Zen in the Art of Toddler Parties

Step 1: Find a location with some sort of inherent toddler appeal. Think jungle gym, pool, or swings.
Step 2: Throw your hands in the air. Remember you are not in control of the chaos.
Step 3: In light of the chaos pick start and end times. 2 hours is good, 3 if you are particularly brave. Try to start after nap time, it reduces meltdowns.
Step 4: Breath deeply, anyone can survive 2 hours of chaos especially when all the available weapons are kid safe.
Step 5: Plan food. Don't over plan. If you pick a party after nap time, it's probably also after lunch. Remember all kids like gold fish. Fruit is good: it hydrates and it's tastes good. (It seems like three or four types of snacky things works well. Don't forget the cake for birthday parties and something icy in summer. For beverages: have plenty of water and beverages for the adults.
Step 6: Day of. Find a place for the toddler to be while you set up. Setting up takes time and little hands are somehow everywhere all at once - it's not a good combination. I suggest family or sympathetic parents willing to take him or her on a play date.
Step 7: Set up. Don't over think the decorations. Most toddlers won't really notice and anything low hanging is going to get shredded by the whirlwind of flying elbows and running feet that is toddlers at play. I suggest a few key decorations hung high.
Step 8: Sit in the center of the room and the following: "I am the parent of a toddler who I love and adore. I'm not in control. It's going to be ok." Try to believe it. Breathe deeply... a lot. Remember in high quantities, oxygen is a euphoric. Keep those deep breathes coming.
Step 9: Toddlers don't wait well, so try to arrange for one early arriver to keep your toddler company while you wait for your guests to arrive.
Step 10: The guests arrive. Relinquish control and ride the wave. Repeat after me: "weeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins

So in my continuing quest to track down and read the Printz and Printz Honor books, I ran across Repossessed which is the story of Kiriel, the demon. Kirial is not happy with his job in Hell as a low level tormentor and decides to take a vacation by possessing the body of Shaun, a 17 year old of low ambition, at the moment when he was supposed to die. Kiriel then spends the entirety of the book experiencing physical sensation and the complexities of the human condition. In many places Kiriel is almost embarrassingly hedonistic.

Shot through the book is Kiriel's examination of what I've always considered a central inconsistency in the Bible: if God is perfect and all knowing, then the only way for the devil to rebel is if God intended it. Kiriel is tortured by this. As a fallen angel, he's one of the punished, but why is he punished for being what he was created to be. It goes round and round and is an interesting introduction on the paradox for a teen audience.

I'm not sure what I expected when I picked up the book, but this wasn't it. On one level, this has a sizable amount of fairly crude imagery. On another, this is a deeply philosophical read. Kirial is almost better at being human than Shaun was and is deeply sympathetic. There are shades of Milton's "Paradise Lost" going on here as well as a healthy dose of C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Come to think of it...I should reread both of those.

I sense a themed month of reading coming up. hmmmmm

Words

Sometimes I feel
like I spent so much
of my life talking
that I'm empty of words
like a dry cup

waiting to be full again

Kitchen Matrix by Mark Bittman

Alright, I've been putting this off. What does it mean to "read" a cookbook? Once I've read it, then what? It seems like poor form to write something masquerading as a review without trying some recipes. (The completion gamer in me rather insists that I should try all the recipes, but that is really impractical) I would feel the same about book claiming to teach any skill, and really, that's what a cookbook is. It's a book that teaches combination and techniques of preparing food from base ingredients. It is one of the most common types of how-to manuals.

So, how does one evaluate a how-to manual? I guess the basic criteria is does it teach the skill and how easy is it to read. That's probably over simplistic, but it's the best I have to go with for now.

In the case of Kitchen Matrix, it is a little difficult to figure out the intent here. Bittman has been playing with ways of writing recipes over several of his most recent books. The usual method is a list of ingredients annotated with preparation instructions. Follow that is a step by step procedure for making the dish. Most cookbooks are written in this way. Bittman does write some of the recipes out this way but he also experiments with basic instructions followed by charts of variations. Some whole recipes are really set up like infographics. While he's been playing with these methods for some time, it seems like there is a much higher percentage in this volume.

I think the reason for this non-traditional format comes down to authorial intent. Most cookbooks aim to teaching cooking on some level. Kitchen Matrix assumes that the reader has the basics down. Kitchen Matrix seems to be aimed at teaching improvisation and spontaneity in cooking, which is a pretty difficult thing to teach.

It's a noble goal. I know too many people who collapse and order a pizza when they run into minor hiccoughs in executing the recipe. Most things can be dealt with if a cook is inventive.

So, does Kitchen Matrix teach improvisation and spontaneity in the kitchen. Maybe. It certainly does a good job showing how different prep methods change the way a single ingredient tastes, or given a basic recipe, how different ingredients behave. However the format is also a little confusing at times and runs the risk of being overwhelming to newer cooks.

Time Off For Good Behavior

Sorry that I disappeared but I was at a conference. I thought I would have the time (and mental energy) to keep up the blog while I was there, but predictably I did not. I think we underestimate how exhausting just thinking can be. I have a writing book that says that real focused writing will wring a person out in about two hours. I don't know if that's true, but I will say, sitting at the conference just wrung me out.

It was good though. There were a lot of good ideas and good people. Certainly it provided a different way to think about teaching and presenting information.

Now that I'm back, it's time to get back on top of the blogging. I did manage to keep up with my other writing at least and I'm tempted to back date some posts because I have a ton of half written ones and a lot of books that I've reading the last couple of weeks.

Happy Father's Day

We actually celebrated yesterday. However, I think it is important on days like this to reflect. Parents are so important, even when they mess up. Maybe especially when things go wrong. All our models for managing conflict or dealing with setbacks comes from how we observe our parents managing it.

So yeah, parents are important and I hope that as I move forward as a parent that I do as good a job as mine did.

Explorer: The Lost Islands edited by Kazu Kibuishi

I really like this series. It's not that graphic novels can really do anything that well written prose can do, it's that it is a different delivery method. I'm not very visual as a rule, but I like the mix of illustration and narrative. I think it may be easier to quickly depict a fantasy setting using a visual medium than if it had to be verbally depicted. Mind you, straight writing allows the readers imaginations to fill in the gaps more completely so the world feels more real in my experience. However, it's really just a case of different strengths.

"The Lost Islands" is similar to "Mystery Boxes." Both are collections of seven short stories and in both there is a common theme, in this one it is a mysterious island of some sort. For some reason, in this volume all the stories came out more like fables and have easily discernible morals. This doesn't end up being tedious as it could be.

Specifically, I really enjoyed "The Mask Dance," "Loah," and "Radio Adrift." "The Mask Dance" is about a girl who ditches her work to go to a festival after a spirit in a mask tells her her father is already there. "Loah" is a kind of creation myth about adventurous aquatic critters. "Radio Adrift" is about a young witch on a quest to find a specific sound that will hatch a pixie egg.

All of the stories are about people who think they know better or who are trying to make things easier and who find out that their view of the situation is incomplete. Over all they are well written and there is some excellent artwork.

Over all, worth a read.

Frozen in Time by Mark Kurlansky

There's a lot of buzz among English teachers about finding YA nonfiction. Many struggling readers would prefer to read "something real" over fiction so we are all always on the hunt for good selections. Many lament that there isn't more good YA nonfiction out there. For my part, I really struggle with the concept. What fundamentally is different between a YA and regular nonfiction book intended for a broad audience? Vocabulary maybe, length? Marketing? Most teenagers are capable of reading at an adult level if they are interested in the topic.

Nevertheless, some publishers are starting to package some items as YA nonfiction.  Frozen In Time is one of these although there is nothing about the text that particularly suggests "teen" to me. Frozen In Time is a short (about 150 pages) biography of Clarence Birdseye who developed the process for quick freezing food that we still more or less use today.

Frozen food is so ubiquitous. It's strange to think that someone had to develop that, but apparently early frozen food was just terrible. It took so long to freeze the food that the ice crystals formed very large which broke the cell walls and made the food mushy when it thawed out. In the early days of frozen food, no one even had a freezer so the food would immediately thaw. To sell the frozen food, Birdseye had to figure out both how to freeze the food without destroying the texture and how to make home freezer's cost effective. It's a pretty thorny problem and interesting to think about.

Kurlansky does a good job of presenting Birdseye as an interesting eccentric. The chapters are reasonably short and there's good overviews of the science involved although I would have wished for a little more depth.

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes edited by Kazu Kibuishi

It's odd. I like graphic novels but I don't pursue them the way I do conventional fiction. Instead I have a handful of people who's opinions I highly value. They tell me to read it and I probably will. In this way I find interesting graphic novels without having to sift through the substantial portion of juvenile stuff floating around.

Indirectly, that's how I came across the Explorer series. Kibuishi is better known for the Amulet series which I haven't read yet, but it's on my stack. The Explorer series is interesting in that it's more like a collection of short stories. There are seven distinct stories written and drawn by different people in each volume. All the stories share one element. In this one, the shared element is a 'mystery box'. So, in each story there's some sort of mysterious box at the center of the action.

Each of the seven stories is a good solid read. Some of them are a little strangely moralistic such as "The Soldier's Daughter." While it was a touching story it was also a somewhat heavy handed statement about the nature of revenge. "The Keeper's Treasure" was an interesting thought on what we confer value to.

I was very impressed with "The Butter Thief" which was an adaptation of Japanese fables and an inadvertent commentary about preserving traditional folk ways. I particularly liked the sparse art style of this one.

"Whatzit" had a classic Saturday morning cartoon feel. It's about the cosmic warehouse workers who ship out components for new universes. The story is cute but I particularly liked the artwork which reminded me of "Johnny the Homicidal Manic."

All in all, this is a good introduction to what graphic Novels can be.

Sucking Gloriously

I've been generally blessed in life to be good at most things I try my hand at. Particularly, I'm good with my hands. As a general rule if it's something that can be made or created through the use of my hands, I pick it up quickly. For example, I taught myself to crochet one afternoon when very, very bored and laid up with the flu.

One area where this has not been true is origami. Every time I try to teach myself how to fold origami, I just suck at it. I can't get the paper to do what it is supposed to and I can't wrap my head around how to translate the diagrams into actions. I tried again this afternoon to figure it out and was completely stymied in under ten steps, which is about how it usually goes.

I did come to realize that the actual issue is my visual processing. It's probably the diagrams I'm having difficulty with and not the actual folding. I suspect now, that if I had someone sit down and show me how to do it, I could probably pick it up with my customary ease. It's kind of humbling though to sit there staring at something that people typically find easy and just be lost. 

It's good for me. I'm sure. A real growth experience.

:-P

Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes

Sometimes I feel like a shelter for lost books. They appear in stacks on my desks or in boxes left outside my door. Sometimes people tell me excuses: "I bought this, but I can't find time to read it" or "Someone gave it to me, but it's not really my thing." As if the excuse matters or is needed. Sometimes there is no note at all and I'm left to wonder if this orphaned book is now mine or is someone missing it? I get a small but sizable percentage of my collection this way.

I got Bronx Masquerade through Lydia's shelter for lost and abandoned books. I'd never heard of it before though Nikki Grimes is a familiar children's book author. Apparently, despite my ignorance of it, Bronx Masquerade created a bit of sensation when it came out and is even taught as a class text in places. It appeared on my desk as part of a stack that Nathan put up for adoption.

The format is a mix of short, personal first person commentary and poetry. The story is that a group of kids in a Bronx high school all fall into the idea of open mike poetry after one kid writes a poem about Langston Hughes. There are eighteen kids in the class, they are not all friends with each other, and they all have something to say through their poetry. Each of the poems expresses some sort of inner truth or personal observation and the through the first person essays we get to hear some of the reactions of the other students to the poems/ideas.

Over the course of the semester, the students begin to revise their opinions of each other and become more sensitive to each other's experiences. The Open Mike phenomenon spreads in popularity until a local paper comes out cover them.

There is something about this book that feels raw and thrown together. The ideas don't always meld together or flow well from one to the next. In a way, it looks like what a teacher would cobble together as a class project from student poetry and reflections. That is possibly part of it's strength. The lack of polish lends verisimilitude. 

 I didn't find this a transcendent experience, but it did give me a lot to think about.

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett

I was just saying that I hoped there would be more novels set in Uberwald and here it is. How pleasing.

Commander Vimes of the city watch is being sent to Uberwald in his capacity as a Duke and being asked to be an ambassador to the coronation of the low king. Vimes is not what one would call a natural diplomat and he is like a bull at high society functions, so his appointment as an ambassador seems eccentric.  Of course the enigmatic Patrician, Vetinari, has his reasons. He always does.

In the meantime, Angua has gone missing. She's a werewolf and this Uberwald business is in her home territory. She's called away by an old friend to deal with some family trouble leaving Carrot without a word. Carrot, being Carrot, isn't angry but when he finds out where she's headed, he heads out after her leaving the City Watch in the hands of Sergent Colon.

Colon does his best to rise to the occasion, which ends up about as well as can be expected. In total chaos.

The Fifth Elephant is a mix of political intrigue, detective who done it, and an adventure story. Faster paced than usual for a Pratchett novel, I blasted through it in about two and a half days on intermittent reading.

This Discworld novel makes me feel like an idiot. As a general rule, a large piece of the joy in Discworld novels is noticing the interplay between the text and things that Pratchett is referencing in that text. Up to this point he's played with Shakespeare, world politics, B horror flicks and everything in between. I heartily enjoyed The Fifth Elephant but I could not spot a single allusion or literary reference. I'm convinced they have to be there....I just can find them. It's frustrating.

Having a Moment

I'm having a "don't know what to blog" moment. It happens from time to time. It was a pretty placid day with Thomas home. We went to the pool, did a lot of coloring, and had a melt down over the proper methods for unchaining the tricycle. All in all, a good day. I got quite a bit of writing and reading done in my free time.

Yesterday I planted out two of the boxes. 4 slicing tomatoes, 4 cherry tomatoes, 3 purple basil, a thai pepper and I planted in some seeds: bush beans and spinach. The spinach is a bit of an experiment. It's really pretty late for it to do well, but I have a box that spends more time in the shade than the others. I know that some of the leafy greens will hold on if they get some shade, so I'm giving it a try. We'll see how it goes.

I have three more boxes to plant and three more to build up. I was late to start but I'm getting there with it all.

Tortilla Soup

About a year ago, I asked Ryan what he wanted for his birthday and he said "learn to make tortilla soup." Now there are two weird things about this. 1. I've almost never seen him eat or order tortilla soup, so the request came out of the blue. 2. He's got a weird sensitivity to chicken and chicken broth tends to bring on some of the worst reactions. As a result we tend to avoid things like chicken soup and at it's core, tortilla soup is a type of chicken soup.

In case you are unfamiliar, tortilla soup is a traditional Mexican preparation. The origins seem to be a little hazy but I suspect that it is rooted in good thrifty food practices by using leftover tortillas to stretch meat. In any case, it's traditional which basically means that there are tons of variations and every single one of them is the only "real" way to make it. It's a lot like BBQ that way.

At the time, I was at a little bit of a loss. I had a recipe. It made a decent soup but it wasn't anything special and it fell a little flat as a birthday present. I've been keeping my eye out ever since for a better recipe to try. I found one in Mark Bittman's Kitchen Matrix that looked a little more nuanced. He adapted his recipe from a restaurant's in Anthony, Texas.

As a general rule, a soup is only as good as its liquid. That doesn't mean that it needs to be complicated or hard. A good broth will often come from the ingredients of the soup itself simmered in plain water, but from experience tortilla soup tastes really thin without some attention to the broth. This recipe uses meaty chicken quarters fortified with beef bones. It makes a reasonable full stock with a nice color. This broth was the main difference between my two attempts and the extra effort showed.

All in all, I'm pleased with this one, but there is still room for improvement.

Tortilla Soup
Serves 4 to 6
2.5 pounds bone in chicken thighs and/or legs
1 pound beef bones
1 medium onion, quartered (skin on)
1 head garlic, halved through the middle to expose each clove
1/4 cup neutral oil
6 medium corn tortillas
Salt
2 Tbs. canned chipotle chiles in adobo
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 avocados, pitted peeled and cubed
4 to 8 oz plain melting cheese (mozzarella works fine)

1. put the chick, beef bones, 3 of the onion quarters, and the garlic in a large pot. Add water just to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is very tender. (about an hour) Skim the foam off the top every once and a while.

2. Put vegetable oil in large skillet over medium heat. When hot but not smoking, fry 2 of the tortillas. Drain on paper towels. Cut the 4 remaining tortillas into strips. Add them to the skillet, and fry. Stir to keep them separate. Fry until crisp and golden. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt while still warm.

3. When chicken is tender, remove from the pot and let it cool. When cool enough, strip the meat from the bones. Discard both skin and bones and shred the meat.

4. Strain the broth to remove the solids. Discard the solids and return the broth to the pot. Peel the remaining onion quarter and put it in a blender with the chipotle, 1.4 cup of the cilantro, and a sprinkle of salt. Crumble in the two whole tortillas and add enough stock to fill the blender a little more than halfway. Puree until the mixture is as smooth as possible.

5. Pour the puree and remaining stock back into the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat so mixture simmers and cook for about 10 minutes. Stir in the shredded chicken, taste, and add more salt, if necessary. Serve with avocado, cheese, remaining 1/4 cup cilantro, and tortilla strips as garnishes.

The whole thing is a little time consuming, but it was good.

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

I am swiftly becoming a Nicola Yoon fan. It started when Bella, a student of mine, read Everything Everything. She gave such a compelling book talk that I asked to borrow her copy. I read it in about a night and if I wasn't blown away, I was at least deeply impressed. I made acquiring a copy of Yoon's only other book, The Sun Is Also a Star, a priority.

Well I did it, I found a copy at Half Price Books in Decatur. I read it last night and today and it is clear that Yoon is developing as a writer. Much like her previous book, this is a love story. Daniel, who is first generation born American from Korean parents, is at a weird turning point in his life. His parents want him to be a doctor. Daniel may just want to be a poet. He takes a day to wander around New York City as a last day of freedom/childhood. Natasha is Jamaican. She was born there but her parents immigrated with her illegally when she was eight. The day the book begins is her last day in the US. At 10 P.M. she and her family are being deported. She spends her last day looking for a last chance way to stay. Daniel and Natasha meet, both hurtling toward their individual destinies, but their attraction to each other is immediate and overwhelming.

Daniel and Natasha are a case of opposites attracting that rings true to me, which says something. Usually, I just sort of scoff at those things. While there is a high potential for sap, Yoon manages to avoid nearly all of it. Natasha spends most of the book pushing against this relationship with Daniel. She's smart, into science, and prides herself on her realism. She's also very private with her business, which creates a lot of narrative tension. Daniel ends up being like this being like a large and over exuberant puppy. He's looking for a sign from the universe, Natasha is it, and he's more than happy to fall. Natasha's realism balances Daniel's optimism and vice versa. Even so, it much get to be a bit much except that the almost the entire action of the book happens over the course of one day.

In her previous book, Yoon stuck very close to one point of view. In this book, she preserves that intimate first person narrative, but she alternates between Natasha's point of view and Daniels. Periodically she dials out into a third person omniscient to comment on her two characters or describe the background of one of the several side characters and family members. The result is a complex rube goldberg machine of a plot that demonstrates the interconnectivity in the lives of strangers.

It's interesting and it's sentimental. I think my dad should read it. I enjoyed my read very much and found myself near tears by the end.

Taking up Cable

So, it's official. After more hassle and run around we now have cable internet. We also have a cord hanging down the front of our house that I'm going to need to look at on Thursday I'm hopping I can hide it behind a shutter.

The internet works. My initial impression is that it is a fair bit slower than our DSL but it's been all of 30 minutes, time will tell.

I will start catching up my blog posts tomorrow. For today I'm just too tired.

The Incredible Rage of DSL

Alright. I have the most uncanny luck with these blogging projects. I get all set up to restart and get going and then something happens. Last time, the entire house came down with the plague. This time...the storm Thursday night fried our modem. That's irritating, but it doesn't induce rage. The rage comes from AT&T tech support most of which don't know what they are talking about and the rest, who I assume are competent people, are hampered by a corporate structure designed to create sow confusion.

With out getting too rant-y.... we are now X-finity customers. Sayonara AT&T.

Expect delays while we get it all set up.

Summer Reading!!!

Summer reading for my school has officially begun. Yay!  Much like last year the challenge is organized around nine categories. No lists this year, instead I want my kids to pick their own books. I tweaked it a bit this year so that instead of having to put together logs and keep track of paper work, they are recording themselves giving short book talks and posting them up on a educational social media site called flipgrid. The response from the students has been quite positive. We are only a week or so into the summer and there are already about a dozen posts.

I'm very excited.

Obviously, I'm participating too so in honor of that, I'm reorganizing my list into the nine categories. This will be a longer than usual list as it needs to carry me through to August, but I'll probably give it an up date in July. As always a book might qualify for multiple categories but it can only be used for one. :)

• To Boldly Go (Read a book of Science Fiction or Fantasy)
1. Fade by Robert Cormier
2. When We Wake by Karen Healey
3. The Revenge Of Seven by Pitticus Lore
4. Legend by Marie Lu
5. Prodigy by Marie Lu
6. Champion by Marie Lu
7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (Finished 6/4/2018)
8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
11. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
12. UnSouled by Neal Shusterman
13. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld 
14. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
15. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
16. The Last Star by Rick Yancey
• Now Technically... (Read a Book about a Scientific Topic or Scientist)
1. The Double Planet by Isaac Asimov
2. The Universe by Isaac Asimov 
3. Pascal's Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with God by James A. Connor
4. Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs by Sue Hubbell
5. The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios
6. The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
7. Frozen in Time by Mark Kurlansky (Finished 6/12/2018)
8. Engineering In the Ancient World by J.G. Landels
9. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
10. Stiff by Mary Roach
• Award Winner (Read a book that Won an Award - Finalists count)
1. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (National Book Award Finalist & O'Dell Award)
2. Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (Kirkus Reviews Best Book 2010)
3. Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes (Printz Honor Book)
4. Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo (Morris Debut Award Finalist)
5. One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke (Printz Honor Book)
6. The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson (Printz Honor Book) 
7. Fat Kid Rules he World by K.L. Going (Printz Honor Book)
8. Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins (Printz Honor Book) (Finished 6/25/2018)
9. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (Nebula)
10. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (Printz Award)
• How-To (Read a Book that teaches you a new hobby or skill)
1. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman (Cooking Vegetarian) 
2. Kitchen Matrix by Mark Bittman (Cooking Improvisation) - (Finished 6/13/2018)
3. Grammar To Get Things Done by Darren Crovitz and Michelle D. Devereaux (Grammar)
4. Reading Reasons by Kelly Gallagher (Teaching - Reading)
5. Page after Page by Heather Sellers (Writing)
6. Essentials of Asian Cuisine: Fundamentals and Favorite Recipes by Corinne Trang (Cooking Asian Cuisine)
7. "You Gotta Be the Book" by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm (Teaching - Literacy
• Free Space (Read any book you like)
1. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
2. Peeled by Joan Bauer
3. The Cemetery Boys by Heather Brewer
4. Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix
5. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson (Finished 6/28/2018)
6. The Arsonist by Stephanie Oakes 
7. A List of Cages by Robin Roe
8. There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff
9. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
10. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (Finished 6/6/2018)
• Picture This! (Read a Graphic Novel)
1. The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks
2. The Stone Heart by Faith Erin Hicks
3. Amulet 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/16/2018)
4. Amulet 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/16/2018)
5. Amulet 3: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/17/2018)
6. Amulet 4: The Last Council by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/24/2018)
7. Amulet 5: Prince of the Elves by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/24/2018)
8. Amulet 6: Escape From Lucien by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/23/2018)
9. Amulet 7: Firelight by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/23/2018)
10. Explorer 1: The Mystery Boxes by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/1/2018)
11. Explorer 2: The Lost Islands by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/2/2018)
12. Explorer 3: The Hidden Doors by Kazu Kibuishi (Finished 6/3/2018)
• Seek Diversity (Read a Book with a Main Character of a different Cultural Background From You)
1. Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper
2. Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes (Finished 6/9/2018)
3. Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos
4. The First Part Last by Angela Johnson 
5. Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min
6. A Step from Heaven by An Na
7. Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins
8. Binu and the Great Wall: The Myth of Meng by Su Tong
9. The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran
10. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
• Just Wait Until You Read This One! (Read a Book Recommended by a Friend or Relative)
1. Story Time by Edward Bloor (Nick R)
2. Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen (Ryan)
3. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (Amanda)
4. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (Sandy)
5. On Caring by Milton Mayeroff (Nathan)
6. Swan Song by Robert McCammon (Ryan)
7. Fablehaven 1 by Brandon Mull (Ansley & Garrett) (Finished 6/14/2018)
8. Fablehaven 2: Rise of the Evening Star by Brandon Mull (Ansley & Garrett) (Finished 6/16/2018)
9. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult (Jess)
10. Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf (Wilfrid)
• Awww! or Eeek! (Read a Book featuring an Animal on the Cover)
1. Babylon's Ark by Lawrence Anthony (Lion)
2. A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron (Dog)
3. The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (Crow, Coyote, Rabbit, & Fox)
4. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (Bee)
5. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (Horse) 
6. The Returning by Christine Hinwood (Horse)
7. Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle (Elephants & Unicorns)
8. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven (Bird)
9. The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Elephant) (finished 6/9/2018)
10. The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancy (Crow)

I'm trying to have 10 candidates in each category with the exceptions being "To Boldly Go" and "Picture This" since the first one I have loads of backlogged and the other features volumes so short as to take little time. I'm having a very difficult time with the "How To" section.