Best of 2015

If you're anything like me (though for your own sake, I hope you're not), this fall has been a whirlwind, and the lack of proper North Country weather - playing outside over Thanksgiving without a coat of any kind comes to mind -  has made you forget just how close we are to the end of the calendar year.

But we are close, as evidenced by the numerous Best of 2015 lists that I see floating around. I like these lists for a couple reasons. First and foremost, I use them as a checklist against what I've bought over the past year, to see how much has and has not gotten past my radar.  And for the things I've missed, it's a good way to spend any end-of-the-year book budget I may still have available. (It's also a good way to add to my TBR shelf - not that my TBR shelf needs adding to.)

Here, then, are just a few of the lists I've taken a peek at so far:

NPR's Book Concierge: Fun with filters!

Publishers Weekly: Lists broken out by genre - including picture books, middle grade, and young adult.

Goodreads Choice Awards: The people have spoken.

YALSA Teens Top Ten:  For teens, by teens.

Incidentally, my own favorite kids and YA reads from 2015 are:

READ-ALOUD: Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise, by Sean Taylor, and illustrated by Jean Jullien.

PICTURE BOOK NONFICTION:  Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower, by Greg Pizzoli.

MIDDLE GRADE: Cuckoo Song, by Francis Hardinge. (This was a hard decision. I read a lot of really wonderful middle grade fiction this year.)

YOUNG ADULT: The Notorious Pagan Jones, by Nina Berry.

MG/YA NONFICTION: Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.

Of course, I do still have a couple weeks until the year is actually over. It's possible that I could find a new favorite among these categories. But is it likely? I am willing to take eleventh hour suggestions!