 352 pages.

Raises tons of questions,
answers almost none -- and
does so beautifully.

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon. Holt, 2014, 352 pages.

Beautiful meditation
on life, death, and friendship.
Worth all the buzz.

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart. Scholastic, 2015, 240 pages.

It feels like Alaska
outside, so snuggle in
with Bo and the gang.

Bo at Iditarod Creek by Kirkpatrick Hill, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. Holt, 2015, 288 pages.

CREEPY AS ALL HELL,
and wonderfully rich and
compelling to boot.

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll. McElderry/S&S, 2014, 208 pages.

A turtle for our time:

Behold: your go-to
gift for the karate* kid
in your life. (*I know.)

Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny by John Himmelman. Holt, 2014, 144 pages.

Briefly confused by
narration, but I loved these
guys and loved their game.

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. HMH, 2014, 240 pages.

ETA: OMG I TOTALLY SCHEDULED THIS ONE PRESCIENTLY, EH?

To adore this book
as much as I did, turn to
page one. Keep going.

Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris. Crown, 2014, 304 pages.

Masshole makes good,
makes us all laugh, kicks some a$$
in the process. Rock on.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler. Dey Street Books, 2014, 352 pages.

Everyone's favorite
Christian next door is at it
again. Say amen.

Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace by Anne Lamott. Riverhead, 2014, 304 pages.

Hard conversations
that we can't seem to have well.
Alles fleisch indeed . . .

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Metropolitan Books, 2014, 304 pages.

P.S. Apparently I took a weeklong blog break. Oops. I'm only mortal . . .

I swear I'll get back
to running again this year.
BELIEVE IN THE BLERCH.

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances by The Oatmeal. Andrews McMeel, 2014, 148 pages.

Reviews posted: 128 (Clearly I'm falling down on the job.)

I feel like I read way more MG than YA this year, but apparently all the love went to YA.

Favorite MG reads of 2014
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jenni Holm
The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson
El Deafo by Cece Bell

Favorite YA reads of 2014
Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang
When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

Greatest Nostalgia for One's Junior High Reading Years
The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and Regulations

Favorite Jackets of 2014
100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
El Deafo by Cece Bell
Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
The Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yeh
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Eggs, bacon, cocaine --
just your average 1970s
diner fare.

Over Easy by Mimi Pond. Drawn & Quarterly, 2014, 272 pages.

Come for the wordplay,
stay for the illustrations.
Chickens are funny.

The Case of the Weird Blue Chicken (Chicken Squad #2) by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Kevin Cornell. Atheneum, 2014, 112 pages.

A perfect last-minute
gift for your favorite
post-college wanderer.

An Age of License: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley. Fantagraphics, 2014, 189 pages.

A little trite, but
SO true to the modern
fifth-grade experience.

Kate the Great, Except When She's Not by Suzy Becker. Crown, 2014, 272 pages.

Add to your list of
Debuts That Knock It Out of
the Park. Powerful.

Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang. Greenwillow, 2014, 304 pages.

Way more fun than a
Victorian setting has
any right to be.

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry. Roaring Brook, 2014, 351 pages.