Growing Bookworms Newsletter: January 4: Happy New Year Edition

Happy New Year! 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 growing joyful learners, mainly bookworms, but also mathematicians and learners of all types. The newsletter is sent out every two to three weeks.

Newsletter Update:  In this issue I have five book reviews (all picture books - I have several middle grade reviews coming up), one post with my daughter's latest literacy milestone (appreciating audiobooks), and one post with links that I shared recently on Twitter.  I also summarize my reading, and my daughter's reading, from 2016. 

Reading Update: In the past two weeks I read one middle grade and three adult novels. I read/listened to: 

• Sarah Rubin: The Impossible Clue. Chicken House Press. Middle Grade Fiction. Completed December 18, 2016. Review to come.
• Charlaine Harris: A Bone to Pick (Aurora Teagarden, Book 2). Berkley. Adult Mystery. Completed December 21, 2016, on MP3.
• Charlaine Harris: Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (Aurora Teagarden, Book 3). Berkley. Adult Mystery. Completed December 26, 2016, on MP3. I like this rather light early series from Charlaine Harris. It does not (at least so far) feature the supernatural.
• Cate Holahan: The Widower's Wife. Crooked Lane Books. Adult Thriller. Completed January 2, 2017. This is an intriguing thriller told from multiple perspectives that will keep readers guessing, and was my first read of 2017. 

Looking at my list of books read for 2016 overall, I find that I read 50 children's books (not counting picture books), 13 young adult books, and 90 adult books, for 153 books total. In past years I've had a very rough goal of 50 books in each of the three categories. Clearly, my reading has shifted quite a bit from YA to adult books. This reflects that fact that I do most of my reading these days in the form of audiobooks. Adult novels tend to be longer, and hence better value for my Audible credit dollars. I'm also dipping into a bit more nonfiction in my digital reading. I don't have any specific goals for reading in 2017. I always want more time to read, and that's something for me to work on. Of course my biggest reading-related goal will be ensuring that my daughter continues to enjoy reading. 

My daughter concluded the year with 1406 books logged as read by her or to her. This was only a slight decrease from last year's total of 1446 books, which is pretty good considering that a) we read far fewer books than usual in November and December; and b) she's been including longer chapter books in the mix. Her favorite series to read on her own right now is definitely The Lunch Lady series by Jarrett Krosoczka. I even snapped a photo of her lying on the floor reading one of the books while my husband and I were still finishing Christmas dinner. We're also up to Chapter Four of the first Harry Potter book, and she is quite excited about that.

It has been truly amazing watching how her reading ability (not to mention her level of interest in reading) has progressed over the year. Many thanks to all of the authors and illustrators whose work has inspired her, and to the teachers who have helped her along the way.

Thanks for reading, and for growing bookworms. I wish you all a book-filled and peaceful 2017. 

© 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.