Well here we are again – the end of the year! This was another great and constantly improving year for picture books as they continue to impress with their ability to address complex subjects, and embrace diverse faces, voices and intersectionality (well, at least the best ones do!). Without any further ado ... here are my favorite picture books of the year! Click on the covers for more book details.
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There were a lot of great additions to picture books this year, so many that I couldn't limit it down to just 20 like last year! Many of my top contenders in 2019 celebrated black children, including titles like I Am Perfectly Designed (Karamo Brown), M is for Melanin (Tiffany Rose), and Hair Love (Matthew A. Cherry). I also picked some books that really highlighted and embraced intersectionality and celebrating our differences, like When Aidan Became a Brother (Kyle Lukoff) and IntersectionAllies: We Make Room For All​ (Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council & Carolyn Choi).

It was hard not to pick books that so beautifully captured the love of family, culture, and familial traditions, including Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao (Kat Zhang), Grandpa's Stories: A Book of Remembering (Joseph Coelho), Bilal Cooks Daal​ (Aisha Saeed), Where Are You From? (Jamie Kim) and You Made Me a Dad (Laurenne Sala,) ... WARNING: Tissues needed for that last one.

I also, of course, chose books that also (age-appropriately) tackled contemporary issues like immigration with Between Us and Abuela: A Family Story From the Border (Mitali Perkins); Islamophilia with Under my Hijab (Hena Khan); toxic masculinity with Big Boys Cry (Jonty Howley); feminism with I Will Be Fierce! (Bea Birdsong) and Mary Wears What She Wants (Keith Negley); and confronting personal biases in What If Everybody Thought That? (Ellen Javernick). The ability picture books have to introduce complex issues like these to young children is one of my many favorite things about them!

As an Early Literacy Librarian, I hear a lot of adults talk and ask about what books are age appropriate for their children. There are those parents of kids with advanced reading skills who closely monitor the content of what their children read for fear that the subject matter is too graphic or mature. There are also the parents who couldn't care less about what their child is reading, because really – how bad can a kid be if they want to spend their free time with a book? The later sentiment is one that resonates with me, but it is absolutely up to each parent to decide what is right for their child. 

And then of course there are those archaic rules imposed by some schools or  teachers that kids can only read books that correspond with their particular reading level. I understand the thinking behind this notion, but I cannot help but think it is absolutely crazy. Sure, reading levels are a good way to narrow down the field to match readers with potential books they might like – but it should absolutely not be the determining factor of whether or not they read it. If it's too hard, adults can read along with them to help when needed. If it's too easy, you can let them fly through it and try to steer them in the direction of something a little more challenging when they're done. In my opinion, if a kid wants to read it – let them!  Helping readers discover what they like to read does not always align with their reading level, and it doesn't have to.
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One thing is for sure – it's never too early to introduce books into a child's life. From the time a child is in the womb to the moment they take their first breath – books can make a profound impact. Below is a beautiful infographic courtesy of MomLovesBest.com about some of the benefits reading has on young minds, and how to encourage your little one to stick their nose in a book. With the holidays quickly approaching, remember that a book is a gift that keeps on giving – especially if it's the right book for the reader. In the words of Dr. S.R. Ranganathan, the father of Library Science, "Every book its reader, and every reader their book."
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While an unlimited flow of cash might be the ultimate pal of someone who recently purchased a house (like me!), a much more realistic and almost as helpful best bud is your local library. 

Buying a house is exciting, and if it's your first one like mine, even more so. But it can also be daunting and a bit overwhelming, particularly if you plan on doing any renovations to your new abode. While the Internet can be a great source of decoration inspiration (thank you, Pinterest), it's not always the most reliable or easy for getting reliable professional opinions – design or otherwise. And if you don't have wifi hooked up at your new house (also me, for the time being), having a physical copy of a book to look at could also be more beneficial than having YouTube tutorials eat up all your phone data.

Since my fiancé Taylor and I will have had just over a full month to work on house before we move in mid-September, we're making all (or at least most) of the cosmetic changes we want on the main floor while we are still living at our apartment. This means a couple coats of paint in every room, new hardwoods throughout, a facelift for our fireplace and a few other odds and ends ... like a new roof and new gutters, but those aren't nearly as fun or glamorous. Here are a couple of books available at my local library that I've already paged through for some design inspiration (If you belong to a public library in Kenosha, Racine or Walworth counties, just click on the book to reserve your copy today).

It just wouldn't be right if my new home did not include some built-in bookshelves, and those will be in the works soon enough. While I'm not so confident in my personal aptitude for doing the job and will be paying someone else to do it (see why the unlimited flow of cash would be nice?), if you feel handy enough to do some woodworking projects yourself, your local library also has materials that will have that covered. Looking for some landscaping ideas and tips? Your library has that too! Plumbing basics? Check. From books about being your own contractor to The Everything Guide to Flipping Houses, your library has your back. Not to mention most also have a subscription to HGTV Magazine!

So if you've recently relocated, decided to finally tackle that DIY project or are unable to suppress your HGTV obsession any longer, make sure you add a trip to your local library to your to-do list. You, your house and your wallet will be sure to thank me! ​

Why did it take me so long to read Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love? To be honest, I have no idea. That's a lie — I do have an idea. I think it was part of the title. "Eat?" Sure! I love to eat. "Love?" Absolutely! But "Pray?" Eh....

I wasn't raised religious, nor have I ever become so. If there was an official list of things I hated (maybe I'll make one?), people trying to press their religious beliefs upon others would probably be a the top of that list. For some reason I got it into my head that this is what would happen during the "Pray" section of the book, but boy, was I wrong. In fact, I think I actually ended up enjoying that part of the book the most. I didn't find it religious it all, instead I found it spiritual — and spirituality is something that I can most definitely dig. And with over 10 million copies of the book sold worldwide, I'm obviously not the only one!

Well here we are – the end of the semester and the last of my weekly book reviews for my readers' advisory class. Out of all the genres we covered, I've read more of the nonfiction titles mentioned in the class than any of the other genre books we could choose from to review. I was a journalism major in undergrad and have always loved narrative nonfiction, so it's no real surprise that I've read a lot of it.

It's easy to identify what is nonfiction in comparison to fiction, however, how to distinguish nonfiction titles from each other is much more tricky. The narrative context plays a large role. Is the book written like a novel or does it read more like interesting facts presented as research? Can an "Average Joe" (or Jane) read it easily, or does there need to be more of a specialized education to understand the material? I think the easiest way to start to narrow down what sort of nonfiction book a person is looking to read is the subject, followed by time period and/or setting. The type of nonfiction (biography, memoir, essays, letters, etc.) also plays a large role. Pacing, characterization, story line and setting are all additional determining factors for suggesting nonfiction to a reader, just as they are for fiction.

This week's assigned nonfiction title was The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, which I really enjoyed. It was rather scary though (much more of a "horror" pick for me than World War Z!) as it alluded to the likelihood of human beings causing the world's next major extinction. While I still really enjoyed the book, I found myself thinking that the pacing was a little slower than I would normally prefer, and the narrative context was a bit more scientific at times than I would have liked. However, these elements did not at all make me dislike the book. 

For the nonfiction book of my choosing, I selected Erik Larson's The Devil in White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Not only does the title sound intriguing, word on the street is that professional actor/dreamboat Leonardo DiCaprio and film genius Martin Scorsese will be reuniting for a film adaptation of the story, set to release in 2017. So naturally, I had to read the book before the movie comes out. Below is my review.

In addition to having a similar title, Joel Engel’s book L.A. '56: A Devil in the City of Angels hits on a lot of the same areas of interest as Larson’s 2002 work. Another telling of a true crime story occurring in America’s past, L.A. ’56 details Detective Danny Galindo’s quest to track down a serial rapist terrorizing the city’s young women. Detailing Los Angeles’ contentious racial relations during this historic time of segregation, L.A. ’56 is another real-life and historic thriller to be quickly read and enjoyed. Truman Capote's well-known work In Cold Blood also comes to mind as a gripping read-alike.

Out of all the genres covered in my readers' advisory class, it looks like we've saved the best genres – or at least, my favorites – for last. This week we covered mainstream fiction, which is definitely my most-read genre. To me, mainstream fiction can be determined based on how you would describe the book to another person. Some books you can clearly say, "Well it's a mystery about _____," or "It's a really exciting thriller about ____." When it comes to mainstream fiction, there isn't necessarily an easy label to describe it with like there is for genre fiction.

Mainstream fiction is more about the story itself, whereas genre fiction is about the type of story that it is, if that makes sense. Whereas I think literary fiction tends to be a bit more lofty and reminds many people of the books they've read in high school English classes, mainstream fiction generally does not require as much literature analysis, it can just be read and enjoyed for what it is while still having substance. 

This week our assigned novel was All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which I absolutely loved. It had been on my to-read list for quite a while and this course finally got it pushed up a few places. I listened to the book on audio in the car and thought it was extremely well done. I'm a bit of a Francophile, so anything set it France or includes French generally gets two thumbs up from me. That, and the Museum of Natural History in Paris (where the beginning of the story takes place) is hands down my favorite museum I've ever been to. I find books and movies about WWII also tend to be pretty incredible since it was such a fascinating and devastating time in history, so there's lots for the author to work with. This book was great because it also appeals to readers of historical fiction. It checked all the boxes for me as far as character, setting, language and plot, and was the only assigned book for that class that I gave as five stars from this class (although many of them did get four). 

The mainstream fiction title of my choosing for the week was Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. While I'm not always a huge fan of dystopian fiction, as I think it's been a little bit overdone as of late, I loved that this book was written in more of that literary fiction style. Below is my review.

Science fiction is a really interesting genre to me because I always sort of discounted it as not being "for me," but every Sci-Fi book I've read I've actually enjoyed. Maybe Sci-Fi is for me, I just didn't know it before. A few of the reading stepping stones I took in my readers' advisory course that made me realize I like Sci-Fi were John Scalzi's 2005 book Old Man's War and the 1979 classic, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy​ by Douglas Adams.

Old Man's War was the required reading for the course's Sci-Fi week, and while I initially approached it thinking, "Oh boy, a story about an old man in space ... I can hardly contain my excitement ..." I actually thought it was quite good! In particular, the humor of the book and the way it portrayed the humanity of the characters – even those who were not really "humans" – was impeccable. Overall, it was just a really well written novel with a neat concept, and one of my favorites that I've read for this class so far.

And for the Sci-Fi book of my choosing this week, I could not pass up one of the most canonical titles of the genre. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is hands down one of the funniest – if not the funniest – books I've ever read. Below is my review.

Another canonical and hilarious science fiction book is Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Similar to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this book is also a story of global destruction dripping with deadpan humor and irony, although it is a bit heavier in content. This book is another great example of a Sci-Fi “oldie, but goodie,” originally published in 1963.

Horror week in my readers' advisory class was an interesting one. I’m not one to be particularly attracted to horror generally speaking, however, once in a while it strikes me – maybe only when the moon is full? This week I found myself thinking a lot about the horror genre as it pertains to films. Many a horror book finds its way to the big screen, and generally it involves some sort of supernatural element, particularly hauntings and possessions as of late. Horror movies nowadays seem to be moving away from the psycho serial killer thing that makes up most of the classics like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween. Interestingly, the non-supernatural element that makes up canonical horror films like those listed above does not pertain to horror books, where by definition there is almost always a supernatural occurrence.

This week the assigned class horror title was World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War​ by Max Brooks, and frankly, I did not enjoy it. It was a cool concept for a book, but not for me. I listened to WWZ on audiobook, and since the book follows a whole range of global characters, the narrator changed with each person in the book, which was really neat. However, I found the book difficult to enjoy because none of the different characters or subplots really related to each other, other than the fact that they all took place after the zombie outbreak. As far as recommending this book to someone, they would definitely have to be interested in zombies to like it. A person looking for a general horror book without much interest in zombies or post-apocalyptic material would probably not enjoy this one very much. 

The horror title I chose to read for this week was Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. I personally found this one more of a supernatural thriller than a horror book, and enjoyed it quite a lot as seen in the review below. 

The next genre covered in my readers' advisory course was the one that really got me into reading. I mean, I always liked to read, but once Harry Potter hit the scene it became one of my favorite pastimes. I grew up with Harry & Co., and while waiting for the last book to come out in 8th grade, I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy to kill some time, and earlier this year finished reading all of the Game of Thrones books that have been released, so far *cough cough*. I plan to get around to the Outlander series eventually too, so I'm definitely not a stranger to big, long book series that tend to make up much of this genre!

The required class book for this week was Hounded, the first book in author Kevin Hearne's series, the Iron Druid Chronicles. While I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if I were browsing for a new book to read myself based on the cover art or book description, I found myself quite enjoying it. It has a lot of Irish folklore blended in with the usual fantastical creatures like werewolves and vampires, though not in the traditional sense. There's also some really tremendous humor in the book – particularly from the mouth of a snarky Irish wolfhound named Oberon, who can communicate with his druidic owner and the series main character, Atticus O'Sullivan. While I would read the next book in the series, I won’t be going out of my way to see what happens next. Considering all of the other great books out there I don’t feel obligated or particularly excited read the next one (at least not anytime soon).

My selected fantasy title for the week was the tremendous Neil Gaiman's, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, published in 2013 and reviewed below.

One of the genres I was most looking forward to covering for my readers' advisory course was women's fiction – although I do have a bit of an issue with the name and definition of the genre itself. "Women's fiction," as it is so called, is that of books dealing with *traditionally* women's themes: love, loss, divorce, raising a family, etc. But ... umm, hello? With the massive exception of actually growing and giving birth to another human being – are these not all also important parts of men's lives too? Or at least, shouldn't they be? I, and many of my classmates, would say an emphatic yes.

I think the name of the genre also puts women in a bit of a box by telling them (and in turn, telling men) what should and should not be a woman's interests, experiences, etc. Another big issue for me is that by labeling the genre as belonging to women, many men are deterred from reading it. There is no "men's fiction," why should there be a "women's fiction?" While I agree that these types of books definitely belong in their own genre, perhaps a better name for it would be something involving “family” or “relationships," don't you think? 

I find myself most drawn to issue-driven women’s fiction, and am not *generally* a big fan of chick lit. There’s something therapeutic about issue-driven books for me. I like reading dramatic stories about other people’s lives that I can either distract myself with, or connect with on a personal level. For this week’s assigned book, Happiness Sold Separately by Lolly Winston, I found it just OK. I thought the concept and content was excellent (infertility and miscarriages are such a taboo topic and need to be talked about more). I also liked that the characters were portrayed as real humans who make mistakes and have complicated relationships.

That being said, I never found myself personally connecting with the characters. I wanted to slap almost every character at one point or another, and not just out of passionate reader’s distaste. Usually, character is the big draw for me when reading/enjoying books, but the plot of this one was more appealing. Maybe that’s why this book just sort of fell a little flat for me. However, someone who has personally experience infertility (or infidelity, I suppose) could definitely find this book very relatable! The other book I chose to read this week was The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center, reviewed below.