Newbery & Chunkster Reading Challenges - Complete!

I hosted this reading challenge this year (and I am again in 2015, too!), so I had better finish it! Rather than a number of books, each level was a number of points. Newbery Award winners were worth 3 points, Newbery Honor books were worth two, and Caldecott winners were worth one. I signed up for the Spinelli level, which meant that I needed to get at least 30 points. I made it! (Although apparently I didn't review many of these. . .)

1. The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (2 points)
2. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (3 points)
3. Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo (4 points - 2014 Medal winner)
4. Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (3 points)
5. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (3 points)
6. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (3 points)
7. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (3 points)
8. The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron (3 points)
9. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (3 points)
10. The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden (2 points)
11. Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (3 points)
12. Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (3 points)
13. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (3 points)


Point Total: 38

(In case you're curious, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead was by far my favorite of the Newbery books I read this year.)

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A chunkster is defined as a book that has more than 450 pages. When I initially signed up for this challenge, I set my sights at 8 chunksters, although I was hoping to reach 10 by the end of the year. I blew past both of those goals, and ended up reading 14 chunksters! (Although rereading Harry Potter this summer certainly helped.)

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (552 pages)
2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (530 pages)
3. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (456 pages)
4. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (502 pages)
5. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1,462 pages)
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (734 pages)
7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (870 pages)
8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (652 pages)
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (759 pages)
10. A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman (477 pages)
11. One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson (458 pages)
12. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (487 pages)
13. Waverley by Sir Walter Scott (600 pages)
14. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (478 pages)