Reflecting on My Fifth Blogiversary

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When I started my blog on June 15, 2015, it was the summer before eighth grade. Blogging was the perfect way to combine my love of reading and writing. I set out to review 40 books that summer and met my goal! I remember I was so excited to share my blog with all my teachers! It was amazing to receive emails and compliments from former and new teachers. My seventh grade English teacher still subscribes to my blog and even printed out some of my reviews to keep in a special binder to show her students when they need ideas of books to read!

Now five years later, I am about to go off to college in Pennsylvania to be a science teacher. I plan to keep actively blogging throughout college, but my top priority remains my schoolwork. For the past five years I have done at least one blog post every week. This is my 370th post!

I remember being so excited to receive my first author request; now I receive so many more than I can accept! Also in the beginning I would be carrying stacks of around 12 books home from the library at a time, but in 2017 I got a Kindle. However, I still like to checkout several books. In July 2016, I started participating in Top Ten Tuesday, which has been a great way to connect with other book bloggers.

Some reviews are more memorable than others, and below are some of my most memorable reviews.

June 16, 2015

Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger was my second review. What makes the first book special was that due to a fluke of noticing it on a library shelf I have fallen in love with this series and own all eight books. Five years later, this middle grade fantasy series remains my favorite series of all time!

February 15, 2015

I also have to mention Five High School Dialogues by Ian Thomas Malone. This was the first book I ever received from an author. I remember literally jumping for joy because the email was so surprising and made me very happy! I could not believe that a tiny new blog like mine could have attracted the attention of an author. Now, I receive so many requests every week that I have to be selective in what I can accept.

December 15, 2017

This is when I reviewed Monster by Michael Grant, the first in the follow-up series to Gone! I LOVE the Gone series, as well as his Front Lines series. It was also the most amazing time jump book I have ever read. Monster is a prime example of one of the reasons why we learn history in school, to prevent history from repeating itself. It was very interesting to see how the past impacts the character’s decisions. Unfortunately, Grant writes more books than I can keep up with (especially since they are so long)!

February 9, 2018

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is memorable because of how much I disliked it. It took all my strength to finish it, and the only reason I did was because I was excited to vent in a review! I remember every detail of this book, simply due to how much I couldn’t care less about it! All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer prize, and this was the first book I read where my opinion was the total opposite than most. With this book, I really felt the importance of writing reviews and expressing unpopular opinions.

July 3, 2019

I Wish My Teacher Knew by Kyle Schwartz is important to me because I plan to be a teacher, and I will aspire to follow in her footsteps, learn from her mistakes, and use her strategies. Some of her tips and tricks I never would have thought of using. In fact, I plan on bringing her new book, I Wish For Change, with me to college!

Other notable reviews include Audacity, Anger is a Gift, and The Wave. I am excited to witness the growth of this blog in the next five years! Five years from now, I will be a teacher!