2014 YALSA Reading Challenge

Last year I participated in this challenge and read lots of books I probably would not otherwise have read. The rules of the challenge are that you can't include a book you have already read unless you reread it for the challenge. This means that some books I have read and really liked I can't include. The list of books is made up of the winners and honor books from the Printz, Shneider Family, Stonewall, Alex, Margaret A. Edwards, Odyssey, and William C. Morris awards as well as the ALA's 2013 Best Audiobooks, Fiction, Quickpicks, and Nonfiction lists. The challenge is to read or listen to 25 books before June 22, not really too difficult to accomplish. So far I have read the following books (highlighted books available at NHS Library - the rest were borrowed from the Napa County Library):

• Zombie Baseball Beatdown by Paolo Bacigalupi - funny and scary
• Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle - impossibly crazy book about chasing a dream
• Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner - bizarre alternate history about a hoax moon landing
• Scowler by Daniel Kraus - cruelty and violence that would challenge Stephen King
• Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick - marvelous fantasy tracing soul mates backwards through 7 different time periods
• Winger by Andrew Smith - rugby, bullies, private school - not a favorite
• Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America's First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone - lots of pictures bring this nonfiction to life
• The President Has Been Shot! The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James Swanson - another nonfiction made interesting with pictures and diagrams
• Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool - reminded me of Holes in some ways
• Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein - sequel to Code Name Verity and just as amazing
• In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters - excellent historical fiction/paranormal

The following are the books that I had already read. Even though they are excellent books, I have too many new ones to read to reread them. Know what I mean?

• The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb - another interesting nonfiction book
• Beauty Queens by Libba Bray - screamingly funny retelling of Lord of the Flies
• Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger - steampunk and girl spies adventure
• Ash by Malinda Lo - retelling of Cinderella story
• Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride- OK - chapter titles most fun part of the book
• Out of the Easy and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys - both are fantastic historical fiction with great female protagonists
• Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang - two graphic novels depicting different sides of the Boxer Rebellion in China
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - do I really have to say how amazing this book is?