Guest entry - YA Librarian's 2007 reads

My dad has kindly invited me to post reviews to his blog here.  I'm a YA Librarian in small town Virginia, to give you a little bit of background knowledge.  Not much to do in our town, but we have a great library.  So here's a quick run down of my reading and its highlights for 2007:

-I read more than 170 books, probably at least 200 with graphic novel volumes counted (this does include audio books)

-Best series: The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins.  The first book is "Gregor the Overlander," and is somewhat a modern, urban twist on Alice in Wonderland. Unshelved gives a booktalk on it here. Lots of fun adventure, strong and dynamic characters (including a butt-kicking princess), and good writing.

I'd also recommend the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan, the Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney (Tim Burton is planning on directing the movie), and the Bayern series by Shannon Hale.

-Book I wished I hadn't read: "Maximum Ride" by James Patterson, I just don't understand his appeal.

-Best Standalone books: "Book of a Thousand Days" by Shannon Hale, "Boris" and "God Went to Beauty School" by Cynthia Rylant, "Fat Kid Rules the World" by K. L. Going, "Life as We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak