Reading Without Walls Challenge

Gene Luen Yang, aka the US Library of Congress appointed 2016 National Ambassador for Children's Literature, is running The Reading Without Walls challenge to support his platform for supporting children's literature. So I shall start doing his challenge to support him.

It's another form of diversity challenge, where diversity isn't the modern term that means minorities but just means people different from yourself, so that your reading is a window instead of always a mirror. That's sounds like fun to me, so here goes

His challenge to readers is:

1. Read a book about a character who doesn’t look like you or live like you.

• Twin Spica 8, Kou Yaginuma 5/20/16 (This also hits #3, but not #2)
• The City's Son, Tom Pollock 5/30/16 
• Here There Be Monsters, 6/24/16
• Lock In, John Scalzi 6/26/16
• The Reason I Jump, Naoki Higashida 7/10/16
• Listen, Slowly, Trannha Lai 7/16/16
• Touching My Father's Soul, Jamling Tenzing Norgay 8/30/16
• The Great Death, John Smelcer 9/2/16

2. Read a book about a topic you don’t know much about.

• Silver on the Road, Laura Anne Gilman 5/25/16 (also hits #1)
• Breakout, Ann Aguirre 5/30/16 (also hits #1)
• Under a Graveyard Sky, John Ringo 5/30/16
• Starry River of the Sky, Grace Lin 6/29/16 (also #1)
• Fires of Winter, Roberta Gellis 7/4/16
• Bronze Gods, A.A. Aguirre 7/11/16
• Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy, Susan Vaught 7/12/16
• My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Amos Tutuola 7/14/16
• Islands of Rage and Hope, John Ringo 7/31/16
• The Way Home Looks Now, Wendy Wan-Long Shang 9/4/16

3. Read a book in a format that you don’t normally read for fun. This might be a chapter book, a graphic novel, a book in verse, a picture book, or a hybrid book.

• Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Jon Meacham 6/2/16
• Skim, Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki 6/4/16
• Paper Hearts, Meg Wiviott 6/20/16
• Full Cicada Moon, Marilyn Hilton 6/22/16

Gold Star Books (books that hit all three):

• Hamster Princess: Of Mice and Magic, Ursula Vernon 5/26/16
• Twin Spica 9, Kou Yaginuma 6/16/16
• Bad Blood, Dana Stabenow 7/28/16

If you really want to go for the gold star, read a book that fits all three criteria!

When you finish, take a photo of you and the book (or just the book if you’re shy) and post it on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #ReadingWithoutWalls. You’ll inspire others to do the same!

If you are a teacher, librarian, or bookseller, you can challenge your students, patrons, and customers to read without walls, too! Check out what San Francisco’s Live Oak School did this past school year!