Top Favorite Books 2007

I achieved my personal goal of reading 200 books this year! (It might've been a few more than that, even.) So you can imagine the awful time I had trying to figure out my "top favorites". In the end I could've gone with one of two lists: a list in which I was very picky and only had the cream of the crop, or a slightly longer list with all my favorite reads on it. I decided to go with the latter. I even thought up some categories to place the titles under, for fun. Happy reading!

(Note: * indicates parental guidance suggested)

Books I connected with on a personal level

Loose Threads by Lorie Ann Grover
Wild Girls by Pat Murphy

Best Mysteries

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
Gilda Joyce and the Ladies of the Lake by Jennifer Allison*

A flair for the dramatic

Early reader: The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
MG (middle grade): The Rising Star of Rusty Nail by Lesley M. M. Blume
YA (young adult): King of Shadows by Susan Cooper
Graphic novel: Babymouse series by Jennifer L. Holm

Books that I fell head-over-heels in love with upon rereading (I merely liked them the first time around)

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller

Best voice in a novel

MG: Home of the Brave by Katharine Applegate and Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee
YA: Pagan's Crusade by Catherine Jinks* and Don't You Dare Read This Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Oh-so-rich fantasies; reading them is like eating gooey, chocolate cake

Verdigris Deep by Frances Hardinge
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray*

Best scripts read

Antigone by Sophocles
King Lear by William Shakespeare

Changing who you are

MG: Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf
YA: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Fight the good fight

MG: Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller
YA: Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud

Best dragon books

MG: Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George
YA: Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey

Classics-in-the-making

MG: Leepike Ridge by N. D. Wilson
YA: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Best surprises (I was surprised by how much I ended up loving them)

MG: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
YA: Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Who can you trust?

MG: The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower by Lisa Graff
YA: A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Best books with an "old-fashioned" feel

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden
100 Cupboards by N. D. Wilson
Coraline by Neil Gaiman

For brave adventurers

MG: Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
YA: East by Edith Pattou

Best book read this year:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling