Growing Bookworms Newsletter: August 10: #PictureBook Sorting, #Audiobooks + the New Harry Potter

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 has refocused recently, and now contains content from my blog focused on growing joyful learners, including bookworms, mathematicians, and learners of all types. The newsletter is sent out every two to three weeks.

Newsletter Update:  In this issue I have four book reviews (picture book through middle grade) as well as a post about the many benefits of sorting through our picture books. I also have one post about my daughter's latest literacy milestone, inventing connections to authors and illustrators. I close with two posts with links that I shared recently on Twitter, and one with more in-depth highlights from articles about the joy of learning. 

Reading Update: In the past two weeks I read/listened to four adult titles. This mix basically reflects no print reading time at all, but extra time spent on audiobooks. I'm doing some physical therapy for a hip issue and I'm getting in a lot of audio time. I read:

• C. J. Box: Stone Cold (Joe Pickett, Book 14). G.P. Putnam's Sons. Adult Mystery. Completed July 29, 2016, on MP3.
• Elly Griffiths: The Woman in Blue (Ruth Galloway #8). HMH Books. Adult Mystery. Completed August 2, 2016, on Kindle. Sadly, this is the last published book of this series to date. I should have waited... 
• C. J. Box: Endangered (Joe Pickett, Book 15). G.P. Putnam's Sons. Adult Mystery. Completed August 2, 2016, on MP3. 
• Sara Paretsky: Blood Shot (V. I. Warshawski #5). Dell Books. Adult Mystery. Completed August 9, 2016, on MP3. Happily, there are still lots of these books to add to my audio queue. 

I'm currently reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, etc., and listening to Off the Grid (the most recently published Joe Pickett title) by C. J. Box. I'm going to need a new audiobook series now that I'm about to finish the Joe Pickett books, if anyone has suggestions... I'm looking for mystery series with plenty of installments, available in audio format with decent narration. Other audio series that I have read include Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Paul Doiron, Louise Penny, Victoria Thompson, Robert Crais, and Jacqueline Winspear. In terms of print reading, I do have a bunch of children's books at the top of my queue right now. If only life would slow down a bit to allow me more time for non-audiobook reading. 

The books my husband and I and our babysitter have been reading to our daughter in 2016 can be found here. Hard to believe, but the kiddo will be starting first grade next week. I'll let you know how that goes, in terms of affecting her interest in reading. Lately she's been very interested in playing "library" in my office. She is the librarian, and I ask her for book recommendations based on a series, color, or other attribute. There are now stacks of books all over my office that would mystify an actual librarian, but that make sense to my daughter. She has been really pushing the Calendar Mysteries series by Ron Roy, as well as the Alice-Miranda books by Jacqueline Harvey. 

 I'm continuing to share all of my longer reads, as well as highlights from my picture book reads with my daughter, via the #BookADay hashtag on Twitter. Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms. Wishing you all plenty of time for summer reading.

© 2016 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.