#mustread

I love the Must Read challenge! I took part in 2015-2019 & 2021, so I am happy to join again! It helps me remember to read certain books!

Thank you to Carrie at There’s A Book for That for starting this challenge and to Leigh Ann of A Day in the Life and Cheriee of Library Matters for co-hosting the revival.

For those of you new to the challenge, it has you take a look at the books you wanted to read, but for whatever reason, you have not gotten to them. You then make your own personal list of books you want to commit to (trying to) read.

There is no set number of books and books can be published from any year, in any genre or format, and in any category. These books will not be the only ones you read this year but will be the ones included in your personal challenge.

Visit HERE to see the #MustReadin2021 year end updates!

Visit HERE to see the #MustReadin2022 Roundup!

2021 was my most successful #MustRead challenge I’ve had so far! I finished all but 2 books (40/42)!

• #noescape by Gretchen McNeil
• 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston
• A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
• Nightshade by Anthony Horowitz
• Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz
• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
• Apple by Eric Gansworth
• Bloom by Kenneth Oppel
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
• Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
• Everybody Looking by Candice Iloh
• Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Hello from Renn Lake by Michele Weber Hurwitz
• Jackpot by Nic Stone
• Killing November by Adriana Mather
• King and the Dragon Flies by Kacen Callender
• Land of Cranes by Aida Salazar
• Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Lucky Caller by Emma Mills
• Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls by Beth McMullen
• On the Horizon by Lois Lowry
• Once Upon an Eid edited by S.K. Ali and Aisha Saeed
• Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
• Punching the Air by Ibi Ziboi and Yusef Salaam
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
• Sanctuary by Paola Mendez and Abby Sher
• Shuri by Nic Stone
• Slay by Brittney Morris
• The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
• The Cousins by Karen McManus
• The Gravity of Us by Phil Bidner
• The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg
• The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
• Snow Fell Three Graves Deep by Allan Wolf
• The is my America by Kim Johnson
• This Train is Being Held by Ismée Williams
• Tristan Strong Punches a Holes in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
• We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
• Where I End & You Begin by Preston Norton
• You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

For my #MustReadin2022 I let my students choose some titles for me! The ones marked * below are the ones they chose for me; the rest were chosen by me 🙂

1. The Accidental Hero by Matt Myklusch*
2. Alice in the Country of Hearts by Quin Rose
3. All Four Stars by Tara Dairman*
4. Almost American Girl by Robin Ha
5. Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
6. Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
7. Brave Enough by Kati Gardner*
8. Breathe and Count Back from Ten by Natalia Sylvester*
9. Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller*
10. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik*
11. Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly*
12. Delirium (and sequels) by Lauren Oliver*
13. Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon
14. Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
15. Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie*
16. The Fire Within by Chris d’Lacey*
17. Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart*
18. Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy
19. Hunter X Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi
20. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
21. The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes*
22. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover*
23. The Magi by Kevin M. Turner*
24. The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
25. The Million Dollar Race by Matthew Ross Smith*
26. Moving Target by Christina Diaz Gonzalez*
27. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart*
28. The Nerdy Dozen by Jeff Miller*
29. #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leaderdale
30. Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney and Robyn Smith
31. Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes*
32. Randoms by David Liss*
33. The Resolutions by Mia Garcia*
34. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid*
35. A Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams Garcia
36. Spy School by Stuart Gibbs
37. That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger*
38. To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo*
39. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart*
40. When You Look Like Us by Pamela N. Harris
41. The Whisperer by Fiona McIntosh*
42. Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak

I love the Must Read challenge! I took part in 2015-2019, so I am so glad that it is back for 2021! Thank you to Carrie at There’s A Book for That for starting this challenge and to Leigh Ann of A Day in the Life and Cheriee of Library Matters for co-hosting the revival.

For those of you new to the challenge, #mustreadin2021 has you take a look at the books you wanted to read in 2020, but for whatever reason, did not get to them.  You then make your own personal list of books you want to commit to reading in 2021.

There is no set number of books and books can be published from any year, in any genre or format, and in any category. These books will not be the only ones you read this year but will be the ones included in your personal challenge.

If you’d like to see others taking part, visit the #MustReadin2021 Round Up!

For my #MustReadin2021 challenge this year, I am going to mix it up a bit! I’m going to have two parts to it:

FIRST PART

The first part will be my traditional #MustReadin2021 list although I am not going to include any 2021 titles on it to keep with the description of the challenge. I particularly looked at MG and YA books that came out over my time on the Schneider Award committee and try to read what I’ve missed, but like always it’ll be a mish-mash of things and will probably be WAY too long.

• #NoEscape by Gretchen McNeil
• 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston
• A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Rainée
• Alex Rider: Nightshade by Anthony Horowitz
• Alex Rider: Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz
• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
• Apple by Eric Gansworth
• Bloom by Kenneth Oppel
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
• Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
• Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh
• Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Hello from Renn Lake by Michele Weber Hurwitz
• Jackpot by Nic Stone
• Killing November by Adriana Mather
• King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
• Land of Cranes by Aida Salazar
• Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Lucky Caller by Emma Mills
• Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls by Beth McMullen
• On the Horizon by Lois Lowry
• Once Upon an Eid Edited by S.K. Ali and Aisha Saeed
• Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
• Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
• Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold
• Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza
• Shuri by Nic Stone
• Slay by Brittney Morris
• The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
• The Cousins by Karen McManus
• The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper
• The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg
• The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
• The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep by Allan Wolf
• This is My America by Kim Johnson
• This Train is Being Held by Ismée Williams
• Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
• War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
• We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
• Where I End and You Begin by Preston Norton
• You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

SECOND PART

When Goodreads first started, groups were really big, and I helped moderate an amazing group called Wild Things for YA which had all sorts of fun reading challenges, so when I saw the #BitAboutBooks Winter 2021 challenge, I knew I had to take part! So, for the second part of my #MustReadin2021 challenge, I want to challenge myself to take part in some other fun challenges like this during the year. I might even do some read-a-thons or other fun things.

Here is my #BitAboutBooks Winter 2021 Challenge plan:

• Any book of my choice: Tales of Witchcraft by Chris Colfer
• Any book with 100-200 pages: Diana Princess of the Amazon by Shannon Hale & Dean Hale
• A book with one word in the title: Starfish by Lisa Fipps
• An author’s debut book: From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
• A book with with an animal main character: The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
• A book that has a direction in the title: The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung
• A book published in 2021: That Weekend by Kara Thomas
• A book set in a country that is not where you currently live: The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
• A book that won an award: All of the Schneider Family Book Award winners 🙂
• A book with a name in the title: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
• Two books by the same author: (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are both edited by Kelly Jensen

Here’s to an awesome year of reading!

Must Read lists were a challenge started by Carrie at There is a Book for That. She shares on her 2019 intro post:

“For anyone out there with a To Be Read list that seems like it will never end, this challenge is for you! This is all about making your own personal list of books that you want to commit to reading in 2019.

10? 20? 30? more? It’s up to you

Books can be published in any year, be from any genre, and from any category: adult, YA, MG, Graphics, NF, etc. .  All that matters is that they are books you want to be sure not to forget as that TBR list continues to grow! These aren’t the only titles you will read over the year, but a list to help guide your reading. A list to lure you back to a reading path you have set for yourself. Many, many new books will tempt you! Go ahead and read them but having a list like this ensures you will not forget some titles you were determined to read. That’s the intention and spirit of this challenge.”

Here at Unleashing Readers, we focus on novels and call our Must Read lists our HOPE TO lists 🙂

Without further adieu, here are our lists!

Ricki

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka Completed February 3, 2019

Hurricane Child by Kheryn Callender

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi Completed January 27, 2019

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Odd One Out by Nic Stone

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera Completed February 19, 2019

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Read: 3 of 16

Kellee

I may have gone a bit crazy this year, and I know that I probably won’t get to all of these amazing titles, but I couldn’t cut any once I made this list. (Anyone who has been an UR reader for a while knows that I am not good at narrowing down lists.) This led to my list having FIFTY titles. I cultivated titles from my Kindle, my students, and my Goodreads TBR to complete the list. We’ll see what I can do this year!

Update: Since I made this list, I had the honor of accepting a spot on an ALA Book Award Jury, so plans have changed a bit 🙂 

The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

Chomp (and other Hiaasen books) by Carl Hiaasen

Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks

Dash and Lilly’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Disappearance of Sloane Sullivan by Gia Cribbs Completed 1/13/19

Downsiders by Neal Shusterman
Read Shadow Club, The Schwa Was Here, and Dark Side of Nowhere instead
Completed 4/21/19, 4/27/19, 5/14/19

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

Fallout by Todd Strasser

First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez

Immoral Code by Lillian Clark

Inkling by Kenneth Oppel Completed 1/19/19

I Survived books by Lauren Tarshis

Killing November by Adriana Mather

Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi

Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell (and its sequels) by Chris Colfer
The Wishing Spell Completed 1/12/19
The Enchantress Returns Completed 2/9/19
A Grimm Warning Completed 4/9/19
Beyond the Kingdoms Completed 5/1/19
An Author’s Odyssey Completed 5/28/19

The Lost Girl by Anne Ursu Completed 2/4/19

Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano

Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak by Pablo Cartaya

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina Completed 2/10/19

#MurderFunding by Gretchen McNeil Completed 3/28/19

Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Nevertheless, We Persisted: 48 Voices of Defiance, Strength, and Courage by 48 Authors

Over the Moon by Natalie Lloyd

Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo Completed 2/8/19

Puddin’ by Julie Murphy

Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Red Queen Completed 2/16/19

Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Right As Rain by Lindsey Stoddard

Rowling’s Novellas and Short Stories from Pottermore

Rules of the Road (and other Bauer books recommended to me by a student) by Joan Bauer

The Seasons of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon

The Selection (and its sequels) by Kiera Cass

The Selkie of San Francisco by Todd Calgi Gallicano

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson Completed 5/23/19

Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Surface Tension by Mike Mullin

Survivor’s Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat

Swing by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess

Tight by Torrey Maldonado

To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzner

Tradition by Brendan Kiely

Two Can Keep a Secret by Kerry M. McManus Completed 4/2/19

Warcross (and Wildcard) by Marie Lu
Warcross Completed 1/26/19
Wildcard Completed 2/24/19

Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan

We Say #NeverAgain: Reporting by the Parkland Student Journalists

What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera.

Read: 12 of 50

What are your #mustreadin2019 titles? 

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