Bingo update: 31 books to go!

Deimosa Webber-Bey  //  May 25, 2016

Bingo update: 31 books to go!

Are you making progress on the Scholastic 2016 Reading Bingo?? 

Five months into the year and I have yet to get a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal win - but I have read 18 books out of the 49 that I need to complete the whole board, so I feel good. The left side of my board is filling out nicely, as you can see:

In math terms, I have 37% of my board filled in, 42% of the way into the year. I should be averaging a little more than 4 books a month to hit my goal, but my current rate is 3.6 squares a month. I need to step up my pace!

Of course, I've read more than 18 books in 2016! But not everything that I have read fits one of the descriptions on the bingo sheet. I tore through Melinda Salisbury's The Sleeping Prince in two days, and in about ten days I read all three of Jason Reynold's Coretta Scott King award/honor titles: When I was the Greatest, All American Boys (with Brendan Kiely), and The Boy in the Black Suit. Only the first book filled a square on the bingo sheet (CSK John Steptoe award winner), but the other two helped me on my 2016 Goodreads reading challenge.

While I would recommend all of the titles that I just mentioned and that you see on my bingo board, I am most excited for you to read Raina Telgemeier's graphic novel Ghosts, and we had a great employee book club discussion of Jenny Downham's Unbecoming, which I described in a 5-word book review as an "Intergenerational tearjerker about self-actualization." I'm finishing up Deep Blue, the first book of Jennifer Donnelly's Waterfire Saga, in order to cross off 'a book that takes place underwater', and then next up is Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun for the Printz award winner square.

What books would you recommend to help me complete this reading challenge?

Any ideas for 'a book written by a teenager'?

Click here to download the PDF of the Scholastic 2016 Reading Bingo sheet and play along.