Book challenges can be a lot of fun. They provide motivation to keep you reading, introduce you to new books, and let you share your selections with a group of like-minded readers. Currently there’s a great one going on at The Books for Walls Project called the Cuddle Up and Read Challenge. How can you not like the idea of cuddling up to read? Especially in February. (See more challenges here: www.booksforwallsproject.org/2010/04/challenges-how-you-dear-reader-can.)

There are lots of other great resources to check out at The Books for Walls Project site, so you can stay a minute to explore while you’re there. I particularly like the page listing favorite libraries. And I like the whimsical tone of the whole site. I’ll post my favorites for this challenge there, bu I’m also listing them here.

Books to Cuddle Up and Read

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Books to Read Aloud While Cuddled Up

I’m fond of reading books out loud that will make you laugh. Here are some of my favorites:

• A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
• Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• Boy by Roald Dahl
• The Cardturner by Louis Sachar
• Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

Favorite Place to Cuddle Up and Read

I like to sit on the couch with a goose-down blanket on my lap and a cup of tea nearby.

If you’re looking for a gift to give someone who loves to read, you may want to check out Book Reporter’s recent article, What to Give, What to Get. Book Reporter publishes book reviews and other literary information; it is also the umbrella for a network of Websites such as Teen Reads, Kids Reads, and Reading Group Guides as well as other. The suggestions in What to Give, What to Get are grouped in several different categories. For instance, you can find ideas for buying eReaders, biographies, cookbooks, book accessories, holiday titles, fiction, nonfiction and more.

Later this week I’ll be posting my own suggestions here for young readers.

I recently got a note from author Katie Davis about an award given out for book trailers by School Library Journal. Here’s part of what she had to say:

“Book trailers get kids reading more. I know librarians who say that when kids see a trailer for a book, that book circulates more. So support the School Library Journal Trailee Awards!”

Davis has two trailers nominated, and there are lots more in a total of six categories. Perusing this list is not only entertaining, it can give you a few ideas for what to read next. To see the list and vote on your favorites, visit the Trailee Awards voting page before noon (CST) on December 16.

October marks the beginning of National Reading Group Month, a time to focus on reading groups of all types. Of course, you’re in the right place to find out all kinds of helpful information for mother-daughter book clubs and other parent-child book clubs. Here are a few other resources to check out if you’re reading with other types of groups:

National Reading Group Month.org

Reading Group Guides.com

Book Bundlz.com

King County Library System Book Club Resources

LitLovers.com

Recently I cam across a huge list of books compiled by Librarian Neil Hollands from the Williamsburg Regional Library in Virginia. True to its name, this list is huge, and Hollands compiles it by culling book titles from lots of other “Best of the Year” lists. The resulting “megalist” is broken down into categories for historical, biography and memoir, general fiction, and young adult fiction among others.

The first list is from 2008, and there’s one for each year after. It can be a little overwhelming to peruse this—there are over 130 books listed in the young adult category for 2010—but it’s a good place to look for new titles. You’ll have to look up reviews elsewhere, but this can be a good starting point to make your own list of titles you want to further check out. Best Books of the Year Megalist

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The Cybils award winners have been announced, and I’m surprised to see that I haven’t read one book on the list. I read a lot for reviewing on this website and for my book clubs, and it’s always exciting to learn about titles I’m not familiar with.

Cybils stands for Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards. The judges all blog about books regularly, and for this competition they take on a whole bunch of books looking for literary merit plus kid appeal.

To see the whole list of winners, visit the Cybils website.

Teen Reads.com is one of my “go-to” sites for checking out reviews of books I haven’t read. So I was excited to see that the website has updated it’s Ultimate Teen Reading List. The list contains 400 titles, including favorites that have been out a while and new books to check out. The list is organized alphabetically, and it also contains adult titles that teens will like too.

If you’re the parent of a younger child, you may be interested in this site I recently came across. It’s called Read Aloud Dad, and it’s written by the dad of three-year-old twins, a girl and a boy. Read Aloud Dad reviews picture books and other works of fiction and nonfiction. He’s only been writing since September, so he’s just beginning to build up his book reviews, but what he’s written so far is interesting. I found his post on how to start incorporating chapter books into your daily reading with your child to be helpful. Read it here.

My non-mother-daughter-book-club friends are often surprised when I say I really like reading the same books my daughters do. They’re inclined to think that anything that appeals to kids and teens can’t possibly hold the interest of adults. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, I would say that some of my favorite books of all time are ones I have shared with my daughters. Part of the reason is definitely the fact that when we read together we also talk about issues brought up in the book. But it’s also true that many books written for children are simply good literature as well as fun to read.

Authors who successfully write for children usually have to get into the plot quicker to hold their readers’ attention. They also typically do not have the luxury of taking a long time to build their characters or write page after page of background. But they still have to tell a good story. And a good story well told resonates with readers whether they are nine or 90.

Here are a few of my favorite picks for books that appeal to two, or more, generations of readers.

9 and 10 year olds

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

11 through 13 year olds

Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce

The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little

Red Scarf Girl by Ji Li Jiang

Ages 14 and up

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I recently got a note from Willow at Middle School Book Reviews recommending a book called Fat Chance by Leslea Newman. (See Willow’s review). She recommends it as a way to talk about body image and eating disorders with girls.

If you’re searching for books to check out for reading with middle school girls, you may want to see what Willow is recommending. When I visited today I saw several books that are my favorites too, like Kimchi and Calamari by Rose Kent, Goose Girl by Shannon Hale and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. I also saw a few books new to me that I look forward to checking out. Willow has only been posting for a few months, so it will be interesting to see how her book list builds.