2026 Holiday Reading Challenge | The Running Bibliophile

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Who doesn’t love a good challenge, especially when it pushes you to read outside your comfort zone or discover a new author? I’ve always wanted to join a reading challenge or reading bingo, but so many of them feel repetitive. So, I decided to create something a little different. It doesn’t mean a challenge like this isn’t out there; I just haven’t come across one myself. Introducing The Running Bibliophile’s 2026 Holiday Reading Challenge, a fun and unique way to expand your reading list while celebrating the spirit of the year. This challenge features 14 books of your choice, with one key twist: each book’s plot must revolve around the specific holiday mentioned. The challenge runs for January 1 through January 31, 2026. To keep things exciting, you may not duplicate any books on the list. By the time you've completed the challenge, you will have read 14 new books to diversify your reading list. To kick things off, the first prompt is simple: choose any holiday-themed book as l...
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Book Review: Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) by L. E. Blair

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book review of welcome to junior high le blair
Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) by L.E. Blair is the first book in the Girl Talk book series taking place in Acorn Falls, Minnesota and featuring the unlikely friendship between four American girls by the names of Sabrina "Sab" Wells, Allison Cloud, Katherine "Katie" Campbell , and Rowena "Randy" Zak. The first edition in this series is told from the point of view of Sabrina Wells, who is excited for the first day of junior high and seventh grade. Everything that can go wrong on the first day of school does . . . along with making an enemy the principal's daughter, Stacy the Great.

The Girl Talk book series was one of my favorite book series when I was in middle school, and I was absolutely in love with the board game of the same name. I never put together that they had anything to do with one another until a few years ago. Additionally, I literally just learned was L.E. Blair is a pseudonym used by author Katherine Applegate, who I absolutely loved growing up. It's no wonder I loved this series so much. 

Even though I had loved this book series as a kid, I had actually forgotten about it until I read another blog that mentioned the series. As luck would have it, Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) was on the shelf at one of my local Goodwill stores when I went there the same day as I read that blog post about it. Talk about kismet! I just had to buy it to add to my collection of books and reread it as part of reading my way through my childhood.

Reading Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) as an adult brought back all the great memories I had about the book, and I fell in love with it all over again. The inner child in me related to most of the characters in the book, especially Sabrina and her embarrassing moments like when she thought a cute boy was waving to her and wasn't. It's a great book that deals with typical life lessons that pre-teen girls deal with like cliques and the pressure to fit in. The situations were very realistic making me think back to my middle school days.

Four out of five stars is the rating I gave Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) by L.E. Blair because although it was written well for the age group it targets (ages eight through twelve), there were a few things that were a bit of a stretch like dance committees that decided the theme of the dance. Things might have changed since then, but when I was that age, we didn't have dance committees, and we certainly didn't have homecoming dances until high school.

If you liked Welcome To Junior High (Girl Talk, #1) by L.E. Blair, you may like Horseback Summer (Horse Crazy #1) by Virginia Vail.


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