I like looking back at my reading “year in review” and being reminded of all of the worlds I’ve spent time in and characters I’ve gotten to know over the past year of reading. In looking back at this year, I read many more picture books, tried to get to more middle grades because of my committee obligations, and started a #bookaday picture book read aloud goal with my classes for this school year. All in all, 2014 was a great year of reading, although I did feel that I was doing more reading out of obligation instead of just by choice/pleasure, which might have impacted what I was able to read, and felt like I missed a lot of YA books I wish I would have had the chance to read.

Not all of these released in 2013, that’s just when I read them. Also, I have not included any 2014 releases that I read for this list, but I will be posting a favorites list for those on January 3rd.


Standalones
THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black
THE REAL BOY by Anne Ursu
SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL by Trish Doller
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US by Kasie West
OUT OF THE EASY by Ruta Sepetys
GHOST HAWK by Susan Cooper
JUMPING OFF SWINGS by Jo Knowles
WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE by Trish Doller
MY LIFE AFTER NOW by Jessica Verdi
TWO BOYS KISSING by David Levithan
OCTOBER MOURNING: A SONG FOR MATTHEW SHEPARD by Leslea Newman

Picture Books
Journey by Aaron Becker
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown
The Dark by Lemony Snicket
On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne
Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills
Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Mr. Zinger’s Hat by Cary Fagan
Flora & the Flamingo by Molly Idle
A Day With No Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch

Series Starters
BOY NOBODY by Allen Zadoff
I HUNT KILLERS by Barry Lyga
THE TESTING by Joelle Charbonneau
THE LIVING by Matt de la Pena
THE 5th WAVE by Rick Yancey
THE NATURALS by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
THE RULES FOR DISAPPEARING by Ashley Elston

Continuing Series
PERFECT SCOUNDRELS by Ally Carter (3rd book in HEIST SOCIETY series)
BANG by Lisa McMann (book 2 in Visions series)
CROWN OF MIDNIGHT by Sarah J. Maas (book 2 in THRONE OF GLASS series)
ENDLESS by Jessica Shirvington (book 4 in EMBRACE series)
CRASH INTO YOU by Katie McGarry (book 3 in PUSHING THE LIMITS series)
THE RUNAWAY KING by Jennifer A. Nielsen (book 2 in THE FALSE PRINCE series)
SNAKEROOT by Andrea Cremer (book 4 in the NIGHTSHADE series/start of NIGHTSHADE LEGACY series)

Series Finales
CHAMPION by Marie Lu (finale in LEGEND series)
CLOCKWORK PRINCESS by Cassandra Clare (3rd book in Infernal Devices series)
INFINITYGLASS by Myra McEntire (finale of HOURGLASS series)
JUST ONE YEAR by Gayle Forman (sequel to JUST ONE DAY)

My Reading Tally Door Display (read more about it here)

Students’ End-of-Year Reading Tally Signs (idea from Donalyn Miller) which I put up at the beginning of this school year to put us in the right frame of mind to start the year.

Our year-long “In middle school, we are readers” bookshelves (idea inspired by Pinterest)

Students write a book spine for each book they read. I’m hoping we’re overflowing this bulletin board by the end of the school year!

Student Book Recommendations Signs/Wall