Book Talk: The Best Middle Grade and Young Adult books I read in 2009

I realised that my resolution post focused on Reader's Workshop and mentioned some books, but not all the fabulous books my students and I read this year. Some of these books have been discovered through recommendations from the internet, others through student recommendations (I'll never forget the student who pushed a small bag of books at me and said - 'You'll like these'. She was right), while still others I just fell over in the local book shops.

• Scarlett, Indigo Blue and Dizzy by Cathy Cassidy
• Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes
• Lock and Key, That Summer, The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen (I finally discovered Sarah Dessen this year and I'm reading Along for the Ride at the moment)
• A Mango-Shaped Space, Every Soul a Star and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass (I also discovered Wendy Mass and absolutely bawled at A Mango-Shaped Space)
• Al Capone Does My Shirts and Al Capone Shines my Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko
• The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
• The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien - I finally read it!
• Knife (Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter in the US) by R. J. Anderson
• Brigands M.C by Robert Muchamore (I love the CHERUB series)
• Lion Boy by Zizou Corder (This was a real surprise to me - I don't usually like animal books)

I know there were more, none of which are coming to me at the moment. Maybe I'll have to make better record keeping a resolution for 2010.

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope that your 2010 is everything you want it to be with lots of great books!

Find book talks - with more recommendations - here