Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon has come and gone. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day reading...okay...and napping! :) Actually despite my lengthy detour to dreamland, I did pretty well. My goal was to participate for 12 hours and if you count the two hours spent blogging and cheering others on I did meet my goal. I was also able to knock some great books off my TBR pile. Here's a recap of what I actually did read, followed by my finish line stats. Thank you to all the cheerleaders that stopped by to keep me motivated and focused. Ya'll are pretty creative with your cheers!
Books Read:
Because of Winn Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo
Bink & Gollie
by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee (illus. by Tony Fucile) I. Love. This. Book. More importantly, kids will love this book...and want to read it over and over. It's a fabulous combination of picture book, graphic novel, and chapter book all tied into one. It contains three episodes in the life of Bink & Gollie, each have their own distinct, unique personality, who live in separate tree houses of the same tree. The delightfully fun drawings by Tony Fucile are done in black and white with punches of color splashed in just the right places. A pure delight to read again and again and again! 
The Dancing Pancake
by Eileen Spinelli (illus. by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff). This story is about sixth-grader, Bindi, who is encountering several challenges in her life. Life isn't easy, but Bindi finds a way to deal with the things that are thrown her way - her parents separation, the homeless woman named Grace who visits the restaurant, and even begins to notice that other people have problems too. Bindi is a girl that readers will be able to identify with. Written in verse, this story is a great novel for readers wanting a chapter book, but not wanting to be overwhelmed with the length of time it takes to read one.
One Crazy Summer
by Rita Williams-Garcia Eleven-year-old Delphine and her two sisters, Vonetta and Fern, live with their father and Big Ma, their guiding light grandmother, in Brooklyn. Their birth mother, Cecile, is in Oakland, California, doing her own thing during the summer of 1968. However, against her wishes, Delphine must spend her summer vacation with Cecile. She hopes she can put together some of the mysteries of her childhood and her mother's life, but is not excited about leaving home and having to continue to take care of her younger sisters in a strange place. I must admit I probably would never have picked this book up if it weren't receiving so much 'Newbery' chatter but I am so glad I did. Williams-Garcia does a wonderful job writing about a time period I think kids will find fascinating and educational. There's no better way to learn about about history than by viewing it through the eyes of a child.
Go Girl! The Secret Club
by Chrissie Perry New town. New school. It’s all so exciting! But Tamsin misses her old friends. Her new classmates are cool, too, but they have a secret club with mysterious anklets. And Tamsin isn’t a member yet. Will one “NO” vote keep her out of the club and out of friends? This first book in the Go Girl! series, published by Feiwel and Friends, has been in my TBR pile for so long that I had to just get it done. While it's simple in language and story structure, the characters are likable and believable, the kind of kids you hope your own children might befriend. For all of these reasons, I think the series is accessible to young readers who are making their first foray into chapter books and would be a good choice for 'dormant' girl readers.
Elvis & Olive by Stephanie Watson
Natalie and Annie, code named Elvis and Olive, become friends and decide to spend their summer spying on their neighbors. What begins as a game turns serious when their findings are revealed to the neighborhood, and when the girls discover unexpected things about each other. While the girls learn that it's sometimes helpful to reveal secrets, they also learn a lesson about the importance of privacy. This fun, friendship-filled story is believable and easy to read. The characters are memorable and the plot is slow-paced but keeps the reader interested. Fourth and fifth grade girls will definitely identify with many aspects of this book including secret clubs, first crushes, and finding your own identity. I'm looking forward to more from this first time author.
Time started: 11:30 a.m. October 9th
Time ended: 2:00 a.m. October 10th
Total pages read: 1,051
Time spent reading: 10 hours
Time spent blogging/commenting: 2 hours
Books read: 6
. All three books are guaranteed to bring lots for reading pleasure to readers of all ages.
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