Bout of Books Progress Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of the Bout of Books read-a-thon. Considering that Monday is my busiest day - I'm home with the kids all day, and then I teach CCD at night - I'm really impressed that I read six books. Here's what I finished:

• Me and Miranda Mullaly by Jake Gerhart
• Stella and the Night Sprites #1: Knit-Knotters by Sam Hay
• Sofia Martinez: My Vida Loca by Jacqueline Jules
• Shelter Pet Squad #3: Paloma by Cynthia Lord
• The Babysitting Chronicles: Kaitlyn and the Competition by D.L. Green
• The Only Girl in School by Natalie Standiford

I also read some of How to Break a Heart by Kiera Stewart, which I have on the Kindle app on my phone, but it's been very slow-going and I keep taking breaks from it. I've been reading it on and off all morning today, so hopefully I'll be able to list it as finished in tomorrow's update.

Yesterday, I also completed the challenge for day one, which was to introduce myself in six words. I did that on Twitter.

Five Reading & Blogging Goals for 2016

Reviewing My 2015 Goals 

At the start of last year, I sat down and made a list of five reading goals to work toward in 2015. The time has come to see how well I did and to set some new goals for 2016. First, here’s an inventory of my 2015 goals.

• 2015 Goal #1: Read Through History
  My most specific and measurable goal for 2015 was to read and review 52 historical fiction novels in chronological order based on setting. And I did it! The full list of titles and their reviews is here. It was a really great experience, and one I may repeat in a future year. 
• 2015 Goal #2: Go Easier on the ARCs
  My reasoning with this goal was that I was focusing too much on what was new and shiny, and not enough on good books I missed in previous years. But between Reading Through History and Old School Sunday, I didn’t have as much time - or room in the blogging schedule - for more recent backlist titles. I still want to be mindful about not amassing ARCs just for the sake of it, but I have no doubt I will continue to review them in abundance during 2016. 
• 2015 Goal #3: Be Proactive About Picture Books
  I think I did fairly well at seeking out picture books, but so many of them were duds that I had a hard time feeling motivated to read a lot of them. I did manage to return to reviewing them more regularly, however, so I feel that this goal was accomplished. 
• 2015 Goal #4: Phase Out YA 
  I stopped reviewing new young adult books pretty much altogether, and I don’t miss them. A handful of older titles were included in Reading Through History and one or two appeared on Old School Sunday, but otherwise, I did manage to bring my focus back to books for middle grade audiences and younger. 
• 2015 Goal #5: Bring Back Books for Beginners
  I really only even began to accomplish this because of Cybils, and even then, there weren’t all that many new easy readers available. I did revamp my format my reviewing beginner reader books, though, and I hope that will make it easier for me to review more of them in the future. 

Five Reading & Blogging Goals for 2016 

Now, on to 2016… These are not just reading goals, but writing and overall blogging goals as well.

• Goal #1 Fumble Through Fantasy
  Because Reading Through History was such a success, I decided to do a similar project this year, focused on the genre I like least: Fantasy. I gave myself a break and selected only 25 titles to read and review. The reviews will appear on Sundays and Mondays scattered throughout the year beginning January 3rd. 
• Goal #2: Organize my social media content. 
  Because blogging is strictly a hobby for me, I haven’t necessarily felt it was important to have a strong social media presence. When I look at the sites that refer traffic to my blog, however, it is clear that Pinterest and Facebook are the main ways readers find this site. I was better about posting to both this year - and I’m mostly set with a routine for Pinterest - but Facebook, as well as Twitter and Instagram, could use some work. It helps that Picture Book of the Day is moving to Instagram, but I still need to sit down and sort out exactly where I want to post, what I want to put there, and when. 
• Goal #3: Participate in more read-a-thons and challenges.
  In 2015, I participated in the 48 Hour Book Challenge as well as Armchair BEA, and I found both to be very useful ways to jump-start my reading and to connect a little bit with the blogging community. I hope to do both of those again, but I’m also looking forward to trying new (to me) things, such as The Bout of Books, Newbery Through the Decades, and Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-Thon. 
• Goal #4: Write a page of fiction five days a week. 
  When I went to college, my one goal in life was to be a fiction writer. After some negative experiences, and several rejections from graduate writing programs, however, I graduated and basically never wrote another word. Though I no longer necessarily aspire to write a novel (I wrote a non-fiction book this year, and found that very enjoyable), I do miss creating characters and writing them in and out of interesting situations. So, this year, my hope is to sit down at the end of each weekday and write a handwritten page of fiction. This will be purely for enjoyment, so there might not be a cohesive unit at the end of the year, but there will hopefully be a daily writing habit and maybe a handful of useful story starters. (I'll be using the weekends as catch-up days in case I have to skip a weekday.)
• Goal #5: Relocate, rebrand and rename the blog. 
  I fully expect to continue blogging for years to come, but I see myself writing on more and more disparate topics that don’t fit neatly under the “Story Time Secrets” title. My hope is to spend this next year studying up on Wordpress and to work toward launching a new blog, with its own domain, in early 2017. The goal is to continue focusing on books, but to also incorporate other interests, including stay-at-home parenting, homeschooling preschool, Catholic living, etc. I am not 100% sure this will be accomplished in just one year, but writing it down at least makes it seem like a real goal! 

Do you have any reading or blogging goals this year? Feel free to share in comments!

Favorite Children's Books of 2015 (Plus My Top 5 Old School and Historical Fiction Titles!)

It's the last day of the year, so in keeping with tradition, I'm sharing my favorite books of the year. These are all titles which were published during 2015 that I read and reviewed. Links are to my posts.

Board Books and Picture Books

Board books and picture books are favorites in our house, since we have a 2-year-old and a new baby, but we have pretty high standards. These are the ones that made the cut this year!

• Jane Foster’s ABC (Little Bee Books)
• Roar! by Julie Bayless (Running Press Kids)
• Stanley the Farmer by William Bee (Peachtree Publishers)
• See You Next Year by Andrew Larsen and Todd Stewart (Owlkids Books)
• Waiting by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books)
• In a Village by the Sea by Muon Van, illustrated by April Chu (Creston Books)

Easy Readers and Beginning Chapter Books

Because I chair the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Book category of the Cybils, I read a lot of beginning reader books. There were lots of good ones this year, but these are the ones I reviewed that I enjoyed the most.

• Written and Drawn by Henrietta  by Liniers (Toon Books)
• Hoot, Owl! by Shelby Alinsky (National Geographic Children's Books)
• Cody and the Fountain of Happiness by Tricia Springstubb (Candlewick Press)
• Lost in NYC by Nadja Spiegelman, illustrated by Sergio Garcia Sanchez (Toon Books)
• Francine Poulet Meets the Ghost Raccoon by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick Press)
• Sprout Street Neighbors: Five Stories by Anna Alter (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
• Clover’s Luck by Kallie George, illustrated by Alexandra Boiger (Disney-Hyperion)
• My Family Adventure by Jacqueline Jules, illustrated by Kim Smith (Picture Window Books)

Middle Grade

I read middle grade as much for my own pleasure as I do to keep up professionally. There were plenty of disappointing reads early in 2015, but later on, I discovered some new favorites, which appear below:

• Escape from Baxters’ Barn by Rebecca Bond (HMH Books for Young Readers)
• Moonpenny Island by Tricia Springstubb (Balzer + Bray)
• Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr (Candlewick Press)
• Cassidy’s Guide to Everyday Etiquette (and Obfuscation) by Sue Stauffacher (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
• Breaking the Ice by Gail Nall (Aladdin)
• Murder is Bad Manners by Robin Stevens (Simon & Schuster)
• Been There, Done That by Mike Winchell (Grosset & Dunlap)
• Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books)
• Sunny Side Up by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm (GRAPHIX)
• Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt  (Random House Books for Young Readers)

“Old School” Favorites

 

Every Sunday for years now I have been reviewing vintage kids' books. This year,  I discovered the following five old/new favorites:

• Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
• Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
• The Rose Round by Meriol Trevor 
• The Owl Service by Alan Garner
• No Boats on Bannermere by Geoffrey Trease 

Reading Through History Favorites

In 2015, I challenged myself to read 52 historical fiction novels for kids in chronological order based on setting. The full challenge list can be found here, but the books below are titles I really loved that I can't wait to share with my own kids.

• Boy With a Pack by Stephen W. Meader
• Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
• Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
• The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy 
• I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon, January 2016

When Little Miss Muffet was born two years ago, I fell behind on my reading. With a second little one in the house now, I still haven't caught up. I know that I tend to read more when I have a challenge to which I must be accountable, so I was hoping to find a read-a-thon or other event to help me kick off my reading for 2016. A quick Google search led me to exactly what I was looking for: The Bout of Books! Here is a description from the official website: 

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 15 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Consider this post my official announcement of participation. I am not setting any official goals for myself, since I know my life will be as unpredictable next week as it is during any other, but my hope is to read through as many of the ARCs that I have requested from NetGalley and Edelweiss as possible in the week of the Bout. Getting that backlog taken care of, and getting back to the point where I'm actually reviewing advance copies in advance of the books' publication dates would be really helpful. We'll see how it goes! Check here and on my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts the week of January 4th to see my progress.