Thinking aloud

I'm 2.5 books shy of completing the 2007-2008 Texas Bluebonnet nominees, and I've come to a surprising realization. This is not the level of children's/YA books I like to read. Out of the 17 books I've read so far, I can confidently say I really liked 3 of them. Others were cute, but more often than not I found myself thinking "I would have liked this better as a kid."

Compare that to my reaction to the books I've been reading off the Name that Book list that is for high school students. Out of the 23.5 books I've read off that list so far, I've really liked 11 books. Of the remaining 12.5, I've enjoyed most of them to some degree. There are only 2 that I would say I really didn't care for that much. (That said, I don't think I would say I've disliked any of the Bluebonnets, I just didn't care for them one way or another.)

I always say I love children's books, and regardless, I am a huge supporter of children's literature. But I think I can safely say I love picture books, and I enjoy upper level children's books. That middle section that encompasses beginning readers through approximately 5th grade level (broad generalization here) really leaves me pretty cold. There are, of course, exceptions.

So, I've decided that I'm not going to read the Bluebonnet list for 2008-2009. Instead I'm going to read from the Tayshas list, which is intended for 9th thru 12th graders. I may pick up a Bluebonnet here and there, and I will still read some children's books to stay current (who knows if I might one day decide to go back to being a children's librarian, which I loved), but for this year, I'm going to focus on YA. The Tayshas list is much longer - it is purely a recommended reading list with no expectation that anyone should read everything on it - consisting of 60 books. I narrowed it down to which books I already have and which ones are available from the library, which brought it down to a little over 30. Totally doable.