I remember Go, Dog. Go! and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish from when I was five.

One Fish, Two Fish was the first book I could read on my own. I was taught to read by Buddy Newbury, Sgt. Newbury's wife who lived across the street on the base. He was away on TDY and she'd come over and read dinosaur books to me.

I think of her when I watch Mad Men. I went to her house once. The curtains were drawn in the afternoon. It was so dark. The ashtrays overflowed. She was obviously so trapped and depressed in that life. But I remember her smile, and her lipstick and her cat's eye glasses. And that she talked my mom into joining the Dr. Seuss book-of-the-month club for me.

My mother says I was born reading. I was what is called a "spontaneous reader." Sometime between 3 and 4, I put what my mother was reading and the marks on the page together. I think the first book I owned was The How and Why Wonderbook of Dinosaurs.

My mother read to us an hour a day and now she wonders why I have all these books.

The kid books that really stuck with me seem to be ones noone know. Island of the Skink. The Meanest Squirrel I Ever Met. (Both of which I still have. Also Wet Albert about a kid with a raincloud that followed him around. Which I do not still have, and which can't be google searched without a strong stomach.)

Go Dog Go! rocks though.

Go Dog Go! rocks though.

That party in the tree at the end is still my ideal party, narrowly beating out the party in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I just bought Go Dog Go for my toddler niece, along with Are You My Mother?. It was fun to pass on the love.

... isn't it about time for Mockingjay to be out?

Megan, you should also be reading Scott Westerfeld for YA: his Uglies series is just excellent. I hear Leviathan is also good but it's for a younger audience. Also Graceling by Kristin Cashore was a big hit with my teenage niece.

And I really enjoyed Kenneth Oppel's two steampunky boys-own adventure novels, Airborn and Skybreaker. ... oh, neat, according to Amazon, he wrote a third! Excellent!

Megan, you should also be reading Scott Westerfeld for YA: his Uglies series is just excellent.

Yes. Also because my niece likes them. I'm so glad she's on Goodreads so I know what she likes and what she's already read.

Mockingjay is out next week I think.

BTW, Consuela, thanks for the TWTWB recommendation way back when. Very fun.

I am allowing myself to be enthusiastic about the Tomorrow movie that's about to be released in Australia, although I doubt a movie could match Marsden for excitement. He really writes the best action scenes.

How many books are in that series? Is there a drop off? Are they all worth it?

I was just coming in here to rec stuff for megan/friend! And figuring Suela would be awesome at it too, yay! :)

Mockingjay is next week, I think? Or is it the week after that, even? I wanna say the 26th...but that's a Thursday, and books come out Tuesdays usually, so maybe the 24th.

I second "Graceling". Just read one from the library that was interesting "Borderline" about a Muslim kid whose dad gets arrested for terrorism (...though that was only the last third of the book really). I was a bit frustrated with parts of it that had to do with bullying, though that may be more about my own history and issues.

For gay teen stuff, there's a YA blog www.leewind.org that has some recs. I like Ellen Wittlinger (who is our own Kate P's mom!), especially "Hard Love", but also others of hers. Alex Sanchez is also great. So is Nico Medina--I love that there are gay kid books that AREN"T all about "OMG I'm GAY, and I have to figure out how to come OUT!", as well as those books (because those are fun and drama-y too). Julie Anne Peters has a couple for the girls.

Sharon Shinn had a few YA books--"The Truthteller's Tale" and a few others--which I wanted to hug and hug.

Oh, one I read the latest in last night--the Gallagher Girls series! "Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover", "Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy", etc

Let's see--from the couple years that I tracked my (300+) books read, YA books that skimming back, I took note of or remember:

A Map of Home - Randa Jarrar Initiation - Susan Fine Enclave - Kit Reed Shrinking Violet - Danielle Joseph Princess Ben - Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Shine Coconut Moon - Neesha Meminger (YA--not sure if it was the earlier list, or later on this one--this book is about a girl in NJ who tries to reconnect with her family's Sikh roots after 9/11, and then there's another one I read about a girl in Australia who starts wearing a hijab...)

Does My Head Look Big In This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah (YA- this would be the Australian hijab one)

Castration Celebration - Jake Wizner Tempting Fate - Esther Friestner Read My Lips - Teri Brown (YA - about a girl who is deaf but doesn't sign, and reads lips. I found it a little unbelievable that she could lipread so well, but it was an interesting plot device and character)

The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley

Say the Word - Jeannine Garsee (YA - about a girl whose mom left her to be a lesbian, then dies. Depressing and messed up, but interesting!)

A Mango Shaped Space - Wendy Maas (about a girl with synaesthesia)

Beige - Cecil Casetelluci (YA) (Cute, uptight girl has to stay with her aged punk dad for the summer)

First Daughter-White House Rules - Mitali Perkins (first daughter was adopted from Pakistan at age 3 and now that she's in the white house wants to not be whitewashed)