October Accomplishments

These are a few of my favorite 'first' lines read in October of 2009:

I remember cheese. I remember pizza; real pizza. Deep-dish, Chicago-style, four-cheese pizza, fresh from the oven, the cheese steaming and bubbling on top like cooling lava.

There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave.

It was fun at first, playing house.

I've been wrong before.

Grandpa frowns when he plays chess, like he does when he prays.

October's Top Five Ten:

All the Broken Pieces. Ann E. Burg.
Lips Touch Three Times. Laini Taylor.
Crossing Stones. Helen Frost.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things. Lenore Look.
Love, Aubrey. Suzanne LaFleur.
Umbrella Summer. Lisa Graff.
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine.
Heart of a Shepherd. Rosanne Parry.
Twenty Boy Summer. Sarah Ockler.
Strawberry Hill. Mary Ann Hoberman.

Number of Picture Books: 7

I Spy Fly Guy! Tedd Arnold. 2009. Scholastic. (Early Reader) 30 pages.
Archie and the Pirates. Marc Rosenthal. 2009. HarperCollins.
A Walk Down Sesame Street. 2009. Candlewick Press (Pop-Up/Novelty.) 16 pages.
Baby Polar by Yannick Murphy. 2009. Clarion Books.
Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman. 2009. Chronicle Books.
I Don't Want A Posh Dog by Emma Dodd. 2009. Little, Brown.
Duck and Cover. Jackie Urbanovic. 2009. HarperCollins.

Number of Board Books:

Number of Children's Books: 30

Sunny Holiday by Coleen Murtagh Paratore. 2009. Scholastic. 160 pages.
Jemma Hartman: Camper Extraordinaire. Brenda A. Ferber. 2009. FSG. 215 pages.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things. Lenore Look. Random House. 2008. 172 pages.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters. Lenore Look. 2009. Random House. 170 pages.
The Sisters 8: Annie's Adventures. Lauren Baratz-Logsted. 2008. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 136 pages.
Gullible Gus. Maxine Rose Schur. 2009. Clarion Books. 48 pages. (early reader/chapter book)
Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell. 2008. HarperCollins. 171 pages.
Love, Aubrey. Suzanne LaFleur. 2009. Random House. 262 pages.
Umbrella Summer. Lisa Graff. 2009. HarperCollins. 235 pages.
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine. 2009. Penguin. 266 pages.
Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez. 2009. Little, Brown. 198 pages.
Heart of a Shepherd. Rosanne Parry. 2009. Random House. 161 pages.
Ottoline Goes to School. Chris Riddell. 2009. HarperCollins. 170 pages.
Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle & Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me. Nan Marino. Roaring Brook Press. 154 pages.
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree. Lauren Tarshis. 2007. Penguin. 200 pages.
Callie's Rules by Naomi Zucker. 2009. Egmont USA. 225 pages.
Signal. Cynthia DeFelice. 2009. FSG. 151 pages.
Take the Mummy and Run by Mary Amato. 2009. Holiday House. 226 pages.
Strawberry Hill. Mary Ann Hoberman. 2009. Little, Brown. 230 pages.
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love. Lauren Tarshis. 2009. Penguin. 169 pages.
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano. Peggy Gifford. 2009. Random House. 177 pages.
Mudville. Kurtis Scaletta. 2009. 265 pages. Knopf.
Alibi Junior High. Greg Logsted. 2009. 244 pages. Simon & Schuster.
Journey of Dreams. Marge Pellegrino. 2009. Frances Lincoln Children's Books. 250 pages.
The Unfinished Angel. Sharon Creech. 2009. HarperCollins. 164 pages.
Piper Reed, Navy Brat. Kimberly Willis Holt. Henry Holt. 146 pages. 2007.
Piper Reed The Great Gypsy. Kimberly Willis Holt. Henry Holt. 160 pages. 2008
Piper Reed Gets A Job. Kimberly Willis Holt. Henry Holt. 160 pages. 2009.
Bobby Vs. Girls (Accidentally). 2009. Lisa Yee. Scholastic. 170 pages.
The Girl Who Threw Butterflies. Mick Cochrane. 2009. Random House. 177 pages.

Number of YA Books: 11

Evermore by Alyson Noel. 2009. St. Martin's Press. 306 pages.
(Re)Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin. 2009. Random House. 273 pages.
A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck. 2009. Penguin. 164 pages.
A Killing Frost by John Marsden. 1995. Houghton Mifflin. 275 pages.
Vampire Kisses: The Beginning. Ellen Schreiber. 2003. 2005. 2006. HarperCollins. 562 pages.
Girl in the Arena. Lise Haines. 2009. Bloomsbury. 384 pages.
Almost Perfect. Brian Katcher. 2009. Random House. 360 pages.
Twenty Boy Summer. Sarah Ockler. 2009. Little, Brown. 290 pages
Dance With A Vampire. Ellen Schreiber. 2009. HarperCollins. 178 pages.
Never Slow Dance With a Zombie. E. Van Lowe. 2009. Tor Teen. 253 pages.
Sacred Scars. Kathleen Duey. 2009. Simon & Schuster. 554 pages.

Number of Adult Books: 9

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. Laurie Viera Rigler. 2007. 293 pages.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. 1937. 103 pages.
The Good Humor Man. Andrew Fox. 2009. 280 pages.
The Jewish Husband by Lia Levi. 2009 (date of the translation) 2001 (original publication). Europa. 209 pages.
The Tudor Rose: A Novel of Elizabeth of York. Margaret Campbell Barnes. Sourcebooks. 336 pages.
Emily's Ghost. Denise Giardina. 2009. W.W. Norton & Company. 335 pages.
A Match for Mary Bennet by Eucharista Ward, O.S.F. 2009. Sourcebooks. 350 pages.
A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell. 2005. Random House. 464 pages.
Girl In a Blue Dress. Gaynor Arnold. 2008. Crown Publishing. 414 pages.

Number of Christian Books: 3

Though Waters Roar. Lynn Austin. 2009. Bethany House. 430 pages.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. (Audio Dramatization) Focus on the Family. 2009.
A Measure of Mercy by Lauraine Snelling. 2009. Bethany House. 367 pages.

Number of Verse Novels: 2

Crossing Stones. Helen Frost. 2009. FSG. 184 pages.
All the Broken Pieces. Ann E. Burg. 2009. 220 pages. Scholastic.

Number of Graphic Novels:

Number of Nonfiction: 3

Princess Tea: Parties and Treats for Little Girls. 2009. Janeen A. Sarlin with Noelle Shipley. Chronicle Books. 120 pages.
Paula Deen's Cookbook for the Lunch-Box Set. Paula Deen. 2009. Simon & Schuster. 192 pages.
If America Were A Village: A Book About the People of the United States. David J. Smith. 2009. Kids Can Press.

Number of Short Story Collections, Anthologies, Poetry Books: 1

Lips Touch Three Times. Laini Taylor. Illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo. Scholastic. 272 pages.

Movies Watched/Reviewed:

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews