Reading Goals for 2015

This was the first year since I started my 100 book challenge that I didn't achieve my goal of reading 100 MG and YA books. I know that sounds like something I should be disappointed about, but I'm not. The main reason I set goals is for something to work towards and to focus on. I can always set another one or a different one if that one doesn't work out. I like to be flexible. 

I still strongly believe that reading a lot of books is an important way to improve your writing. But the other important thing that goes along with that is actually doing the writing. And in 2014, I was writing. I also re-discovered my passion for writing picture books, which I gave up a few years ago because of the frustration of rejection. This year, I'm ignoring that and doing what I love. Besides, almost every day I come home from work with another picture book idea (one of the benefits of teaching kindergarten). I'll still be working on my middle grade novels, too, because I love the ideas and challenge. 

What does this mean for my reading goals? This year, I'm going to be changing my 100 Book Challenge to include picture books as well as middle grade novels, and a sprinkling of young adult novels because I love them too. I'm not setting a number for how many of each type, because I like to see what I find. I choose books to read based on recommendations from other readers and writers, as well as from what I find in my local library. If you have any recommendations for me this year, please share them in the comments!

Here are my 2015 reading goals:

1. Read 100 children's books - picture books, middle grade and young adult.

2. Read all of the picture book and middle grade fiction finalists for the Cybils Awards, and maybe some of the finalists for speculative fiction for elementary and middle grades, if I have time. (For more about these awards given by book bloggers, visit www.cybils.com). 

3. Read all of the Blue Spruce and Silver Birch nominees from the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading.

4. Try to remember to keep track of my reading on GoodReads, though I'll also be tracking it here on my blog.

I'm so excited to begin! I already read a couple of the nominees and finalists towards the end of 2014, so I'm off to a good start. Do you have any reading goals? Feel free to share or link to them in the comments. I'll be back Thursday with a Learning from Picture Books feature and then next Monday I'll have my first featured post for Marvelous Middle Grade Monday in 2015. Happy reading!