Most of what I read in 2011 was junior fiction. I'm catching up on all the great books I didn't read when I was a kid and many books that have been published since I was a kid. I was surprised to count 52 JF books read; just shy of one per week.
I did also read some more "grown-up" titles; just not as many (14). I began the year with some excellent C.S. Lewis; I enjoyed Suzanne Collins' trilogy over the summer (these were in the TEEN section of the library); and I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain. I have loved everything that I've read by Elizabeth Goudge and Pilgrim's Inn was no exception, even though I read it out of series since her novels are hard to come by. I read Animal Farm for the second time (the first was in highschool) and I still can't say anything great about it. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was very enjoyable once I got used to the format. Golden Legacy, a book about the history of Western Publishing and their editors, authors and illustrators was quite interesting to me. I've been slowly working through the five Father Brown mystery books by G.K. Chesterton, reading one a year on-line. I suspect I'd read them much faster if I had a hard copy or something like a Kindle. This year's The Incredulity of Father Brown has some of my favorite stories in it yet. I was disappointed with both Burpo and DiStefano's visions of heaven and have been thinking about getting a newly published book, What The Saints Said About Heaven for next year.
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| poem by Arnold Lobel |
That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis
Pilgrim's Inn, Elizabeth Goudge
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Golden Legacy, Leonard S. Marcus
The Silver Chalice, Thomas B. Costain
Heaven Is For Real, Todd Burpo/Lynn Vincent
Travel Guide To Heaven, Anthony DeStefano
The Incredulity of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton
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| illustration by Edward Gorey |
The Middle Moffatt, Eleanor Estes
The Whipping Boy, Sid Fleischman
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare
The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare
The 13 Clocks, James Thurber
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, Rachel Field
Miss Hickory, Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
The Bronze Bow, Elizabeth George Speare
The Boxcar Children 1-8, Gertrude Chandler Warner
Paddle-to-the-Sea, Holling C. Holling
Seabird, Holling C. Holling
Minn of the Mississippi, Holling C. Holling
Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool
The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo
Holes, Louis Sachar
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznik
Dominic, William Steig
Abel's Island, William Steig
My Father's Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett
The Guardians of Ga'Hoole Book 1: The Capture, Kathryn Lasky
The Giver, Lois Lowry
Kneeknock Rise, Natalie Babbitt
The Search for Delicious, Natalie Babbitt
The Borrowers, Mary Norton
The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Little Men, Louisa May Alcott
The Alley, Eleanor Estes
The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode, Eleanor Estes
A Series of Unfortunate Events 1-13, Lemony Snicket
Homer Price, Robert McCloskey
Centerburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer Price, Robert McCloskey
SO many good books. I just love Eleanor Estes, Natalie Babbitt, Kate DiCamillo, and Elizabeth George Speare (especially The Bronze Bow). The Holling C. Holling books are awesome with lots of interesting information and drawings. I really learned a lot reading them! The two William Steig chapter books that I read were very good (I'm not a huge fan of all his picture books). Lois Lowry's The Giver was a profound book - I really could have included it with the "adult" novels, above. It's definitely not for young readers, but it is in the junior fiction section. It's a dystopian novel that made me want to pick up Aldous Huxley's Brave New World again (and I am happy to say I found a nice hardback copy of BNW at the library book sale and plan on reading it next year). I had to re-read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH after the kids watched The Secret of NIMH on Netflix and I thought it wasn't quite right. I also decided to pick up A Series of Unfortunate Events (we saw the movie a year or two ago) but have to say that the books got really tedious about halfway through. Nevertheless, I'm glad I plodded along because the ending was great and I look forward to the related series that 'Lemony Snicket' has planned for 2012. I also have to mention that The Invention of Hugo Cabret was awesome. I read it long before I even knew they were making HUGO. The movie was good and was faithful to the book, but the ending of the book was way cooler. The other book to movies I can compare are Sachar's Holes - I can't say that I preferred one over the other; and Camillo's Desperaux - the book was much better. I also enjoyed and plan on reading more of George MacDonald's and Louisa May Alcott's fiction next year.
1 comment:
I get overwhelmed thinking of all the day to day things I have to get done. If I had the #361 "problem" I would probably end up being committed. But of course if I got committed I would have a lot more time to read. So I guess its all in how you look at it;D
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