Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first in a planned series of… not exactly book reviews. Let’s call them book recommendations. You’ll never see a book here that I don’t wholeheartedly endorse. That, as a middle-aged “adult,” I didn’t read myself and really enjoy.
The premise? If you’re an adult, there’s a decent amount of books out there that may excite the younger crowd… but don’t exactly offer much for you to appreciate. And whether you’re a parent, teacher, librarian, other caretaker, or just, you know, like reading KidLit, you deserve great writing. Characters and a story that resonate with you.
Basically, the universe owes it to you to provide you with KidLit that’s actually fun and interesting. But since the universe has better things to concern itself with, I’ve taken it upon myself to seek out these works and share them with you.
You’re welcome.
(In reality, this is just a forum for me to talk about KidLit books I like with all of you, but we’ll just forget I said that, mmmkay?)
But Josh, How Will It Work?
Glad you asked, Josh. Appreciate the question.
Once a month I will create a post recommending a KidLit book that I’ve read and loved as an adult. While I may dip into the classics every once in a while, I’m going to try to keep the books on this list fairly recent releases — let’s say last 5-10 years-ish.
I know you’re all very busy and don’t want me to take up an inordinate amount of your time writing a treatise on each of them, so my plan is to follow a fairly simple format:
- a short, spoiler-free overview
- a few paragraphs explaining what made me love it (and why you will, too)
I’m probably going to mostly stay away from older YA, because a lot of those titles are essentially made for adults. Doesn’t seem fair. I’m open to featuring picturebooks that resonate with me, but I imagine those are going to be pretty rare since both my kids are well past that stage and I’m not actively seeking picturebooks out for the fun of it. Not saying there aren’t amazing ones, it’s just not a part of my regular existence.
So… mostly middle grade and younger YA. But you never know. Probably also worth offering a heads up that in general my tastes tend to lean in the speculative direction, so there’s a strong chance you’ll see a lot of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. Just how I roll. If this actually becomes something people are interested in, I’d be game to have guest bloggers write about some of their own favorites and why they think other adults would like them — provided they follow the format.
And I don’t want this post to become super long, so I’m going to stop there and plan to post my first recommendation next week. That being said, if anyone has questions, concerns, or suggestions before I get started, let me know.