For those readers and list makers, nothing is more exciting than January! The time to make an amazing list of books to read for the year!
A new year and new book possibilities. Where will our reading lives take us? What adventures and emotions will we experience through the books we read? Always, there are endless possibilities.
There are so many books and limited time.
New books distract us from other books.
A must read list ensures not all are forgotten!
To read more about the challenge and add your list, read here.
Here are the 30 titles I am going to try and read over this year. As always these titles will represent only a portion of my reading. My goal? To read most of these. This list is a road map of where to turn next when I come to a pause in my reading choices. It is always waiting to guide me.
Making a list like this – a To Read list – also allows us to reflect on the reading that we want to do. I ask myself questions like: Am I reading widely over various genres? Do I have a mix of GN, MG and YA reads? Do the novels I read include diverse characters that reflect the students I teach? The world I don’t know? The experiences I need to know more about?
This year I split my list in two. Half of these books are titles published in 2016 or earlier and half are published in 2017. Hopefully, this will be a nice balance of newly published titles and titles that I have discovered from my fantastic PLN as not to be missed.
As I am now teaching a Grade 4 & 5 class, I wanted to have a lot of Middle Grade titles on this list. So 23/30 books (more than 75%) are MG reads.
Published in 2016 or earlier:
Saving Red by Sonya Sones (2016) YA Read January 8th 2017 5/5 stars
Every Single Second by Tricia Springstubb (2016) MG Read February 5th 2017 5/5 stars
Garvey’s Choice by Nikki Grimes (2016) MG Read January 1st 2017 4/5 stars
Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King (2016) YA
Terror at Bottle Creek by Watt Key (2016) MG Read April 9th 2017 4/5 stars
Wish by Barbara O’Connor (2016) MG Read September 10th 2017 5/5 stars
Snow White by Matt Phelan (2016) MG Read December 27th 2017 5/5 stars
The Scourge by Jennifer A. Nielsen (2016) MG Read March 2nd 2017 4/5 stars
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (2016) YA Read February 7th 2017 5/5 stars
What Elephants Know by Eric Dinerstein (2016) MG
The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz (2016) MG Read January 28th 2017 4/5 stars
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse (2016) YA
A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz (2010) MG Read October 1st 2017 5/5 stars
Finding Perfect by Elly Swartz (2016) MG Read February 13th 2017 5/5 stars
It Ain’t so Awful Falafal by Firoozeh Dumas (2016) MG Read February 19th 2017 5/5 stars
Published in 2017
The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla (2017) MG Read August 13th 2017 5/5 stars
Walking with Miss Millie by Tamara Bundy (2017) MG Read August 29th 2017 5/5 stars
Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan (2017) MG Read March 23rd 2017 5/5 stars
Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder (2017) MG Read August 26th 2017 5/5 stars
Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke (2017) MG Read October 7th 2017 5/5 stars
This Would Make a Good Story Someday by Dana Alison Levy (2017) MG
The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2017) YA
The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming by J. Anderson Coats (2017) MG Read July 4th 2017 4/5 stars
American Street by Ibi Zoboi (2017) YA Read May 21st 2017 4/5 stars
Hello, Universe by Erin Estrada Kelly (2017) MG Read May 21st 2017 5/5 stars
Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart (2017) MG Read March 18th 2017 4/5 stars
Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar (2017) MG Read July 5th 2017 5/5 stars
Matylda, Bright and Tender by Holly M. McGhee (2017) MG Read April 16th 2017 5/5 stars
Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel by Kimberly Willis Holt (2017) MG Read July 3rd 2017 4/5 stars
Piecing me Together by Renée Watson (2017) YA Read April 14th 2017 5/5 stars
What novels are at the top of your TBR list? Please share!
There's a Book for That 
You’ve included some I’ve forgotten, yikes, but I don’t own them at least! Will note them just in case. I just saw Scourge at the library today, but too many at home already. Happy reading, Carrie!
And happy reading to you! Love that we have kept this challenge up and that so many new participants are joining in!
Such great choices. I loved Wish. It just seems like the perfect middle grade book to me. I am eager for the second Might Jack book. My students loved the first and keep asking about the second. I have arc’s of Hello Universe and Blooming, but I have yet to get to them.
I love everything O’Connor does so I know I will love Wish! Mighty Jack was golden in my room too!
I have only read one book on your list this year, though many of them are on my list too, and I want to read almost all of them! of course, there are books here that I now really want to add to my list, but since it’s already 51 titles, I will refrain and just enjoy reading your thoughts on these titles for this year (and maybe add them to my 2018 list!) Fantastic choices and I can’t wait to read how you like them!
Ah yes, the danger of reading everyone else’s list! My Goodreads To Read list is fast growing!
So many great titles on your list! I recognize a few from books I read this year and I can tell you they are all great! Many of your 2017 books are novels I want to get to as well 🙂
Look forward to sharing our thoughts together 🙂
I always use your lists to find my new ones, so this year I thought I’d share mine. xo http://kimberleymoran.blogspot.com/2017/01/mustreadin2017.html
So excited you enjoyed our community this year Kimberley!
We have many of the same books but you have some I never heard about. So many more added to my want to read list. It Ain’t So Awful Falafel, and Every Single Second are two books I was very delighted with last year. I’m very excited about Mighty Jack and The Goblin King!
Me too – and my students absolutely can’t wait! So many great graphic titles coming out!
I made a new Goodreads list just for this blog reading! I added Short to my list first. Thanks again for doing this!
A pleasure! It is a wonderful reading community to be a part of!