"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Saturday, October 4, 2014

All YA books read in 2014 (so far), with ratings

On Monday I meet with my high school librarian colleagues to select our Mock Printz reading list. To qualify books must be published in the USA in 2014 and geared toward the Young Adult audience.

This list is all the books I have read this year that meet the qualifications with my Goodreads rating given at the time of completion. (5 stars---best.)

 Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
(Nancy Paulsen Books, Aug. 28, 2014)
***
Cress by Marissa Meyer
(Feiwel and Friends, Feb 4, 2014)
***
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
(Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt and Company, March 18, 2014)
***
Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines by Paul Fleischman
(Candlewick Press, Sept. 23, 2014)
***
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
(Dutton Juvenile, Feb. 11, 2014)
***
Never Ending by Martyn Bedford
(Wendy Lamb Books, March 11, 2014)
***
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
(HarperTeen, June 3, 2014)
***
She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick
(Orion Children's Books, October 3, 2013)
***
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
(Margaret K. McElderry Books, July 15, 2014)
***
The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy by Kate Hattemer
(Knopf Books for Young Readers, April 8, 2014)
***
Always Emily by Michaela MacColl
(Chronicle Books, April 8, 2014)
***
Complicit by Stephanie Kuehn
(St. Martins Griffins, June 14, 2014)
***
Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor
(Little, Brown and Company, April 8, 2014)
***
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
(Schwartz and Wade, July 8, 2014) 
***
Gandhi: My Life Is My Message by Jason Quinn
(Campfire Books, March 4, 2014)
***
Girls Like Us by Gail Giles
(Candlewick Press, May 27, 2014)
***
The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
(Delacorte Press, April 1, 2014)
***
A Matter of Souls by Denise Lewis Patrick
(Carolrhoda Books, April 1, 2014)
***
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin 
(Roaring Book Press, Jan. 21, 2014)
***
Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat by Gail Jarrow
(Calkins Creek Books, April 1, 2014)
***
The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim #1 by EK Johnston
(Carolrhoda Books, March 1, 2014)
***
The Tyrant's Daughter by JC Carleson
(Knopf Books for Young Readers, Feb. 11, 2014)
***
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
(Delacorte Press, May 13, 2014)
***
Going Over by Beth Kephart
(Chronicle Books, April 1, 2014)
***
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
(Viking Juvenile, Jan. 2, 2014)
***
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers, April 8, 2014)
***
Shackleton: Antarctic Odyssey by Nick Bertozzi
(First Second, June 11, 2014)
***
The Sound of Letting Go by Stasia Ward Kehoe
(Viking Children's Books, Feb. 6, 2014)
***   

The Gospel of Winter by Brendan Kiely
(Margaret K. McElderry Books, Jan. 21, 2014)


I am always struck by my fluid memory. As I typed up this list and looked back on my Goodreads reviews I was tempted to change a few of the ratings because time has altered my view of the book as the memory and subsequent events have altered my impressions. But I held true. The ratings I listed are the ratings I gave the books the day I ranked them.

You may also wonder how objective I am when more than 3/4th of my ratings are 4 or 5. Keep in mind that I do a lot of homework before I choose a book. Most of the books listed here already had lots of star ratings from professional reviewing sites and I chose to read them based on those reviews. It actually should be more shocking there are any 2 or 3 ratings at all.


2 comments:

  1. I didn't like Cress as much as you did, and haven't gotten to Dreams of gods and monsters. Is the rating because it was so long?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Margaret, I listened to Dreams of Gods and Monster, which take longer than reading it. Perhaps that is why I felt that the middle part really dragged. Carly is listening to it right now and she essentially thinks the same thing. That is why I gave it a 4.

      My 5 star rating of Cress was given right after I read it and I was so caught up in the world I had to give a top-notch rating. However since that time the story has faded so probably would be down-graded if I had to rank it today.

      Delete

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