Looking back at my mid-year reading round-up, especially the picture book and middle grade categories, so many of these are still top of mind: books I recommend, put on displays, and use in storytimes. Looking back to last year’s wrap-up, the same holds true of most of the picture books as well, and plenty of middle grade (most especially Beth Lincoln’s The Swifts, Erin Bow’s Simon Sort of Says, and Sophie Escabasse’s Witches of Brooklyn series).

When I went to count up my total number of books read this year I did think at first I had made a math mistake, but no, the number is correct. And in fact, it doesn’t include all the re-reading (for example, the approximately 45 times I read Endlessly Ever After at Pajama Storytime, or vacation re-reading). Here is the usual breakdown and favorite titles in each category; again, these are books I read in 2024; some of them were published earlier. The titles I mention below are mostly those I read in the second half of the year, since others were already mentioned in the mid-year post. Anyway, on with the show! 

Total number of books read: 880. (Yeah, this is pretty unbelievable, and no, I’m not really sure how either.)

Reviewed for Kirkus: 23 (most of those not included in the total above)

Partially read/started-didn’t-finish: 20

Picture Books: 515

• How Little Lori Visited Times Square by Amos Vogel: you think you know all the books Maurice Sendak ever illustrated, and then you discover this hilarious gem in a bookstore in Brooklyn. What a trip.
• The Yellow Bus by Loren Long
• The Pass by Sara Laux Akin
• Sometimes We Fall by Randall de Seve
• We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang
• Remembering Rosalind Franklin by Tanya Lee Stone (NF)
• All at Once Upon A Time by Mara Rockliff
• No More Senora Mimi by Meg Medina
• Noodles on a Bicycle by Kyo Maclear
• The Island Before No by Christina Uss
• I’m Sorry You Got Mad by Kyle Lukoff
• Just What to Say by Kyle Lukoff
• What Can A Mess Make? by Bee Johnson
• Is A Book A Box for Words? by Harriet Ziefert
• Hello, I’m A… (Meet the Wild Things) by John and Hayley Rocco
• Just Us by Molly Beth Griffin
• Small Things Mended by Casey W. Robinson

Early Readers and Chapter Books: 9

• The Story of Gumluck and the Dragon’s Eggs by Adam Rex
• Pizza for Pia by Betsy Groban and Allison Steinfeld

Middle Grade: 147

• The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty
• Medusa (The Myth of Monsters) by Katherine Marsh
• The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
• The Girls of Skylark Lane by Robin Benway
• AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler
• The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming (NF)
• Not Nothing by Gayle Forman
• Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller
• Savvy by Ingrid Law
• The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko
• The Swifts: Gallery of Rogues by Beth Lincoln

Young Adult: 13

• Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaptation by James Loewen and Nate Powell (GN, NF)
• It’s Okay If You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
• When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson
• Here I Am, I Am Me: An Illustrated Guide to Mental Health by Cara Bean (GN, NF)

Graphic Novels (overlap with other categories): 62

• Hilda and Twig Hide from the Rain by Luke Pearson
• Batcat: Sink or Swim by Meggie Ramm
• Pets and Pests by Andy Warner (NF)
• Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair by Lucy Knisley
• Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaptation by James Loewen and Nate Powell (YA, NF)
• Here I Am, I Am Me: An Illustrated Guide to Mental Health by Cara Bean (YA, NF)

Adult Fiction: 58

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames
• The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

Adult Nonfiction: 31

• Sellout by Dan Ozzi
• Nice Try by Josh Gondelman (I’ve also enjoyed his wonderful weekly newsletter, That’s Marvelous)
• A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
• The Genius of Judy by Rachelle Bergstein
• Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna
• Grief Is for People by Sloan Crosley
• What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Short stories/essays: 12

• What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
• H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert
• Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles

“People who believe in a brighter future are more likely to put in the effort required to achieve it.” -Elizabeth Kolbert, H Is for Hope

Audiobooks (overlap with other categories): 16

• Witchlings by Claribel Ortega
• Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins
• Rewind by Lisa Graff
• No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healey
• The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty

Five-star ratings: 26

• Gather by Kenneth Cadow (YA – won a Printz Honor)
• We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang (made me laugh)
• Telephone of the Tree by Alison McGhee (made me cry)
• Buffalo Brenda by Jill Pinkwater (just as good as I remember)

Re-reads: I really don’t have a good way to keep track of these. I re-read The Night Circus and The Great Believers on vacation, and I know we listened to The Swifts (both books) many times over, as well as all three Bronte Mettlestone books. And, as previously mentioned, Endlessly Ever After and dozens of other books I read aloud at storytimes.

WeNeedDiverseBooks: 189. Less than last year both in terms of numbers and percentage of the total, though I do suspect myself of undercounting/tagging.

Now we’re already well into 2025, with the ALA Youth Media Awards on the horizon (Monday, January 27 at 10am Eastern – later than usual because it’s happening in Phoenix, which is on Mountain Time). I’m sure I’ll dig back into some 2024 books I missed after the awards, and we’ve already got plenty of 2025 books to look forward to – from Curtis Sittenfeld, Libba Bray, Emma Donoghue, Kevin Wilson, Adam Rex, Kate Messner, Kyle Lukoff, and more. Which books are you looking forward to this year?