O.W.L.’s Magical Readathon 2019 Wrap-Up

When I announced to my friends I was not only participating in Camp NaNoWriMo in April 2019, but also participating in Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon and a month long readathon I got some weird looks. Ever since I was a kid, my life revolved around stories. Telling them, reading them, imagining how everything could be different if one thing changed. What I couldn’t predict was the drama coming into my life in April. I planned to read a book for all of the prompts in O.W.L.s Magical Readathon, but that didn’t happen.

So What Did I Read for O.W.L’s Magical Readathon?

I’m happy to announce I did meet the requirements for my Journalist/Writer path. So, as long as I get my N.E.W.T.s in August I’ll be good to go. Let’s talk about the requirements for my chosen path first.

I needed:

History of Magic: Read a book published at least 10 years ago.

Muggles Studies: Read a contemporary novel

One other O.W.L. of my choice: I chose Astronomy which mean I needed to read a book with ‘star’ in the title.

History of Magic O.W.L.

For my History of Magic O.W.L. I didn’t have to look far. I read two books this month that met the requirement, but one also met my Herbology requirement.

I read The Downsiders by Neal Shusterman published in 1999. Yes, I know that doesn’t sound old enough to be for History of Magic, but that’s 20 years ago. I don’t often glance at publication years, because it has the habit of making me feel old. lol But for this challenge I made an exception.

Downsiders was a wonderful YA book about a city built under NYC. In many ways it was a coming of age novel that explored what we believed about ourselves and how complex societal beliefs evolve.

Muggle Studies O.W.L.

I don’t read a whole lot of contemporary fiction, but I do love novels by Catherine Ryan Hyde. She writes emotional fiction in my opinion. I’ve yet to read a book by her that I didn’t enjoy. She also has a few LGBT titles as well.

For my Muggle Studies O.W.L. I read Heaven Adjacent by Catherine Ryan Hyde. It’s another great book by this author. Her writing always pulls at the heart strings and digs into the soul.

Astronomy O.W.L.

For my astronomy O.W.L. I read The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White. This was a modern take on Egyptian mythology that did not fail to entertain.

Care of Magical Creatures O.W.L.s: Read a book with a land animal on the cover.

Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey

Charms O.W.L.s: Age line read an adult work (I went with non-fiction for this one.)

PTSD Recovery by David Craft

Herbology O.W.L.: Read a book with a plant on the cover.

The Boy Next Door by R.L. Stine

I had a lot of fun with this readathon and can’t wait until the second part rolls around in August!