Saturday, January 1, 2022

The Start of a New Year of Reading and Reading Challenges

Reading Challenge


With the pandemic, my reading has gone downhill. I really thought I would read more. That was not the case. This last year I took on a new subject to teach. I picked up a reading class and then was asked to teach Theatre. I had never taught theatre before. Once again with all the new things, my reading was not where I wanted it to be. So for this next year, I am going to complete two reading challenges. Both of them are A-Z challenges. I am not formally joining anyone's challenges. I am doing this on my own. I have made a list of books I own either in my classroom or on my Kindle that I haven't gotten to yet. I have a list of twenty-six books by title and an alphabetical list of books by the author. Below you will find my lists. I will not read them in order. Some of them have a review date. I am doing this for two reasons. First, I need to meet my goal for this school year set by a student, and this will help. The second reason is that I need to read these books and be knowledgeable enough to recommend them to my students. It is hard to talk up a book you have not read. I will post reviews and I will post links to those reviews.  Below my challenge, you will see links to some of the other challenges I considered. I even made lists for them. I am not going to stress myself as I have done in years past trying to hit all of the reading challenges. I will however introduce them to my students as I think it would be interesting to see if any of them might like a challenge.  I have attached links to where you can find the official challenges. I reserve the right to change books I have listed. The idea is to have fun and that means changing up books as I see fit.


A-Z Titles
Alone - D.J. Brazier
Bats and Bones - Jeffrey Hickey
Diamond Willow by Helen Frost
Easy Target by Tim Shoemaker

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle
The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong
Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eager
I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster, 1937 by Lauren Tarshis
The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
Katia by Bruce Judisch
Lions of Little Rock by Kristen Levind
Missing Okalee by Laura Ojeda Melchor
Ninelands by K.E. Boyer
Of Wise Oaks and Weeping Willows by Diane Robertson
Plum Springs by Dan Lawton
Quest Chasers: The Deadly Cavern by Thomas Lockhaven
The Robber Girl by Franny Billingsley
Sacred Mountains of China by Ryan Pyle
Trapped in 1867 by Christopher Francis+-
Unteachables by Gordon Korman
Voices of the Sea by Bethany Mason Harar
What Waits in the Woods - Kieran Scott
Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo
Yellow Star -Jennifer Roy
Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick

A-Z Authors
Burger, Ariel - Witness: Lessons From Elie Wiesel's Classroom
Ellis, Brandon - The PureLights of Ohm Totem
Garber, Dennis - Travelers and the Four Doors of Artew
Inglis, Karen - The Secret Lake
James, Steven - Blur
Key, Watt - Beast
Marshall, kate Alice - I Am Still Alive
Northrop, Michael - On Thin Ice
Ogle, Rex - Punching Bag
Preller, James - Before You go
Quaver, P.D. - Unplugged
Reynolds, Jason - All American Boys
Trump, Jacobina - Turn of the Tide
Underhill, Shawn - The Earthkeepers
Vigilante, Danette - The Trouble With Half a Moon
Xavier, Tom - Neffatira's First Challenge
Young, Suzanne - The Program

Color Coded Reading Challenge
Blue - Blue Birds by Caroline Starr Rose
Red - Uncle Bob's Red Flannel Bible Camp - Steve Vernon
Yellow – The Yellow Star Shines Like a Candle in the DArk - Aaron Seth
Green – The Girl With the Green Tinted Hair - Gavin Whyte
Brown – The narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown - Henry Box Brown
Black –The Black Towers - Ken Brosky
White – The Girl in the White Van by April Henry
Orange – Oranges for Christmas: A Berlin Wall Escape Novel by Margarita Morris
Rainbow –Rainbow in the cloud - Maya Angelou


Keyword Challenge 

January KeywordsLast, Girl, Dark, When, Winter, Light, Window
Girl in the Lake - India Hill Brown

February Keywords: Midnight, Never, Into, Sun, Love, Good, Spell, Search
The Cat I Never Named - Amra Sabic-El-Rayess


March Keywords: End, Fall, Loud, Queen, Woods, Nine, Beautiful, Crown

The Boy on the Wooden Box - Leon Leyson


April Keywords: Race, Now, Chose, While, Stop Burn, Red, One

One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance - Nikki Grimes


May Keywords: Thorn, Catch, Black, Under, City, Cloud, Sing, Legacy

Dragged from Under: The Bull Shark - Joseph Monninger


June Keywords: Sea, You, Hate, Perfect, Shade, Until, Beach, Little

Four Perfect Pebbles - Lila Perl & Marion Blumenthal Lazan


July Keywords: Star, Next, Infinity, Iron Word, People, Rise, Clear

Words With Wings - Nikki Grimes


August Keywords: Breath, Case, Hundred, Day, Happy, Language, Stay, Lie

Rhyming Poetry to Change Your Day - Philip Lister


September Keywords:  Bright, Here, Out, Life, Strange, Rule, Story Salt

From the Inside Out - Erik O. Ronningen


October Keywords:  House, Bone, Haunt, Body, Blood, Witch, Murder, Mystery

Keesha's House - Helen Frost


November Keywords:  Many, Boy, River, Fever, Down, Gold, Jade, Hill

Long Way Down - Jason Reynolds


December Keywords:  Still, Cabin, Night, Lake, By, Holiday, Fire

Terror At Wolf Lake - Max Elliot Anderson



If you are into, or want to try a reading challenge then you might want to try "Beat the Backlist".  All of my books above fit into this challenge and I can definitely read another to fit in that one place where a book on my list won't be out until February, making 52 books on my backlist of books that were published before 2022. That won't be a problem as the book Katia has two sequels. I learned this when checking out what else this author had written. So essentially I am officially/unofficially taking part in two reading challenges this year. Check out the "Beat the Backlist" challenge. 

Another Reading Challenge you might be interested in is the "Color Coded Reading Challenge" .  I actually have a list of books that would fit this challenge. I am not signing up officially. If I could get to it that would be great. I refuse to add any stress to my reading. 

Maybe your thing is reading books about being creative. If so then you might want to check out the "Creativity Reading Challenge".

"Mount TBR Challenge" would be another great one if you are like me and have hundreds of books on your TBR list. Again, I am sticking to the 52 book I have above, although they could count here as well.

Maybe you are a word nerd and need or want key words to help you choose a book. The "Key Word Challenge" would be for you then.

If you are into reading challenges then you might also want to check out the 2022 Master List of Reading Challenges. They have something for everyone.

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