Six for Sunday: Favourite Books of 2019

#SixforSunday is hosted by Steph at A Little But A Lot. Every week there is a bookish-themed prompt to inspire 6 choices.

This month focuses on Getting to know you and this week the prompt is Best Books of 2019.

Oh this was too hard to narrow down to 6, so I have decided to cheat massively.

I’m not sure I’ve not forgotten some but fingers crossed!

Illustrated Books

Illustrated books are a staple in my house thanks to the girls especially as Littlefae is not really ready to give up illustrations. A particular trend we’ve enjoyed in 2019 is more complicated Lower Middle grade being illustrated and even with Frostheart Middle grade adventures being illustrated too, fingers crossed for more in 2020.

Planet Omar– Zanib Mian & Nasaya Mafaridik
Amelia Fang & the Lost Yeti Treasure – Laura Ellen Anderson
Isadora Moon has a Sleepover– Harriet Muncaster
Milton the Mighty– Emma Read & Alex G Griffiths
Skeleton Keys: The Unimaginary Friend– Gus Bass & Peter Williamson
The Dragon in the Library– Louie Stowell & Davide Ortu
Magical Kingdom of Birds The Snow Goose– Anne Booth & Rosie Butcher
Mr Penguin & the Catastrophic Cruise– Alex T Smith
Frostheart– Jamie Littler
The Night’s Realm- Nick Ward

Contemporary Fantasy

Call it contemporary fantasy or magical realism, either way magical twists on our mundane world has made a huge impact on my reading this year.

The Midnight Hour– Benjamin Read & Laura Trinder
Lightning Chase Me Home– Amber Lee Dodd
The Lost Tide Warriors– Catherine Doyle
The Land Of Roar– Jenny MacLachlan illustrations by Ben Mantle
Bloom– Nicola Skinner
A Pocketful Of Stars– Aisha Busby
And Then I Turned Into A Mermaid– Laura Kirkpatrick
The International Yeti Collective– Paul Mason & Katy Riddell
The Ghouls of Howlfair– Nick Tomlinson

(Also not pictured Shadows of Winterspell Amy Wilson & The Peculiar Peggs of Riddling Woods Samuel J Halpin)

Fantasy

Possibly my favourite genre, going from strength to strength I had to divide this into two groups for the graphics!

A Pinch of Magic– Michelle Harrison
The Last SpellBreather– Julie Pike
Starfell: Willow Moss and the Lost Day– Dominique Valente
Under Earth– Ellen Renner
The Girl Who Speaks Bear– Sophie Anderson
The extremely inconvenient adventures of Bronte Mettlestone– Jaclyn Moriarty

The Star Spun Web– Sinéad O’Hart
Wildspark– Vashti Hardy
The Butterfly Circus– Francesca Armour-Chelu
Rumblestar– Abi Elphinstone
The Maker Of Monsters– Lorraine Gregory
The Pearl in the Ice– Catharine Constable

Dystopian

YA Dystopian has had a lapse after a huge success of the 00s and early 10s, the whole only this one person can save the post apocalyptic world from the bad Dictator guys trilogy thing has been shown to be pretty tired.

But, in Middle Grade ( and one teen) there has been a clever and quiet re-examination of the genre- flipping the focus away from grandstanding epic save the world, to smaller character driven exploration of life as a regular person who takes a risk with many gently nudging the contemporary through the lens of survival post-ecological disaster and migration

Scavengers– Darren Simpson
The Middler– Kirsty Applebaum
Where the river runs gold– Sita Brahmachari
The House of Light– Julia Green
The Switching Hour– Damaris Young
Jelly– Clare Rees

Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction is stronger than ever with Emma Carroll the Queen of Childrens Historical Fiction (and apparently soon for adults too) was joined by some amazing historical stories this year.

The Garden Of Lost Secrets– AM Howell
The Golden Butterfly– Sharon Gosling
The Way of the Waves– Dr Janina Ramirez
Anna at War– Helen Peters
The Somerset Tsunami- Emma Carroll
The Boy Who Flew- Fleur Hitchcock

Also not pictured The Steam Whistle Theatre Company – Vivian French

Mysteries

Another genre I love has had some brilliantly creative twists this year from the 21st Century Famous Five feel of Clifftoppers, to the inner city drama of High Rise Mystery and film noir inspirations of Potkin & Stubbs.

Clifftoppers: The Arrowhead Moor Adventure & Clifftoppers: The Fire Bay Adventure– Fleur Hitchcock
High-Rise Mystery– Sharna Jackson
A Girl called Justice– Elly Griffiths
Top Marks for Murder- Robin Stevens
Potkin and Stubbs & Potkin & Stubbs- The Haunting of Peligan City– Sophie Green
The Bad Luck Lighthouse– Nicki Thornton

Contemporary

I’m not the biggest Contemporary fan but I have to say in 2019 I was blown away by a few beautiful stories particularly these 4.

There are a few crossovers here- Clifftoppers, High Rise Mystery and AGGGTM could all interchange between here and Mystery so I split them up for these purposes.

We won an Island– Charlotte Lo
Check Mates– Stewart Foster
A Good Girls Guide to Murder– Holly Jackson
Summer of No Regrets– Kate Mallinder

Not pictured, The Paper & Hearts Society Lucy Powrie

Historical Fantasy

Blending two popular genres we saw some more fantasy set in historical situations from the Cold War gulags, Victorian rich & poverty and then slippy trippy timey wimey wanderings, these are historical stories with a dash of wonder and sometimes fantasy stories with a dash of history.

For a history fan, that’s a sweet spot to explore.

The Longest Night Of Charlie Noon– Christopher Edge
The Magic Place– Chris Wormwell
The Velvet Fox– Catherine Fisher
Nevertell– Katherine Orton.

Well did you read any of these last year?

What do you think?