{"id":4796,"date":"2013-06-01T23:40:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=4796"},"modified":"2013-06-02T04:49:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-02T09:49:27","slug":"armchair-bea-from-picture-books-to-young-adult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=4796","title":{"rendered":"armchair bea: from picture books to young adult"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Armchair<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Designed by Emily of
Emily’s Reading Room<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

The final genre topic of Armchair BEA is one near and dear to my heart: kidlit and yalit.<\/p>\n

Until last fall, I would have told you that I was a young adult aficionado. I like Sarah Dessen, John Green, and plenty of others who are shelved in the teen room at the library. But then I was chosen as a Cybils<\/a> young adult realistic fiction judge and I was simultaneously inundated with recently published novels aimed at teenagers and by fellow panelists who read books at speeds that put me to shame. And I discovered I don’t love all young adult fiction equally.<\/p>\n

I do not love books with depressing endings. In fact, it might be fair to say that an unhappy ending can entirely reverse my opinion of a book. I also don’t love books that feature virulent illnesses or with serial killers in them.<\/p>\n

What I do love is books with strong characters who create a sense of family with people who aren’t related to them. I also love books with characters who make interesting choices or who can be described as quirky or offbeat.<\/p>\n

And it may be that I like middle-grade fiction, where the stakes are a little lower and where the stress isn’t as ratched up, just as much as young adult fiction. I had previously suspected that middle-grade fiction was all Wimpy Kid books, but it turns out that some of my favorite books — the early Harry Potter, the Little House on the Prairie books, Anne of Green Gables — all fall into the middle grade category. <\/p>\n

If you’re looking for a place to start in either category, these are some of my favorites (with linked reviews where I wrote them) from the past three years:<\/p>\n