Whatever I Think Of!

Sunday, December 20, 2020

2021 Newbery Reading Challenge

Doing this one once again. Will try for the first level.

Welcome to another year of the Newbery Reading Challenge! Newbery and Caldecott books are fun to read - whether it's our first time experiencing them, or we're revisiting them from our childhood. If you want to challenge yourself to read more Newbery and Caldecott books this year, then you have found the right place!

Here are the rules:
Each book you read is worth points. You get:

3 points for a Newbery Medal Winner
2 points for a Newbery Honor Book
1 point for a Caldecott Book (Both Medal winners and Honor books are worth a point.)

In addition to that, you pick a level to aim for:

L'Engle: 15 - 29 points
Spinelli: 30 - 44 points
Avi: 45 - 59 points
Lowry: 60 - 74 points
Konigsburg: 75+ points

You can get to this level with any combination of points you want. You can read all Newbery Medal winners. You can throw in a few Honor Books. If you want, you can even read 75 Caldecott Medal winners! How you get to your point level is totally up to you.

Also, anywhere in the point range for your level counts as completing that level. So for example, if you signed up for the Avi level and read 46 points' worth of books, then you have completed that level!

List of Newbery Medal Winners & Honor Books
List of Caldecott Medal Winners & Honor Books

My Books:

Other Words For Home--Jasmine Warga (2 points)
Brown Girl Dreaming--Jacqueline Woodson [reread] (2 points)
Caddie Woodlawn--Carol Ryrie Brink (3 points)
On the Banks of Plum Creek--Laura Ingalls Wilder [reread] (2 points)
Inside Out & Back Again--Thanhha Lai (2 points)
The Courage of Sarah Noble--Alice Dalgliesh (2 points)
Fighting Words--Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (2 points)
The White Stag--Kate Seredy (3 points)
Harlem--Walter Dean Myers (1 point)
Invincible Louisa--Cornelia Meigs (3 points)
Ten, Nine, Eight--Molly Bang (1 point)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon--Grace Lim (2 points)
Pictures of Hollis Woods--Patricia Reilly Giff (2 points)

Calling challenge complete on November 17. 27 total points.

Stacked Reviews 2021 Reading Challenge

A new one that I found this year.

My Books:

Can Read in a Day: Chasing Redbird--Sharon Creech
Historical Fiction: Ravished--Amanda Quick
Controversial Book: Too Much and Never Enough--Mary L. Trump
YA Book: Other Words For Home--Jasmine Warga
Booker Prize Winner: Girl, Woman, Other--Bernardine Evaristo
Mental Health: Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend--Matthew Dicks
Classic: My Man Jeeves--P.G. Wodehouse
War Novel: Sophie's Choice--William Styron
Own Voices Novel: Dear Justyce--Nic Stone
Chick Lit: Kiss My Cupcake--Helena Hunting
First Book in a Series: You--Caroline Kepnes
Famous Author You've Always Wanted to Read: Absalom, Absalom!--William Faulkner
Foreign Language: The Plague--Albert Camus
Wild Card: Kissed--Cameron Dokey
Monster Book (1000+ Pages): Atlas Shrugged--Ayn Rand
Fantasy Novel: Black Sun--Rebecca Roanhorse
Friend Recommendation: Calico Joe--John Grisham
Set Somewhere You'd Like to ~~Live~~ See One Day: Invincible Louisa--Cornelia Meigs
Gothic Novel: Ace of Spades--Faridah Abike-Iyimide
Horror: The Silent Girls--Eric Rickstad

Challenge completed on October 6

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Christmas Horror Humor

Even though the Friday the 13th in December was last year, it still fits the feeling of horror we've been having all year long.

Friday, December 18, 2020

Two Weeks Left

Only two weeks until 2021. Will what the singer says in this parody video still be true?

And how many of you never showered? I could not go without doing it even with having to be home most of the time. And how many stayed in pajamas and robes all day? I just can't stand the idea of doing such a thing, and having to be home most of the time for most of the year didn't change that. This was not a year to be taunting others for having too much time on their hands, because that was true for all of us, and it wasn't any of our faults.

Yeah, it has seemed like what was once a playground taunt in grammar school is now for real. Using alcohol wipes and hand sanitizer became standard this past year. I cannot remember using much hand sanitizer in past year. Maybe just sometimes when I had a cold, something that seems to happen every year around this time. And this year is no exception.

Here is a parody by the same channel above that poked fun of the overuse

of sanitizer:

And I managed not to run out of toilet paper while store shelves were stripped bare of this stuff. I still am wondering why people thought they needed so much. "Hoarding" became part of the vocabulary of 2020. How many times did any of you hear that word in a single year before the hoarding of toilet paper this past March?

In the beginning, I tried to use no more than two squares at a time to make the toilet paper last until the stores had it again. Thankfully, I had gotten some at Safeway the first Saturday in March, and a nurse friend of my mom's had some by with some stuff for us, which included two packs of TP. And my cousin next door gets hers at Costco, and had some to lend us.

Pasta was another thing that stores were out of at the beginning of quarantine. I could not understand this, but some say pasta is a comfort food. Now pasta is easy to find, even after the second round of toilet paper hoarding began. And when I was at the store the other day, I saw someone with a pack of the Safeway brand TP in their cart. So there must be more in the stores now.

Along with "hoarding," words and phrases like "pandemic," "Coronavirus," "shelter-in-place," "quarantine," and "social distancing," all became part of the vocabulary for everyone, and those with children had to deal with "remote learning." (I escaped that last one). And were there any I missed? These I hope not to hear again in 2021, though it's not certain how much longer the world will still been this current situation. Not too much longer, though, we're all hoping.