Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Slice of Life: Beverly Cleary's 100th Birthday!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.
Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Betsy, Dana, BethAnna, Kathleen, and Deb
                   for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

Several weeks ago I started hearing mention of Beverly Cleary's upcoming 100th birthday.  I quickly checked the calendar, "Wonderful!  April 12th is a Tuesday.  We'll have a celebration at our after school book club."  Except that this week is our spring break.  

"Okay, fine.  I'll invite some grown-up friends over to share birthday cake and watch the Ramona movie that Karen gave me for Christmas several years ago."  Except that's the day I'm flying home from my spring break trip visiting my sis in CA.

And then I got an idea to honor Beverly Cleary's birthday with a list of 100 middle grade books that I love.  Only somehow this date crept up on me, and suddenly it was the day before Beverly's birthday, and I was in California at my sister's house. I got up extra early on Monday to read Ready Player One for my adult book club which meets on Wednesday evening.  Except that before I knew it, I was jotting down favorite titles for my 100 MG Books I Love list to honor Beverly Clearly's 100th birthday.   It's been challenging to create the list without walking the shelves of our middle school library, scanning my own bookshelves, or consulting the book I keep (at home) of books I've read.  (Don't be surprised to see a few changes to the list after I return home on Tuesday.)

I refuse to put the books in order by preference.  I love them all, and it's impossible to assign numbers to them.  So they are arranged in alphabetical order by author's last name.  I decided that I could only choose one book by a specific author.  So know that while I may adore multiple books by an author, for this list I chose my favorite book by a specific author.  

Drum roll and confetti, please!  
In Honor of Beverly Cleary's 100th Birthday...
100 Favorite Book Titles by Middle Grade Authors!
 
Alcott, Louisa May
Little Women
Alexander, Kwame
The Crossover
Anderson, Laurie Halse
Chains
Applegate, Katherine
Home of the Brave
Baskin, Nora Raleigh
Anything But Typical
Bauer, Joan
Rules of the Road
Benjamin, Ali
The Thing About Jellyfish
Birdsall, Jeanne
The Penderwicks
Blume, Judy
Are You There, God?  It's Me, Margaret
Bradley, Emily Brubaker
  
The War that Saved My Life
Brink, Carol Ryrie
Caddie Woodlawn
Burnett, Frances Hodgson
The Secret Garden
Buyea, Rob
Because of Mr. Terupt
Carey, Janet Lee
Dragon's  Keep
Cleary, Beverly
Ramona's World
CodellEsme Raji
Sahara Special
Cooper, Susan
The Boggart
Cummings, Priscilla
Red Kayak
Curtis, Christopher Paul
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
Dahl, Roald
Danny, the Champion of the World
DiCamillo, Kate
Because of Winn-Dixie
Draper, Sharon
Out of My Mind
Eager, Edward
Half-Magic
Ellis, Deborah
The Breadwinner
Farmer, Nancy
The House of the Scorpion
Field, Rachel
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
Fitzhugh, Lousie
Harriet the Spy
Gannett, Ruth Stiles
My Father's Dragon
Gardiner, John 
Stone Fox
Gemeinhart, Dan
The Honest Truth
Giff, Patricia Reilly
Eleven
Going, K. L.
The Liberation of Gabriel King
Goldblatt, Mark
Twerp
Graff, Lisa
Absolutely Almost
Hannigan, Katherine
Ida B
Henkes, Kevin
Bird Lake Moon
Hesse, Karen
Out of the Dust
Hiaasen, Carl
Hoot
Hillton, Marilyn
Full Cicada Moon
Holm, Jennifer L.
Sunny Side Up
Holt, Kimberly Willis
My Louisiana Sky
Hunt, Lynda Mullaly
One for the Murphys
Jacobson, Jennifer 
Small as an Elephant
Jones, Kelly
Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer
Klages, Ellen
The Green Glass Sea
Knowles, Jo
See You at Harry's
Konigsburg, E. L.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Kuhlman, Evan
Brother from a Box
Lai, Thahhna
Inside Out and Back Again
Larson, Kirby
Hattie Big Sky
Levine, Gail Carson
Dave at Night
Levine, Kristin
The Lions of Little Rock
Lewis, C. S.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Lin, Grace
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Lovelace, Maud Hart
Betsy-Tacy
Lowry, Lois
Gossamer
MacLachlan, Patricia
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Magorian, Michelle
Good Night, Mr. Tom
Martin, Ann
Rain Reign
Mass, Wendy
A Mango-shaped Space
McKay, Hilary
Saffy's Angel
Messner, Kate
The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z
Montgomery, L. M.
Anne of Green Gables
Murphy, Pat
Wild Girls
Ness, Patrick
A Monster Calls
Nielsen, Jennifer A.
A Night Divided
Nielsen, Susan
Word Nerd
O'Dell, Scott
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Palacio, R. J.
Wonder
Park, Linda Sue
Project Mulberry
Pearsall, Shelley
The 7th Most Important Thing
Peck, Robert Newton
Soup
Pennypacker, Sarah
Pax
Rawls, Wilson
Summer of the Monkeys
Rex, Adam
The True Meaning of Smekday
Rhodes, Jewell Parker
Ninth Ward
Rowling, J. K. 
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Rundell, Katherine
Rooftoppers
Ryan, Pam Munoz
Esperanza Rising
Scattergood, Augusta
Glory Be
SchlickNoe, Katherine
Something to Hold
Schmidt, Gary
The Wednesday Wars
Shafer, Audrey
The Mailbox
Sloan, Holly Goldberg
Counting by 7s
Speare, Elizabeth George
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Spinelli, Jerry
Stargirl
Stead, Rebecca
Goodbye Stranger
Tashjian, Janet
My Life as a Book
Taylor, Mildred D.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Turnage, Sheila
Three Times Lucky
Turner, Megan Whelan
The Thief
Twain, Mark
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Ursu, Anne
Breadcrumbs
VaswaniNeela
Same Sun Here
White, E. B. 
Charlotte's Web
Wiles, Deborah
Each Little Bird that Sings
Williams-Garcia, Rita
One Crazy Summer
Wood, Maryrose
The Mysterious Howling
Woodson, Jacqueline             
Brown Girl Dreaming
Zimmer, Tracey Vaughn
        Reaching for Sun
                     


    





5 comments:

  1. This list is invaluable! So many books that I have read, and now so many that I want to read. In fact, I'm reading Crossover now. Thank you for sharing; I'll be saving this in my Pocket app and sharing with others, I'm sure. Hope you had a chance to read and get prepared for your book club. Happy Tuesday! ~Amy

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  2. What an accomplishment, especially without your usual resources! I think Beverly would be proud.

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  3. And this without looking! I'll need to return to note those I still have not read, although adding to my list is not what I was intending to do today! What a treasure this is, Ramona! Thank you!

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  4. I celebrated BC's birthday in my slice today, too. I love how you chose to celebrate it.

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  5. So fabulous. I need to see which ones I've read.

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