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Another round of results, and another big week! No polarizing or close calls -- very clear results this time around.

Top:
A book related to a geometric shape
A book related to a ghost, spirit, phantom, or specter
A novella
A book with a tropical setting

From our Summer Read-a-Thon Winner, Thaimy:
A book with an unusually large version of an animal in the story

Bottom:
A book with a character based on the literary archetypes
A book featuring a character with a name starting with "W"
A book with an unnamed narrator or protagonist

Listopias:
A book related to a geometric shape
A book related to a ghost, spirit, phantom, or specter
A novella
A book with a tropical setting
A book with an unusually large version of an animal in the story

The next round of suggestions will open on Sunday morning when Emily wakes up (between 7 and 8 am CST).

It is a bit of a mixed results for me, in the top are 2 up and 2 of my down votes. I’m not thrilled about the novella since I think the challenge already favors reading short books or novellas over longer books to begin with. I also hope we are now done with setting prompts.

The summer challenge prompt is interesting and definitely not one that would have made it in on the polls. Disc World is a series that I’d like to start so this might be the push to start it.

I don’t mind the results, I only upvoted one but was neutral on the others.

For unusually large animal, I’m completely stumped. I’m guessing this lends itself to fantasy, but I can’t seem to think of any books I’ve read that include this outside of Throne of Glass and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Also wasn’t there a movie where a boy flew on some animals back??

I was stumped too, Alicia, so I added Thaimy's suggestions to the listopia.. hopefully more people build on it!

Jillian wrote: "The summer challenge prompt is interesting and definitely not one that would have made it in on the polls. Disc World is a series that I’d like to start so this might be the push to start it."

This is a GREAT idea, Jillian. I've read a few of the Discworld books (currently reading and enjoying Equal Rites) and this is a great way to read another, especially since I was first quite stumped when I saw it (similar to Alicia).

Kind of surprised at the rest of the results, but I like most of them!
I have so far had bad luck with novellas (they always feel underdeveloped to me), so hoping maybe next year I can break that curse.

I upvoted 2 of the 3 in the top. I personally do not gravitate to novellas for the challenge but maybe that's must me. The only time I may choose a shorter book intentionally is if I am struggling with a prompt and I don't think I've done that many times. I do agree that I'm tapped out on setting prompts. And I have no idea what I'll read for the summer challenge prompt, it seems like it lends itself to SFF or middle grade.

Very happy with the tops, not sure about the unusually large animal, other than dragons, am keen to see the listopia and recommendations :)

For anyone (like me) who is not a fantasy fan, there are prehistoric unusually large animals, e.g. aurochs were very large cattle, so there is probably relevant non-fiction out there.

Nancy wrote: "I upvoted 2 of the 3 in the top. I personally do not gravitate to novellas for the challenge but maybe that's must me. The only time I may choose a shorter book intentionally is if I am struggling ..."

I am the same way, Nancy. I have read many long books for the challenge and only go out of my way to read short/less complex ones if I'm struggling with the challenge overall (when life gets in the way) or a specific category is just not jiving with me (this happened for the Egyptian museum prompt last year), but it's incredibly rare and definitely not my norm.

The summer challenge one is a good place for me to read the final Between Earth and Sky book if it's out next year (they use birds to ride on so they must be big). Also Kelly Barnhill has The Crane Husband out next year and I'm gonna guess the crane will be human sized.

If you want a non-fantasy option it could be someone with a giant dog breed like a Great Dane or St Bernard. Not that I have any book suggestions right now, but if I think of any I'll put them on the listopia.

The prompt does say ‘unusually largé not ´unnaturally large�� . I read one mystery series where a running theme is that everyone comments on how huge the main character ‘s Maine coon cat is (Miranda Jones �� Cat in the Stacks) so that could be a way to go for non fantasy readers as well

Happy with ghost and novella. The other two seem somewhat more challenging. May need to get my thinking cap on

Wow, five prompts! Novella was the only one of the winners that I downvoted, but if I had to choose one of my downvotes to go through I'm glad it was that one. I'm also excited that the tropical setting prompt got through since we were lacking some setting and character prompts.

That means there's only 14 prompts left to choose, with one of them being the Fall Read- a- Thon choice, right?

Also can the person who picked it clarify because the way I’m reading it it’s saying take a normal animal and in this story there is one who is a completely different size to how they usually are? Or does it just mean big animals?

@Thaimy - could you maybe give us an idea of what you intended as an ‘unusually large animal��? The descriptions for some of your suggested books that I was not already familiar with do not mention large animals at all, so I’m really not sure how to search out my own title if I’m not interested in the ones on this short list that I haven’t already read. Thanks!

If I meet a Great Dane, I think "wow that's a big dog" and they aren't that common, so it's an usually large dog to me. I will probably read fantasy anyway but I don't see why you can't interpret it as a large version of a real animal if that fits your reading better.

I would appreciate some more guidance on the large animals. I've read a lot of the books on the list and don't quite grasp what it means. Dragons are big but I wouldn't class them as unusually large because they're supposed to be big.

Children of Blood and Bone would work for the unusually large version of an animal in the story. There is a very large (fantastical) leopard/lion/panther (?) that they ride... And there may be other unusually large animals in there as well. Been too long since I read it to remember exactly. And, may also be included in the second installment Children of Virtue and Vengeance. Maybe someone else can confirm or deny? :)

Ellie wrote: "If I meet a Great Dane, I think "wow that's a big dog" and they aren't that common, so it's an usually large dog to me. I will probably read fantasy anyway but I don't see why you can't interpret it as a large version of a real animal if that fits your reading better..."
Great idea!

Oohhh...if you enjoy children's literature at all, Katherine Applegate's Crenshaw would be perfect! I adore this book. Just look at the cover!

Now I'm struggling even more with the unusually large animal. A great dane is not unusually large for a great dane, an elephant is not unusually large for an elephant. I at first thought about a dragon, but as someone said above, a dragon is not unusually large for a dragon. These animals are supposed to be large, it's not unusual.

Hopefully Thaimy will clarify for us.

I love these results!!!


I had been really pulling for Sherlock and genetics, but I can't be too sad, because I love all the winning categories, and I voted for three of them - it's been quite a few polls since one of my up-votes made it into the challenge.

Hi everyone ^^
My idea was animals like spiders, dogs, cats, birds, worms, ants, etc... but unusually large or gigantic.
For example, in Game of Thrones, direwolves are described as giant wolves. In Sword of Destiny there is a giant centipede in one of the stories. In The Waste Lands, a friend of mine said that there is a giant bear.
I hope this helps to solve some of the questions ^^

Any of the Harry Potter books would work, at least the ones that Hagrid's dog Fang is in.

I'm pretty happy with the results, as I upvoted three of four winners. A first!

A couple of questions here:

- can dinosaurs work for the unusually large version of an animal, as many are extra large birds? (I love this prompt)
- can "line" be used for the book related to a geometric shape? - they appear on several of my book covers, as well as within the titles
- is there a maximum # of pages that the novella should be?

Thanks, all :))

Do people want me to remove the large dog breeds books from the listopia? I was trying to be helpful 😞

Ellie wrote: "Do people want me to remove the large dog breeds books from the listopia? I was trying to be helpful 😞"


No! You're right, Great Danes and St Bernards are "unusually large versions" of dogs. I think they absolutely belong on the list. Even a Clifford book belongs on the list, imo

4 (well, 5) results! Wow, that is a big week. :D

Three of my upvotes got in the top, so I'm pleased about that. Also interested in the tropical setting one, although admittedly I don't read many books set there. I forsee a lot of googling of "Is [PLACE] tropical?" In my future next year. XD

Also interested in the unusually large animal prompt. That's going to take some research too. Although, as Jillian said, Discworld is always an option there!

No Ellie, I think it can work ^^ There are even cat breeds that are unusually large compared to the cats you normally see on a day-to-day basis.

I saw this definition of a novella on Google:

Novellas are short novels, from 17,500 or 20,000 words usually up to about 40,000 words, or about 100��200 pages.

So less than 200 pages would work?

Stacey- novella length is generally defined through word count rather than pages, and “US-based Writers of America defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words.�� That can obviously vary a lot in different formats or editions but typically winds up being 100-200 pages.

Whoops, Shannon got there before me! 😆

Great minds, Roxana LOL!

So, for the large animals, I'm thinking some werewolf books would count? The wolves in the Twilight series, for sure. Perhaps Empire of Wild?

Has anyone read The Girl in Red? I'm just going by the cover, it looks like it fits, but I have not read it. Can I pencil that one in for my ideas list?

The Jurassic Park books - dinosaurs in the real world would be unusually large I would think.

Nadine in NY wrote: "So, for the large animals, I'm thinking some werewolf books would count? The wolves in the Twilight series, for sure. Perhaps Empire of Wild?

Has anyone read [book:The Girl in Red..."

I've popped a book on the list where the shapeshifters are giant animals, so I think werewolves would definitely count!

Nadine in NY wrote: "So, for the large animals, I'm thinking some werewolf books would count?"

I think werewolves would count! I also think most other animal/human hybrids (like the Minotaur) would count, too.

I don't think that werewolves are the most suitable to complete the prompt, since they are "magical creatures" themselves, it's a man who can transform into a human form of a wolf or a wolf... in itself, It's not a giant wolf, at least that's not how I see it.

Neither is the minotaur, because it is a mythological creature, not a large animal.

Ellie wrote: "Do people want me to remove the large dog breeds books from the listopia? I was trying to be helpful 😞"

I think you should keep them and just add a note. I think, the prompt is going to be hard for members who are not into sci-fi or fantasy and will need other options or different ways to interpreter the prompt.

Thaimy wrote: "I don't think that werewolves are the most suitable to complete the prompt, since they are "magical creatures" themselves, it's a man who can transform into a human form of a wolf or a wolf... in i..."

I have to disagree a mythical creature can also be an animal.

Jillian wrote: "Thaimy wrote: "I don't think that werewolves are the most suitable to complete the prompt, since they are "magical creatures" themselves, it's a man who can transform into a human form of a wolf or..."

Yeah. If somebody was trying to argue that a vampire counts as an animal I'd definitely disagree, but when it comes to stuff like shapeshifters/mythical beasts then to me the line is basically non-existent. Especially in a challenge like this, where it's designed to be flexible based on reading tastes.

Alicia wrote: "I don’t mind the results, I only upvoted one but was neutral on the others.

For unusually large animal, I’m completely stumped. I’m guessing this lends itself to fantasy, but I can’t seem to thin..."

Looking at the list, it does seem to lend to fantasy. Looks like I'm going to pop over to the library and read Clifford, at least it'll be a quick read.

Three out of four are pretty good. I downvoted the geometric shape as I've seen it in another challenge within the last couple of years and found it very hard to meet, so I'm disappointed that one made it.

Yeah, I may buy Clifford (I have a 10 month old) and just read it multiple times next year to make it count lol.

But I’ll check out the listopia. Knowing it can be very large breeds definitely opens it up. I thought it was something that didn’t exist in the real world large.

not thrilled. I still don't understand the geometric shapes prompt... and I really don't get the prompt about a large animal. otherwise fine with the others

Alicia wrote: "Yeah, I may buy Clifford (I have a 10 month old) and just read it multiple times next year to make it count lol.

But I’ll check out the listopia. Knowing it can be very large breeds definitely op..."



We had a few Clifford books in the house when my kids were little - I think they bought them at school book fairs. They're pretty good books, stand up to re-reads.

I voted for tropical setting and geometric shape so happy with those. The ghost one I downvoted as it doesn't fit in well with my reading tastes. I will need to take a look at the listopia as more people add to it. Novella should not be too difficult.

Totally stuck on the large animal... I don't read fantasy and animals in general don't often make appearances in the books I read. I will have to get creative on this one I think. Maybe a human character with a smaller-than-them animal name...? I guess that would fit the 'unusual' aspect of the prompt wording lol.

I don't know if Emily chose the suggestion time tomorrow for 7-8am CST for this purpose or not, but it looks like it makes it easier for people from at least parts of Australia west to England to be able to participate! Still a little late in Australia (I checked Sydney only), but not outrageous. Thanks Emily!

For those of you who may not follow the Wild Discussion, @Thomas suggested having a prompt that honored Queen Elizabeth II. The idea that had the most traction was something like "A book by an author honored by Queen Elizabeth II", meaning that she knighted, damed (is that the term?) or bestowed one of the other honors on them (CBE, OBE, etc.). This is the best list of these authors that I could find:

I would be happy to suggest this prompt, but I wanted to leave it open for any members who are part of the UK or any part of the Commonwealth to do it if they would like.

@Thomas - since you started the idea, and it will be early afternoon where you are, do you want to do it? If not, anyone else from those regions?

** I'm only putting this post here because I thought the most people in the group would be reading this thread today **

Alicia, I was leaning towards Clifford as well lolol.

I love all of the thoughtful discussion around these prompts, but just a quick mod reminder: This is your challenge to tackle how you'd like to tackle it! I totally understand wanting clarification, especially for a prompt that we haven't seen and discussed yet, but at the end of the day, you can choose to interpret dinosaurs or minotaurs or Clifford the Big Red Dog for your challenge ☺️