READER

STARTED: 17th August 2022

FINISHED: 2nd January 2023

✅ 01 - Over a period of three months read at least six books. If you want more of a challenge, aim to read a book a week.

🔴 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (17/08/2022 - 26/08/2022)

🟠 Can You Survive in a Dystopia? by Anthony Wacholtz (26/08/2022 - 09/09/2022)

🟡 The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry (26/08/2022 - 04/09/2022)

🟢 In. by Will McPhail (04/09/2022 - 06/09/2022)

🔵 The Cutting Season by M.W. Craven (06/09/2022 - 09/09/2022)

🟣 XX by Rian Hughes (not yet finished)

🔴 Needle by Patrice Lawrence (09/09/2022 - 11/09/2022)

🟠 I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke (22/09/22 - 02/01/23)

🟡 Sleeping Beauty by Martin Powell (01/10/2022 - 01/10/2022)

🟢 Poetry for Young People: Lewis Carroll (01/10/2022 - 01/10/2022)

🔵 The Cult by Abby Davies (01/10/2022 - 11/10/2022)

🟣 Little People, Big Dreams - Laverne Cox (03/10/22 - 03/10/22)

🔴 Little People, Big Dreams - Mae Jemison (03/10/22 - 03/10/22)

🟠 Little People, Big Dreams - Nikoa Tesla (05/10/2022 - 05/10/22)

🟡 Little People, Big Dreams - Wilma Mankiller (05/10/22 - 05/10/2022)

🟢 Rhyming Christmas by Bob Hartman (07/10/22 - 07/10/22)

🔵 Father Christmas and the Three Bears by Lou Peacock (18/10/22 - 18/10/22)

🟣 Little People, Big Dreams - Marcus Rashford (18/10/22 - 18/10/22)

🔴 Little People, Big Dreams - Dwayne Johnson (20/10/22 - 20/10/22)

🟠 Little People, Big Dreams - Queen Elizabeth (20/10/22 - 20/10/22)

🟡 What Feelings Do When No One's Looking by Tina Oziewicz (20/10/22 - 20/10/22)

🟢 The After Christmas Tree by Bethan Welby (27/10/22 - 27/10/22)

🔵 We Wish You A Smelly Christmas by Lucy Rowland (28/10/22 - 28/10/22)

🟣 Little People, Big Dreams - Helen Keller (29/10/22 - 29/10/22)

🔴 Bookworms by Nyanda Foday (29/10/22 - 29/10/22)

🟠 Kid Christmas of the Claus Brothers Toy Shop by David Litchfield (29/10/22 - 29/10/22)

🟡 The Big Christmas Bake by Fiona Barker (29/10/22 - 29/10/22)

🟢 How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie (11/10/22 - 29/10/22)

🔵 The Grumpus and his Dastardly, Dreadful Christmas Plan by Alex T. Smith (30/10/22 - 31/10/22)

🟣 The Twelve Topsy-Turvy, Very Messy Days of Christmas by James Patterson and Tad Safran (02/11/22 - 09/11/22)

🔴 The Twelve Days of Christmas or Grandma is Overly Generous by Alex T. Smith (06/11/22 - 06/11/22)

🟠 The Christmas Pine by Julia Donaldson (07/11/22 - 07/11/22)

🟡 Books Aren’t For Eating by Carlie Sorosiak (07/11/22 - 07/11/22)

🟢 The Repair Shop Stories - The Christmas Doll by Amy Sparks (07/11/22 - 07/11/22)

🔵 The True Story of Good Kind Wenceslas by Edna Baker (04/11/22 - 04/11/22)

🟣 Two Dogs by Ian Falconer (09/11/22- 09/11/22)

🔴 The Twelve Dinosaurs of Christmas by Evie Day (12/11/22 - 12/11/22)

🟠 Little People, Big Dreams - Terry Fox (12/11/22 - 12/11/22)

🟡 We Wish You a Merry Christmas and other festive poems collected by Chris Riddell (10/11/22 - 12/11/22)

🟢 The Burpee Bears Christmas Adventure by Joe Wicks (12/11/22 - 12/11/22)

🔵 The Frost Goblin by Abi Elphinstone (12/11/22 - 12/11/22)

🟣 Jim's Spectacular Christmas by Emma Thompson (22/11/22 - 22/11/22)

🔴 Little Elf's Christmas Surprise by Helen Baugh (05/12/22 - 05/12/22)

🟠 An Odd Dog Christmas by Rob Biddulph (05/12/22 - 05/12/22)

🟡 The Christmas Competition by Mel Taylor-Bessant (14/11/22 - 05/12/22)

🟢 The Three Wishes by Alan Show (05/12/22 - 05/12/22)

🔵 On Angel Wings (05/12/22 - 05/12/22)

🟣 The Christmas Chronicles by James Newman Gray (05/12/22 - 13/12/22)

🔴 Virtually Christmas by David Baddiel (06/12/22 - 06/12/22)

🟠 The First Christmas Jumper by Ryan Tubridy (06/12/22 - 08/12/22)

🟡 The Book That No One Wanted To Read by Richard Ayoade (25/12/22 - 25/12/22)

🟢 Acting Class by Nick Drnaso (25/12/22 - 26/12/22)

✅ 02 - Include at least one fiction, one biography and one non-fiction book in your list.

I mainly read fiction, so it was easy to fulfil that part of the task. However, non-fiction and biographies don't tend to show their faces, unless it's part of the Little People, Big Dreams series. These are brilliant books, aimed at children, but I've learnt so much from them because they're simple and straightforward. Plus, the illustrations are lovely.

Apart from those, I read The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry (non-fiction) and listened to the audiobook of I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke (autobiography). The reason it's taken so long for me to finish this challenge is because me and my other half are listening to the John Cooper Clarke book together, so we've had to be in the same place at the same time, with enough time to listen to a 75 minute disc.

✅ 03 - Write a review of one of these books.

I put most of my book reviews out on TikTok (Rebeccah Reads) because I feel better talking about them than writing about them. But for this part of the badge, I did write a review of Needle by Patrice Lawrence.

I finished Needle by Patrice Lawrence, and it left me feeling extremely emotional. Charlene is in foster care after her mum dies. She doesn’t know where her dad is. Charlene’s sister, Kandi, has gone to live with her dad. There are only two things that Charlene loves; her sister, and knitting, so she’s knitting a blanket for Kandi. When the blanket is destroyed by the son of Charlene’s foster mum, Charlene stabs him in the hand with one of her knitting needles, and is immediately removed from the home and taken in to custody. This book brilliantly shows how rife injustice is, how young people find it difficult to reconcile how they feel with what they should feel. 

Charlene is seen as a troubled teen with anger issues, and in some ways that is correct. But she’s labelled as bad without anyone looking into why she behaves that way. She’s hurting after the death of her mother. She’s alone in the world without anyone to turn to. And she’s forbidden to see her sister, the one constant in her life. So when the blanket is destroyed, Charlene sees the hard word and love she put into her craft, strewn across the floor. Of course she’s going to lash out. She cares too much, when others don’t care at all. But she can’t articulate it.

I felt so sad for her because she just needs someone to be there for her, to love her, to support her, and to help her come to terms with all the horrible things happening to her. This is a well written book with great characters, and a story that pulls on the heart strings. 4 stars.

✅ 04 - Read a review of one of the other books, and critique it. Which points do you agree with, and which points do you disagree with?

I often read reviews on Goodreads once I've finished a book. I start with the 1⭐ reviews and work my way up.

I gave The Cult by Abby Davies 3⭐.

This is the first 1⭐ review on Goodreads.

I felt the same as this reviewer. I thought this was going to be a book that I was going to love, but I sadly didn't. And I have to agree with his comment about the ridiculous name of the detective - it was something like Pearline Ottoline, which sounds like some sort of ferry company. I also agree that the characters weren't as well developed as they could have been. Even though I gave it a "meh" rating, I didn't think it was worth one star. It could have been better, but it also could have been worse.

And this is the first 5 ⭐ review on Goodreads.

This reviewer gave the review that I wanted to give. I wanted to find it gripping, but it was fairly tedious, and not as shocking as I was hoping (considering the things that cults are reported to do, this was quite mild). My breath certainly wasn't taken, and my head didn't spin (unless it was from the confusion of what was was going on and why certain things were happening). Frustratingly, I did put the book down, and I don't think I want to read more by this author.

✅ 05 - Take part in a Book Club. If you’re not already member of one, recruit at least two friends to read the same book. Meet up (in real life or virtually) to discuss your thoughts on the book.

I used to belong to a book group at the library many many years ago. I did enjoy going, but I often found that I didn't enjoy any of the books we read, so eventually stopped going.

But I belong to Rebel Readers on Facebook, which is a book group formed off the back of the Reader Badge, and every month they have an online meet-up to discuss a book read that month. 

October’s book was How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie.

I really enjoyed being part of the discussion. Reading is obviously a solitary activity, and even if you have friends who are readers, unless you've read the same book, you can't always have a discussion about what you've read. So I felt like this was an important social aspect of reading. Most people were in agreement about the book, mainly that the chapters were too long and that it was quite an unbelievable story.