Growing Bookworms Newsletter: November 5

Today I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. I currently send the newsletter out every two weeks.

Newsletter Update: In this issue I have seven book reviews (picture book through young adult), two posts with links that I shared on Twitter recently, and one post outlining some recent articles about growing bookworms (and containing a miniature literacy milestone from my daughter). 

Reading Update: In the last two weeks I completed three illustrated chapter books, threee young adult novels, and two adult mysteries. I read/listened to:

• Kallie George (ill. Alexandra Boiger): The Magical Animal Adoption Agency: Book 1: Clover's Luck. Disney-Hyperion. Early Chapter Book. Completed October 27, 2014, ARC. Review to come.
• Mac Barnett and Jory John (ill. Kevin Cornell): The Terrible Two. Amulet Books. Middle Grade. Completed October 28, 2014, ARC. Review to come.
• Bill Harley (ill. Adam Gustavson): Charlies Bumpers vs. the Squeaking Skull. Peachtree. Early Middle Grade. Completed October 28, 2014. My review.
• Maggie Stiefvater: The Raven Cycle #3: Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Scholastic. Young Adult. Completed October 23, 2014. My review,
• Rick Yancey: The Infinite Sea. Putnam Juvenile. Young Adult. Completed October 26, 2014, on Kindle. Review to come.
• Robin LaFevers: Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassin, Book 3). HMH Books for Young Readers. Completed November 4, 2014. Review to come.
• Rhys Bowen: Her Royal Spyness. Berkley Press. Adult Mystery. Completed October 24, 2014, on MP3. I listened to the first two books in this series, about a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria attempting to eke out a living, and solve mysteries, in 1930s London. I found them fairly light, and requiring quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, but enjoyable nonetheless. 
• Rhys Bowen: Her Royal Spyness: A Royal Pain. Berkley Press. Adult Mystery. Completed October 31, 2014, on MP3.

I'm reading The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth (adult nonfiction about the use of rhetoric techniques in writing) and listening to The Secret Place by Tana French. I had listened a while back to the first book in French's Dublin Murder Squad series, and found it a bit too depressing. But I have continued hearing people rave about the series ever since, and about this title in particular, so I decided to give it a try. I am enjoying it so far. 

As always, you can see the list of books that we've been reading to Baby Bookworm here. I have also just started reading her The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes, which she refers to as a "grown-up book" and seems to be enjoying. 

Picture book titles she has particularly liked lately include Ninja Red Riding Hood by Corey Rosen, Brimsby's Hats by Andrew Prahin, The Gingerbread Man Loose on the Fire Truck by Laura Murray, Here Comes the Easter Cat by Deborah Underwood, and Naked! by Michael Ian Black. Most of these are titles that I picked up for the Cybils in Fiction Picture Books, Round 1. We've also continued to purchase new Berenstain Bears books and Scholastic Reading Club books. For Halloween, one of her several costumes (for various occasions) was Pinkagirl, from the Pinkalicious books. 

What are you and your family reading these days? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms. 

© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.