Weekly Reads: Eliza and Her Monsters

Eliza and Her Monsters is a book that came up on my radar as a possible Printz Award contender. As soon as I heard it compared to Fangirl and Carry On I was in. And then it took me decades to get a copy from the library. Insert eye roll emoji here. 

I loved this book so much.

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a book so much that I found myself picking it up when I knew I only had ten minutes to read. Guys, this is really saying something. I couldn't put it down. I loved it so much, and if you pick it up and read it, I'll almost guarantee you'll love it too. Sadly, I don't think it'll win a Printz award, but I hope to hell I'm wrong. I will be arguing very strongly for it to be included in our South Dakota teen book award for high school students.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

Weekly Reads: We Are the Ants

I had heard quite a bit of buzz about We Are the Ants and I was so excited to get my hands on the book. And it did NOT disappoint. I think this book has such a strong chance at recognition from the Printz committee. I've been recommending it left and right at the library.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

There are a few things Henry Denton knows, and a few things he doesn’t.

Henry knows that his mom is struggling to keep the family together, and coping by chain-smoking cigarettes. He knows that his older brother is a college dropout with a pregnant girlfriend. He knows that he is slowly losing his grandmother to Alzheimer’s. And he knows that his boyfriend committed suicide last year.

What Henry doesn’t know is why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.

But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.

The question is whether Henry thinks the world is worth saving. That is, until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that.

Book Awards

For those of you non-library, non-youth book award folks, Monday was a day I have been looking forward to since last year: the American Library Association's Book & Media Awards. These awards are announced annually at the ALA Mid-Winter Conference. It is my dream someday to serve on a committee to help determine one of these award winning books and subsequent honor books. To practice (and because I just can't help myself!) I have started a Mock Printz discussion group as a part of my Young @ Heart book club at the library, and coordinate a Mock Newbery discussion group amongst a few of my co-workers. This is the second year of both, and we were horribly incorrect last year, but it was still a ton of fun!

The Young @ Heart book club read books from March to January to determine who the winner of our Mock Printz should be. Unfortunately, our meeting was cancelled due to snow, so we had to vote via email ballot. The winner of our Mock Printz was:















We Were Liars

The actual Printz awards went to:















I'll Give You the Sun

My personal picks were:
Printz Award: Belzhar*
Printz Honors Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, Grasshopper Jungle, We Were Liars.
*I didn't get a chance to read I'll Give You the Sun until Friday night, after I had cast my vote, but it surely would've gotten my vote. Review to come shortly!

For the Mock Newbery, we never officially voted, but my personal picks were:

Newbery: The Crossover
Honor Books: Rain Reign, Brown Girl Dreaming, Nightingale's Nest, El Deafo.

And the winner:














The Crossover


And the honors:

El Deafo


Brown Girl Dreaming

And in Caldecott news, I buy my nephew and nieces books for Christmas (shocker) and I try to include my pick for the Caldecott. Last year they got Flora and the Flamingo which took the Newbery honor. Guess what they got for one of their books this year?




The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend 

I called for the win back in May, and I'm pretty proud of that.

So I went three for three this year, nbd. Where's my invite to be on a committee already?!?!