Back to Front and Upside Down!

Back to Front and Upside Down! is a picture book about the frustration of learning to write. Stan's class is making birthday cards for the school principal, Mr. Slippers. Stan is excited to draw pictures on the card, but then the teacher says that everyone needs to write "Happy Birthday". Stan has a lot of trouble with writing; some of his letters were backwards, some were upside down, and some didn't even look like letters. Stan's classmates are writing correctly, and he's too intimidated to ask for help. Stan doesn't want to be laughed at. With some encouragement from a friend, Stan learns that it's ok to ask for help.

The illustrations in this book are brightly colored, and convey a lot of emotion even though they're not incredibly detailed. Each character is a different animal, so there is potential for talking points when reading this book aloud by asking the child what animal each character is. The font looks like handwriting, which ties the story together nicely since Stan is struggling with his writing!

This book never explicitly says it's about dyslexia, and Stan's quick improvement suggests that it is not, but it's still a good book to read to children with learning disabilities. They'll be reassured that other people have similar problems, like Stan and Mimi in the story. It will also show them that it's ok to ask for help, and it's ok if it takes them longer to learn, read, or write things. Overall, it's a great book for any child to show them that you can always ask for help, and to accept others as they are, without laughing at their struggles.

Read it for yourself!
Alexander, Claire. Back to Front and Upside Down! Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2012. Print.

2015 Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

I've been participating in a self-imposed Reading Challenge on Goodreads for several years now, but in 2015, I added another, more involved list. This one was making the rounds on Instagram at the beginning of the year, so I traced its origins to PopSugar and participated.


Out of 50 challenges, I completed (or didn't complete, in the case of "a book you started but never finished") 42 of them. I only used each book title to check off one challenge, even though a lot of them could have applied to multiple criteria. I'm pretty proud of myself because, though a lot of the books I read and THEN went back to check off items, I read some books just for the list. For example, I never would have read The Marvels (at the last minute!) if I didn't need to read a book over 500 pages. And not reading The Marvels would be an incredibly sad thing. So this list did push me to read beyond my usual interests, even if I didn't read "a classic romance" or "a book over 100 years old".

PopSugar has a new reading challenge up for 2016 - check it out, and let's challenge ourselves together!

My past Goodreads goals
2012: 125/120 - I went above and beyond, so I upped my goal for the next year!
2013: 92/125 - I was well below my goal. That's what I get for being smug and determined.
2014: 110/100 - I went a little bit above, but kept my goal in check for the next year. I learned my lesson.
2015: 141/100 - Well above my goal, which kind of amazes me because my course load was really heavy this year.
2016: ?/100 - sticking firm at 100 books for the year. Like I said, I learned my lesson! I'll be finishing up my MLS, leading library programs for people with disabilities, and reading to my son!

My son read 183 out of 100 books this year! For 2016, I'm raising his goal to 200 books. I need to practice reading aloud as much as I can anyway, and I think he'll have more interest in books (though he already loves them!) since he'll be turning 2.

Do you have any reading challenges or goals for 2016?